1 Workshop 1 – Exploring Personal Values and Goals

Nicholas Yip and John Donald

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                                                 

When most of us think of the word “leadership”, we will envision someone standing in front of a room, or at the head of a group. While this person may be a leader in this situation, they don’t have to be the sole leader. The Collins dictionary defines leadership as “the qualities that make someone a good leader, or the methods a leader uses to do his or her job.” Although it is common to associate leaders with roles, being a leader relates more to a person’s qualities and skills.  These leaderships are very important and are widely applicable in academic, professional, and social settings.

 

ENGINEERING AND LEADERSHIP                                                                                                                 

Engineering is a Leadership Profession

Nowadays, engineering encompasses many fields, requiring many non-technical skills. One of these core soft skills is leadership. These leadership skills often translate into many other fields, as engineers today work in vast multidisciplinary teams, containing engineers and non-engineers alike. As the focus of the engineering profession shifts from a technical view to a societal view, the skills required by engineers will also shift, necessitating a better understanding of how to be a good leader.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES                                                                                                                                   

Leadership can be broken down into 4 domains, each building on one another. Leadership starts with the self, then grows into team leadership, organizational leadership and finally societal leadership. To have the skills to confidently and effectively lead teams, organizations and societies, we must first understand how to adequately lead ourselves. As such, this workshop will focus on exploring our personal goals and values, and will be contained in the innermost circle of self-leadership.


 

 

 

 

 

Jamieson, M., & Donald, J. (2020). Building the Engineering Mindset: Developing Leadership and Management Competencies in the Engineering Curriculum.

 

WHAT ARE PERSONAL VALUES?                                                                                                                    

Personal values are a compass of sorts for our decision-making process. They are the things we consider important in life, and they help to guide our actions and define who we are.

Why are they important?

Personal values help us make sounder decisions, increase our confidence, and guide us through difficult situations. If we are able to identify what matters most to us in life, we can make better decisions as we will always know what to prioritize. Personal values can also help us with self-awareness, and with relating to others, as empathy comes from being able to put yourself in their shoes. In order to consistently succeed and gain fulfillment, we need to understand ourselves, and work on understanding and applying our values into our everyday lives.

Marinoff, E. (January 12, 2021). “How to Define Your Personal Values and Live by Them for a Fulfilling Life.” Life Hack. Retrieved from https://www.lifehack.org/866227/personal-values 

 

ACTIVITY 1: VALUES                                                                                                                                         

In this activity, you will go through a list of values and refer to the guiding questions below to help you determine your personal values. The worksheet for activity 2 can be found here.

Here is a list of values from the book “Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown:

 

Questions to help determine your personal values:

  • When were you the happiest?
  • Identify the times when you were most proud.
  • Identify the times when you were the most fulfilled and satisfied.
  • Determine your top values, based on your experiences of happiness, pride, and fulfillment.
  • Consider a time when you got angry, frustrated, or upset. What was going on? What were you feeling?

REFLECTION                                                                                                                                                       

What are your top three personal values?

Can you think of a time when these values have affected your decision-making?

Can you identify any common ground these values might share?

 

ACTIVITY 1: KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                                         

Personal values are what matter most in our lives. Each person has their own unique set of values and this is important because that is what makes each of us different. Each one of us has something new to bring to the table and by keeping our values in mind, we can guide ourselves to become great leaders, focusing on what is important to us.

 

WHAT ARE CORE BELIEFS?                                                                                                                             

Core beliefs are the very essence of how we see ourselves, other people, the world, and the future. They can be thought of as underlying causes of our personal values, as they help to explain why we think or feel the way we do about everything. Core beliefs tend to be strongly-held and rigid, being maintained by a tendency to focus on evidence supporting our beliefs and ignoring evidence that contradicts it. Although firm in nature, as we grow and accumulate more experiences in life, our core beliefs can grow with us, changing and developing to incorporate our new knowledge.

Centre for Clinical Interventions. “What are core beliefs?”. Retrieved from What are Core Beliefs? 

 

PERSONALITY IS SHAPED BY CORE BELIEFS                                                                                            

A noticeable manifestation of these core beliefs comes in the form of our personalities. Core beliefs affect our everyday lives, as they dictate our thoughts and feelings about anything or anyone we may interact with. As such, the culmination of our thought patterns, feelings, and behaviours, also known as our personality, is a direct result of our core beliefs. Our personality plays a large role in our identities, both as an individual and as a leader, as our personalities can strongly influence how we see ourselves and others. As our personalities are an easily identifiable aspect of our thoughts and feelings, personality tests can be a good place to start when trying to uncover our core beliefs.

