Five Ways Who You Are and What You Value Shape How You Work and Your Work Culture

Who you are, your personality and core beliefs, and what you value in your core being, subconsciously but powerfully shape how you show up at work. Long before performance metrics or job titles come into play, identity and values are at work, influencing your decisions and sense of fulfillment. Here are five ways this happens.

1. Your values guide your decisions and behavior.

Each of us carries a personal moral compass. It operates along a continuum—from motives to behaviors that build others up or those that tear them down. Values such as truth, love, and generosity nurture trust, collaboration, and perseverance. In contrast, values rooted in selfish ambition, jealousy, or hate can emotionally harm others and weaken teams. In organizations, even a few individuals, whether leaders or employees, operating from harmful values can significantly affect work satisfaction, performance, and culture. If these are accompanied by manipulative behavior that creates cognitive dissonance, it can destroy teams.

2. Alignment between values and work creates meaning and motivation.

When our work aligns with our core values, something clicks within us. For example, if our value is rooted in getting rich, work that builds wealth will keep us satisfied. On the other hand, values rooted in the betterment of ourselves and others keep us not just satisfied but fulfilled. Here, work becomes meaningful, not transactional. Effort feels purposeful, not vanity. Our creativity naturally fuels itself, and innovation happens easily. When we care for others from a healthy self, we create environments where people feel supported and become engaged at work. Over time, workplaces aligned with good values tend to outperform others because people are motivated by shared purpose.

3. Values shape workplace culture and performance.

Organizational culture largely reflects the values that are lived, especially by leadership. A powerful example is Southwest Airlines under the leadership of Herb Kelleher. His emphasis on love, humor, and respect shaped a culture where employees were seen and valued—and customers felt the difference. The company’s rise into a profit-making airline with sustained success, in an industry that depended on bailouts, was not accidental; it flowed directly from values embedded by Kelleher and his leadership team.

4. Values influence how you relate to others and lead.

Values show up in everyday interactions. Someone who values generosity is usually generous in how they support their team members. Someone who values integrity tends to follow through on commitments. These seemingly small behaviors build trust, collaboration, and leadership potential. Over time, values determine not only how teams function but also who emerges as a credible and effective leader.

5. Values act as a filter for career direction and sustainability.

Across a career, values help us discern which roles, organizations, and partnerships align with who we truly are, our true self, and which ones will eventually lead to disengagement or even burnout. For leaders, this makes values especially important. Identifying, developing, and promoting people whose values strengthen the culture is not a soft skill; it is a strategic imperative for long-term organizational health.

When we are clear about our values and when organizations intentionally align work, leadership, and culture with ethical values that build us and others, everyone benefits. Engagement rises. Turnover declines. Productivity improves. Assessing and cultivating values is not abstract or idealistic; it is practical, measurable, and essential for sustainable growth.

In the end, who we are and what we value form the foundation of our work life.

PS: There is one crucial caveat to this: when critical stress levels or complex post-traumatic stress disorder (diagnosed or undiagnosed) start to affect us, our performance and behavior can change. Intense or prolonged stress or trauma changes our body biology. It moves our nervous system into what I call “a state of misfiring.” In this state, ethically right but strong pushbacks, questions, or normal workplace tension can feel threatening. Unfortunately, this triggers hypervigilance, emotional volatility, or disengagement. In these moments, we become self-protective, emotionally numb, or sometimes, self-destructive. It feels like we have lost our usual selves, where we care for ourselves and others' well-being. 

If you are going through critical stress or trauma and feel unable to recognize yourself, know this: you have not abandoned your values. You are NOT acting out of jealousy, manipulation, or a desire to harm others. Instead, your nervous system is responding to a perceived threat, one that may or may not actually be present. 

As you work through critical stress or trauma, your nervous system will heal. You will notice growth in leaps and bounds into a far richer self. It is the outcome of you becoming integrated within yourself and then living out your high values of love, truth, understanding, generosity, empathy, etc. This time, living your values will be accompanied by unshakable strength, courage, and confidence at work and everywhere else.

In a future post, I will share more about how critical stress and trauma affect our ability to access our values and perform at work.