Values are our fundamental beliefs, informing our thoughts, words, and actions. If we don’t set our own core values, we end up losing ourselves in other people’s values. That’s how we become dependent on our friends, family members, or partners to define us. Our identities are no longer our own. ~ Darius Foroux

Source: Write a List of Your Values and Everything Else Will Follow

It is when personal purpose and values align with organisational purpose and values that the path to excellence is created.

I recently had the privilege of coaching new interns in a leading global information technology company.  As this was business coaching, my sponsor’s brief was coaching to the alignment of personal purpose and values with those of the organisation.

The organisation strongly associates purpose with their vision – why we do what we do defines where we are going. The organisation also strongly associates values and associated behaviours with their strategy – what we believe and value defines how we go about doing what we do.

Once the interns were intimately aware of the organisation’s purpose and values, we coached to their personal purpose and values. The outcome was that they reached a point at the end of their internship having made the conscious decision that “this is where I want to be now and in the future.”