Cherry, K (August 12, 2020). “What is Personality?” Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-personality-2795416. 

 

PERSONALITY TESTS                                                                                                                                       

 Personality tests are defined as “A tool used to assess human personality”. These tests help you learn more about yourself, showing various qualities that you might possess. They also help you understand potential strengths and weaknesses and help you gain insight into your behavioral patterns.

ENNEAGRAM OF PERSONALITY 

One model of human psyche is the Enneagram of personality. The word “Enneagram” comes from the Greek word “ennea” which means nine and “gamma” which means something drawn or written. The Enneagram is a nine-sided figure and is used to analyze a system of personality types. According to the Enneagram, each of the nine personality types is defined by a particular core belief about how the world works. This core belief drives your deepest motivations and fears and fundamentally shapes a person’s worldview and the perspective through which they see the world and the people around them. Understanding our Enneagram type and how it shapes our perceptions can help us to broaden our perspective and approach situations more effectively.

In our education path and as future engineers, many of us turn towards the intellectual approach, using the head. However, each situation may require a different response.

When we make decisions and choices, they are always backed with one part of us taking the lead, such as our emotions, our brains, or our instincts. Depending on our Enneagram, we might tend to gear towards any one of these. This ties into the Enneagram centers.

The nine types of the Enneagram are divided among Heart Types, Head Types, and Body Types.

  • Heart Types depend on their emotional intelligence to understand their own reactions and connect with others.
  • Head Types depend on their intellectual intelligence to make sense of things and navigate the world around them.
  • Body Types depend on their instinctual intelligence to follow their “gut” and respond to threats and opportunities.

Owens, M. “What is the Enneagram of Personality? Truity. Retrieved from https://www.truity.com/enneagram/what-is-enneagram.

 

ACTIVITY 2: ENNEAGRAM PERSONALITY TEST                                                                                         

For activity 1, please complete the Enneagram Personality Test to identify your dominant personality types and answer reflection questions. The personality test can be accessed using the following link: https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test. The worksheet for activity can be found here.

The Nine Types of Enneagrams 

  • What is your dominant type? (highest percentage)
  • What are your second two most dominant types?

The Heart Types

Heart types react with emotions first. They connect with other people on an empathetic level and make sense of the world by understanding their feelings about it. These types are guided by the feelings connected to their emotional relationships with other people. They value things such as emotional support, recognition, and inclusion. Types Two, Three and Four are the heart or feeling centered Enneagram types.

TYPE TWO: THE GIVER

  • Want to be liked.
  • Find ways that they can be helpful to others so that they can belong.
  • Fears being unlovable.

More information can be found here.

TYPE THREE: THE ACHIEVER

  • Want to be successful and admired by other people.
  • Very conscious of their public image.
  • Fear failure and not being seen as valuable by other people.

More information can be found here.

TYPE FOUR: THE INDIVIDUALIST

  • Want to be unique and to experience deep, authentic emotions.
  • Fear that they are flawed.
  • Overly focused on how they are different from other people.

More information can be found here.

 

The Head Types

Head types react with analysis first. They connect with other people on an intellectual level and make sense of the world by understanding the systems and theories that underlie what they observe. These types are primarily focused on control, which they gain by maintaining stability, security, and competence. Types Five, Six, and Seven are the head-centered Enneagram types.

TYPE FIVE: THE INVESTIGATOR

  • Seek understanding and knowledge.
  • More comfortable with data than other people.
  • Greatest fear is being overwhelmed by their own needs or the needs of other people.

More information can be found here.

TYPE SIX: THE SKEPTIC

  • Preoccupied with security and seek safety.
  • Like to be prepared for problems.
  • Greatest fear is being unprepared and unable to defend themselves from danger.

More information can be found here.

TYPE SEVEN: THE ENTHUSIAST 

  • Want to have as much fun and adventure as possible.
  • Easily bored.
  • Fear experiencing emotional pain, especially sadness, and actively seek to avoid it by staying busy.

More information can be found here.

 

The Body Types

Body types react with an instinctive, gut feeling. They connect with other people based on their physical sense of comfort, and make sense of the world by sensing their body’s reaction to what is happening. The primary drive for this triad is to maintain their independence and limit control from outside influences. They respond by being either overly controlling, overly passive, or overly perfectionistic. Types Eight, Nine, and One are the body or gut centered Enneagram types.

TYPE EIGHT: THE CHALLENGER

  • See themselves as strong and powerful.
  • Seek to stand up for what they believe in.
  • Greatest fear is to be powerless, so they focus on controlling their environment.

