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Explain spending your time and attention wisely and what are you professional work values

What are some examples of values that you have with respect to professional work? What is meant by “Spending your Time and Attention Wisely” when it comes to these values?

How do your professional values relate to your current or past employer‘s values?

  • Are they aligned?
  • Do they overlap?
  • Is one set broader than the other?

Use and cite scholarly articles as necessary to support your answer.

This post was part of TyroCity discussion forum
Question asked by tshring_malla

Top comments (5)

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angel profile image
Angel Paudel

Value is something that a person believes is important to the way one lives and work. They often determine one’s priorities and are one of the important parameters to gauge if the person is heading in the right direction (Ekendahl, 2012). Personal values are the general expression of what is most important for one and vary from person to person. The values shared by organizations differ from one another as well and if the personal value aligns with the organizational values, one can feel motivated to deliver their best.

Taking an example of the current organization that I work at in ICIMOD, some examples of values that I have with respect to my professional work are commitment where regardless of it being a holiday or me taking a leave, if I have proper connection to get the thing done, I don’t want until I return if anything comes up. I take my device out, work and get the task done. I also think I value problem-solving trait where regardless of how complex the problem is, I take a moment to evaluate it before making an action plan to counter it. With my supervisor resigning and me having an additional responsibility, I never backed out of any hard or complex situation but took it as a learning opportunity and tackled all the problems that I came across. I value flexibility in myself where the working environment and task that I have to do even if are completely different from something that I used to do doesn’t matter. I learn about the process over a period of time and continue doing so. I tend to shift my strategies to meet different types of challenges as per the requirement and people that I encounter. I’m clear with my vision and know the organizational goals and objectives and my personal values which align to a certain point that we must act to make a difference in lives of people. I see a clear path that I’m taking with the same to keep moving forward. The values of myself and organization matching were something that motivated me to take the role at ICIMOD and keep doing so even with better offers on the table. Knowing that I will be contributing in some way to make a difference in the lives of people is a pleasing experience and something that I want to continue doing.

Spending your Time and Attention Wisely

Time is something that is fixed, we may feel that it’s moving fast or slow depending on what and how we are doing things. In an examination hall when we’re well prepared and have lots to write, we may feel that we don’t have enough time and it is moving really fast. However, in the same scenario, when we’re not prepared at all and not ready for that particular exam, we may feel like the time is moving too slow. Everyone has 24-hours in their clock and it’s all about how we spend that 24-hours of the day that defines who we ultimately become. As a student, time is well spent if one devotes his/her attention to do more research on a certain topic, and gain hands-on experience if possible about the same. For someone who is starting a new startup, time is well spent if he/she uses that time to communicate with the team and pays more attention to the co-workers to pass on the vision and making sure that they’re doing what’s expected, check every business activities initially to make sure that all due process is in accordance. In another scenario, a researcher spending time confused only traveling from a location to another is time and attention badly spend. Whereas if the same researcher makes a detailed plan of what he/she wants to accomplish and then focus all the time and attention on the same results in the goal being accomplished and the time and attention being wisely spent as well.

References

Ekendahl, K. (2012). Personal Value - By Toni Rønnow-Rasmussen. Theoria , 78 (3), 268-272.

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susham profile image
Susham

Values are the diverse patterns of regulations, entered into by all persons in a given environment and incorporated into their thoughts and actions (Reed, Turial, & Brown, 1996). Values may have different meanings for different individuals. These values are shaped up from the way individuals have been raised and the different experiences that individuals gather as they grow up. Certain things that are important for one may not be important for others. For example, a child raised in the family of soldiers would value time and would regard value punctuality greatly than children raised in other families. Similarly, in my family, I grew up listening to people remarking how honest my father was and how if he had been like other people, we would have accumulated huge amount of properties. This bringing up of mine made me notify my supervisor, every time a customer would try to bribe me to pass good remarks on their behalf so that they could get their loan sanctioned. I have come across such incidents several times while I was associated with a co-operative. But each time, I would deny any such offers and notify my seniors. Organizational values are the beliefs and ideas about standards of behavior that organizational members should exhibit in the endeavor to achieve organizational goals within the organizational community (Thomas, 2013). Each organization has its own set of values that the members of the organization are bound to follow. An individual’s value and organizational values are co-related. Organization values have grown from the value of the individuals that has shaped the organization cultural (Andolšek, 1995).

An organization cannot be on its way to success until the organization and its members have a shared value. Some of the values that I hold within my organization are Integrity, Continuous Learning, Mutual respect and responsibility and Leadership. Nobody is perfect. This is something that is reinforced continuously in my workplace. We believe that we all have the capability to learn and improve ourselves continuously. We indeed make mistakes, sometimes simple ones, but we can always enhance our learnings and revamp our results.

