It is critically important to know what you value.
A major part of self-knowledge is the knowledge of what heuristics reliably guide one’s decision making. Furthermore, shared values are a cornerstone of the foundation of any business relationship, and it is unwise to execute engagements where both parties are unaware how the other justifies behavior.
As someone with a philosophy degree, you might be surprised to hear one of the best classes I took on ethics was from the engineering department. There were two primary things I remember from Dr. Robert Hoekstra’s Engineering Ethics class circa 2018:
First was the phrase “You knew or should have known.” In other words, as an Engineer, you are in the wrong for recklessness or negligence. He was a professional witness too, and said pretty much every bit of engineering liability comes from knowing something was wrong and doing it anyway, or not knowing something you are professionally expected to know.
But ethics is about more than negligence and recklessness. In Ancient Greek, the original word had more to do with character than mores. What defines your character? What guides your thoughts and actions?
The second, more transformative lecture was on an easy exercise to discover what you value. What you value is fundamentally the heuristics that guide the way you move in this world, the enabling constraints that define your character.
The exercise is simple, and it appears Brene Brown has written on it too. First you get a list of values and then you pick 5-10 that you really vibe with.
After that, cut it down to 1-2.
It wasn’t hard for me to realize that what I value most is and always has been knowledge. Most of the ones I circled were related to it, like intelligence and wisdom. I was the kind of kid who skipped classes to go to the library and drill textbooks I wasn’t assigned. Even today I read textbooks on my phone like my life depends on it.
Doing this can be truly transformative if you use the opportunity to clarify what you value to sharpen your self-knowledge. After all, in The Art of War, Sun Tzu said “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Socrates also enjoined us to “Know thyself.” Self-knowledge is an unavoidable component in the path to enduring success and wisdom.
It is incredibly helpful to a business relationship to be aware of what the other party values. This makes you predictable to each other and aware of how not to step on each others’ beliefs and core commitments. In interpersonal relationships in general, being aware of what both parties value helps prevent talking past each other.
This article will hopefully have helped you surface your unconsciously held values and made them conscious commitments. Elsewhere, I cover how to use the values you are committed to in order to decide on not just your consulting niche, but even the purpose of your life.