Revisiting My Personal Values: The Importance of Values-Led Work (as a Freelancer in the arts)
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Recently, I’ve had a couple of fantastic coaching sessions with my coach Kim Carr, that has encouraged me to take a closer look at my personal values (again) and how they affect most things in my life and most definitely how they show up in my work.
I do a fair amount of this work in my mentoring & consultancy practice: often promoting the importance of a values-led approach.
Time to practice what I preach?!
As a result of my coaching sessions, I’ve ended up in a really positive place, having entered the coaching with no set agenda (a rarity for me - I nearly always turn up with a long list of discussion points!). I have always had a general sense of what I value in life, but these sessions made me realise how my values are interconnected and that I base a lot of my decisions on them.
Image by Nik on Unsplash.
In the cultural sector
I look around me and don’t see much values-led work in the cultural sector. I see a lot of cause-related work, much good stuff happening, but values? Am I in a bubble…? Who can truly say that they operate, make decisions by, have a keen self-awareness about and navigate their work according to their values? I am finding that more and more of my mentoring, guest speaking, consultancy & lecturing work has been focused on this (see images in the gallery above). I’ve had specific requests for sessions or workshops based on ‘finding your purpose’ and ‘the art of business or the business of art: aligning your purpose to your earning potential’… These sessions went down really well - and they were with a range of people from differing backgrounds and different age groups. I get the reasons why it is hard to centre your work around your values. Capacity, deadlines, scale of work, busy lives, stress, demands of the work/team/programme or activities aka ‘just doing the work’. It’s alot. I get it. But, truly, I’d love to hear about individuals and organisations that have a strong internal navigation system, with their values front and centre - where are you? There ARE some folks out there successfully using these to journey through the sector. I’d like to connect.
What’s important to me
My core value is fairness, which manifests in my work and is the foundation from which I operate. It’s a guiding principle that also;
gives me a strong sense of justice
offers navigation system of what’s right/wrong (could also be called a moral compass)
provides a leadership style that places equality & inclusion front and centre, revolving around strong ethics and self-awareness
ensures my decision making is based on what is fair to all of the people in that room/place/space in that moment in time
is an internal compass, if you like, that helps me navigate to the politics, bureaucracy, red tape and less favourable parts (by that I mean the bullies and power structures) of the cultural sector whilst remaining true to myself. It’s why I’ve walked away from projects and people that do not serve me.
This value is closely followed by:
learning
peace
power
compassion
empowerment
leadership
courage.
As I reflect on these values recently, I started to see how they show up in my daily life as well. For example, I try to help others feel seen and heard (empowered), in fact most of my work is about ‘enabling’ others to see, reach or achieve their goal(s). I strive for that sense of validation and empowerment myself (which actually looks like courage in the face of adversity and speaking up for what’s wrong). I make an effort to give others space and facilitate conversations, not just enabling voices, but enabling visions, dreams and ideas to be realised. These values are not just something I consciously try to practice; they come naturally to me, guiding my actions. They inform what type of person and by extension, type of leader I am - working to be compassionate and fair all of the time. I am always keen for new insights and knowledge (it keeps me relevant and good at what I do), which brings me on to peace and power.
Peace and Power
I think that these two values exist with and for each other. A happy balance, much like when I’ve written about leadership energies in this blog post. Yin and yang. For me, I’ve worked hard to achieve peace in my life & work, and whilst that’ll be a lifelong journey, I’ve reached a place of inner harmony feeling peaceful about my choices. I have a regular self-care practice that feeds that sense of peace, along with a self-belief that I’m on the right track, with the right people around me. Then along comes power, where I’ve been striving to change-up the power imbalances in the industry since going freelance. There’s obviously loads more to be done but I feel that because I have a greater sense of peace that it also promotes my ‘power’. I’ve just begun a new role as Chair of Gloucester Guildhall’s new NPO steering group. A ‘powerful’ role, if you will. It was interesting to note how differently people treated me when introduced as Chair at the recent Arts Council England welcome session, held at the venue in late April. It was funny then to chat to a CEO from another arts organisation who does not know me. He said, ‘So have you left your previous role to join the Guildhall?’, my reply was ‘No, I’m the Chair and I’m freelance’. His reaction of surprise (raised eyebrows) and a look of ‘but you don’t look like a Chair’ gave me both feelings of glee and terror simultaneously, as I realised in that very moment that we’re still up against this change we’d all like to see. I could unpack that small interaction in a whole blog post itself! For now though, I’m going to hold my personal power close and do things in my own way - I am not conforming to what our sector thinks a Chair should look like or indeed behave like. I care about my values too much. It’s also why I think everyone should start using a Values & Access Rider across their work: we all need to get better at articulating our needs to carve out inner peace and create power.
Why are values important right now?
In today's world, values-led work is more important than ever, especially with the current cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine and COVID-19 recovery (all of these things we keep hearing, don’t we?). I surmise that we need leaders who are committed to fairness, compassion, and empowerment, who prioritise learning (or at the very least a commitment to being the best version of themselves) and who lead with courage. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, as I’ve written about this in numerous previous blogs; when we centre our work and our lives around our values, we create a better world for ourselves and others.
Although sometimes, that’s challenging for others to see or respect that because it is also a threat to them. Especially if they’re not in a place or feel ready to embrace what their values really mean. When I meet or work with people, they tell me I give off an ‘air of confidence’ that coincides with an assertive leadership style. This is not to be confused with aggression - but it is funny how society expects women to be naturally “soft” in our leadership (another risk of a tangent, I’m not going there in this blog!). Assertiveness doesn’t mean I don’t centre care & compassion; it means I get sh*t done but treat people well in the process. I prioritise people I work with so that we all emerge from the process together, in a better place than they (and I) started. There will always be things to learn.
So, having my values front and centre, I think, is one of the reasons why I feel fulfilled in my life - and in my work. My values inform who I am and in turn, enable me to make change and disrupt the status quo. The key to success (whatever that means) in my opinion, is to stay true to your values and let them guide you. When we are clear on our values, we can make decisions with confidence, knowing that we are living in alignment with what matters most to us (massively important if you run a creative business!). Our values give us a sense of purpose and meaning, making it easier to navigate the ups and downs of life, and especially the cultural sector right now.
Revisiting my personal values has been a powerful reminder of what is most important to me. It has helped me recognize the ways in which my values show up at work, and it has given me a renewed sense of purpose and direction. I encourage everyone to take some time to reflect on their own values and how they guide their actions.
Want to talk about your values?
Email me and we’ll chat: hello@amydaltonhardy.co.uk
Image by Clay Banks on Unsplash.