Similarly, Leadership is something that we value in our organization. I personally believe that a true leader is someone who creates more leaders and not followers. And this is something that is reflected precisely by the CEO of our organization. He values and respects each member of the team and continuously persuading us all towards leadership. We have a shared vision that leadership is not merely being in the top position of the company but leading in the work you are currently doing. Likewise, I too keep encouraging younger team members in the organization to take charge and lead different projects.

Spending your time and attention wisely is being engaged in the things we has more value in our life. According to Henry Ford,” If you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way you are correct.” And I use this statement quite often in my life. When one is committed towards something, then that individual would spend their time in activities that would enable them to achieve their commitments. Likewise, when the members and the organizational values are shared, then the members would spend their time working rigorously in achieving the vision of the organization.

Correspondingly for leaders, it is essential to spend some time to transfer these values into the members of the organization. They should communicate effectively in order to inspire these values. Our CEO is like an elder brother and we work in quite an informal setting. He spends huge portion of his time talking to us about how we can take our organization further and how vital the role each of us play in achieving this. It might seem unnecessary considering we all know our job and we can do it on a daily basis. But he feels responsible for developing a sense of leadership in each of us and hence, keeps pushing us to extend our limits and making us believe that we can indeed achieve what we dream of.

References
Andolšek, M. (1995). Organizacijska kultura. Ljubljana, Slovenia: Gospodarski vestnik.

Reed, E. S., Turial, E., & Brown, T. (1996). Values and Knowledge. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Thomas, T. P. (2013). The Effect of Personal Values, Organizational Values, and Person-Organization Fit on Ethical Behaviors and Organizational Commitment Outcomes among Substance Abuse Counselors: A Preliminary Investigation.

What are some examples of values that you have with respect to professional work? What is

meant by "Spending your Time and Attention Wisely" when it comes to these values?

How do your professional values relate to your current or past employer’s values?

Are they aligned?

Do they overlap?

Is one set broader than the other?

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ujjwalpoudel profile image
ujjwal_poudel

According to Hoag & Cooper (2006), "A value refers to beliefs of a person or social group, a set of emotional rules that people follow to help make the right decisions in life, guiding for deciding what is right or wrong, and how to act in various situations or face with different obstacles”. Values can also be defined as the principles or standards of behavior as one’s judgment of what is important in life (Trevino, 1986). Whenever activities and choice lined up with value, at that point it demonstrates the trustworthiness and turn into a decent good example and genuine feelings of serenity on account of sure and conviction.

The values and beliefs and aligned us together towards the goal of organization are as follows:

  • If organizational and personal goals would align each other, then people will be more committed towards the work and the organizations. If my personal goals are aligned towards the organizational goals I will be motivated to work and then it will be betterment for the whole organization.
  • Time administration is a standout among the most critical aptitudes that each individual requires. The cutting edge idea characterizes time administration as the demonstration of arranging the measure of time you spend on every movement. It builds the efficiency. The Pareto rule is one of the least complex and most capable administration devices. Pareto’s law expresses that 80% of yield is created by 20% of info. Thus, individuals should utilize their chance successfully as 20 % of exertion would give 80% of results.
  • Customer focus is an organizational stance, in which all the aspects of a company’s production and delivery of goods and services are directed by the best interest of customers (Brady & Cronin, 2001). He even used to handle small clients personally even if the staffs were busy. All the major issues of the clients were handled and he never missed any client’s call if they were either about the issues or for betterment of the organization.

For instance; my involvement is at Jobs Dynamics, a recruitment company. Here I worked as a team leader. Generally, Jobs Dynamics work for recruiting, outsourcing, training and consulting for any business house. And there is workforce diversity for different department. I look after all the department and balance the diversity and convert it into synergy.

We always try to give value to our every individual client and the candidate making good relation to both. The vast majority of the clients are conviction since we make a best association with every last clients by giving a conviction and taking an input from them for more dynamic. This would not only support us to grow but it would simultaneously help both the companies to go hand on hand.

It is said that the professional work values must align with the employer or organizational values so that the shared vision can be achieved easily and quickly. It is true that the people might come to join a company with their personal value. But, when they are a part of the company, then now they have to comply their personal value with company’s value. This is how the employees 'and organizational values cope up with to achieved the shared vision. My two years tenure for Jobs Dynamics, their friendly environment, help to grow, support & instruct on individual arguments and flat structure in decision making would be a strong reason that I cope up with company’s value.

In my case, I always make a daily routine on early morning. I notice the entire job in small note book which include all the activities like meeting and scheduling task to complete for that day including time as well. I start to do a job which is more priority and important for me. These techniques enable me to carry out a vocation on time, to deal with a period efficiently, accomplishment to satisfy the whole employment which make more significant me on group and figure out how to achieve target for company. Presently, I worked as a team leader and had deadlines to meet and even time management was very important as lots of clients would call up at the same time. It was my part of responsibility to be accountable, credible and manage time for each of them and focusing on their issues.