More information can be found here.

TYPE NINE: THE PEACEMAKER

  • Like to go with the flow and let the people around them set the agenda.
  • Fear pushing people away by prioritizing their own needs.
  • Tend to be passive.

More information can be found here.

TYPE ONE: THE PERFECTIONIST 

  • Place a lot of emphasis on following the rules and doing things correctly.
  • Fear being imperfect.
  • Can be extremely strict with themselves and others.

More information can be found here.

All Enneagrams types above are adapted from https://www.truity.com/enneagram/9-types-enneagram. 

 

REFLECTION                                                                                                                                                       

  1. Does your Enneagram capture you well? Were you surprised by any of the results?
  2. Do your results help you to understand the values you picked in Activity 1?
  3. Do you see actions that might conflict with the core beliefs of your Enneagram?

 

ACTIVITY 2: KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                                         

Everyone has different personalities. Even if you had the same dominant type, all your percentages for the nine personalities are different and that is what makes us unique! Some people may not agree with the results of their test, and that is alright. These personality tests do not define who we are, but they do allow us to become more self-aware. Whether you agreed with the test results or not, hopefully you were able to learn more about yourself and your own personality. These traits are good to think about outside of this workshop.

For instance, was there a strength or weakness that you want to work on or be more mindful of?

 

PRIORITIES AND PRINCIPLES                                                                                                                         

Having gone through a few exercises on discovering your personality type, and determining values that you align with, how well do you think these descriptions match what you think about yourself? It’s important to remember that these tests can only give you a surface-level evaluation, as at the end of the day, they are just a series of questions. These results, however, can give us valuable insight into areas that we don’t necessarily agree with, and want to change or improve upon. To do so, we must utilize priorities and principles.

 

PRIORITIES                                                                                                                                                         

If you wish to improve in anything, changes must be made. If after these activities, you’ve identified potential areas for improvement, the next step would be figuring out how to make the necessary changes to improve. A good starting point for this self-improvement would be identifying areas of importance (Priorities), followed by forming implementable actions which you can complete to achieve your goals (Principles). This builds on the idea of your core values and beliefs, helping you to gradually shape your actions to match what you envision your ideal future self to be.

 

PRINCIPLES                                                                                                                                                         

Principles are the foundation on which you can build your pathway to change. Principles are very important in the process of self-improvement as they are not opinions or feelings, but rather cause-and-effect statements. If you hold true to a principle, you are sure to see its results. This direct flow of cause and effect is what enables these principles to be an effective tool in making change.

For example, if I wanted to be better at saving money, a principle I could implement would be to put 20% of my disposable income into a savings account after every paycheck. Statements like this are straightforward, providing a clearly followable action with a guaranteed result.

 

ACTIVITY 3: PRIORITIES AND PRINCIPLES                                                                                                   

For activity 3, students must build actionable statements using the values they identified in Activity 1, along with their opinions on their personality test from Activity 2. These statements must be clearly defined and feasible, making them easily implementable from the get-go.

Example

Priority

  • Financial Stability

 

Method of Fulfillment

  • Saving money

 

Actionable Statement

  • As I wish to prioritize my financial health, therefore I will save money by depositing 10% of my disposable income from every paycheck into my savings account.

 

 

The worksheet for activity 3 can be found here.

 

Concept adapted from Brianna Wiest, author of “The Mountain is You”.

 

REFLECTION                                                                                                                                                       

  1. How does your actionable statement relate to your personal values?
  2. Do you think your goal is feasible within the next year?
  3. What challenges, if any, do you anticipate in trying to accomplish this goal?

 

ACTIVITY 3: KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                                       

Priorities and principles are a pathway to enacting change in any aspect of life. Principles build on our core beliefs and values, ensuring we commit some sort of effort towards developing our priorities in a positive direction. Principles need to be based on cause and effect for effective use, and they must be easily followable to obtain the results we desire. If utilized correctly, priorities and principles can be a great tool for self-improvement.

 

WORKSHOP KEY TAKEAWAYS                                                                                                                       

Moving forward, it is important to learn how to lead ourselves in order to effectively lead others. Each one of us has different core beliefs and personal values that shape our lives, with priorities and principles being a good pathway for change.

 

RESOURCES                                                                                                                                                       

Click here to access the workshop worksheets.

 

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF THIS WORKSHOP! 

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Guelph Engineering Leadership Workshops 2022-23 Copyright © by John Donald and Nicholas Yip. All Rights Reserved.

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