References

Brady, M. K., & Cronin, J. J. (2001). Customer orientation effects on customer service perceptions and outcome behaviors. Journal of Service Research .

Hoag, B., & Cooper, C. L. (2006). Managing value-based organizations: it’s not what you think. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model . Academy Management Review.

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shantamilan profile image
ShantaMilan

Values are non-tangible principles that guide the way a person talks and walks. Professor Sir Ralph Turner MC once said, “Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you.” As Sir Ralph Turner mentions, Nepalese are famous for their bravery which have been glamorised through the ages with the courageous acts performed by the Gorkha soldiers. In this light, we can understand that bravery and generosity are values of the Nepalese people which define their actions.

“It’s absolutely essential that you be clear and mindful of the values that guide your actions, because your personal credibility depends on it. (Kouzes & Posner, 2003, p. 31)”

I hold achievement of my goals, fairness at work, freedom to work, having fun while working, honesty/integrity, innovation for challenging the status quo and responsibility as my values in my professional work.

With Nepal having bribery as its foremost essence of doing work efficiently, I try my best to stop these acts in my organization. Similarly the freedom to work is very important to me. I personally work better with freedom to take decisions while working and not be dictated by my seniors all the time. This is only possible if you can prove your work with achievements that can be seen.

As we learned is our previous class, if you want to be great you cannot continue doing what you have been doing. You need to change. One way of doing that is by spending your time and attention wisely. To do this you first need to understand how your day has been spent and one way of finding that out is writing journals. It is a power tool. As Matt Mayberry says, “Not only can a journal be a place where we store important information, record quotes or sayings that move us, but it’s also a wonderful tool to help us analyze where we are at and where we want to go. (Mayberry, 2015)”

Another powerful tool to realize and attain spending time wisely would be by following the Quadrant II, the time management matrix as mentioned in the book, seven habits of highly effective people. In the four by four matrix, author Stephen R. Covey helps to allocate tasks that are based on urgency and importance which drastically improves time spent throughout the day.

Most often urgent matter are usually visible, in front of us and often pleasant, easy, fun to do. But often they are unimportant. Importance, on the other hand has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your mission, your values, and your high priority goals. (Covey, 1989)

My organization has values ebbed in its vision “Peaceful, equitable and just society, where there is solidarity among people and respect for human dignity.” I understand these values as these values also align with my own. Among this values, I would say just society in more important at this time. Just meaning, rules are for everyone. The well off or people in power do not have the right to disregard or manipulate rules. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison.”

References

Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 HABITS of HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2003). THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE Workbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mayberry, M. (2015, January 0). Keeping a Daily Journal Can Give You Tremendous Power. Entrepreneur . Retrieved from entrepreneur.com/article/241280

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dipadhungana profile image
DIPA_DHUNGANA

The principles that help us decide what is right and wrong, and how to act in various situations are values. Values represent the moral beliefs or accepted standards of a person or social group. Values can also be regarded as something we cannot compromise for. Each individual has different priorities in life so value differs from person to person. Something that is meaningful for me can be totally meaningless for someone else. For example if I value relationship, I cannot expect everyone else to value the same. Values are more of personal thing. Like every individuals, every organization also has its own values that guides the activities within that organization. Organizational values are derived from the values of individuals that shape the organizational culture (Andolsek & Stebe , 2004).

For any organization to succeed, the values of the people working in the organization should align with the values of the organization. The mismatch between the employee and organizational values may deviate the organization from achieving its desired results. The values that I hold with respect to my professional work are:

  • Honesty
  • Accountability
  • Punctuality
  • Continuous Learning
  • Collaboration

I believe being honest to self and the profession we are in is a must. One should be able to justify and stand by the decisions he makes and action he takes on behalf of the organization. Time is very important element in every profession and since the things are changing one should possess the tendency to keep on learning and growing continuously. Lastly no organization can operate in isolation so collaboration is one of the professional values for me.

We need to use our time and attention wisely because both of them are limited. The things and activities we choose to spend our time and attention eventually shapes us. We need to spend the time in significant work. Those who spend time in right places see amazing results in both personal and professional life (Joy, 2017). Attention also has similar implication. The more attention we pay to something, the more attention it will attract and the more we will achieve (Life Optimizer, 2007). So we need to invest our time and attention on things that we value so that we can maximize the results. Spending time and attention on the work we value will motivate us to perform better. If the organizational values are synchronized with personal value, employees will automatically devote more time and attention in their work.

I am currently working in a home health care provider named Health at Home Pvt. Ltd. My professional values are aligned with the place I am working in. I chose to work in the organization because of the shared values. As our work is directly concerned with the health of people, we cannot have any discount on our values. Being loyal to the organization and client is the foundation of our business. Similarly everyone has to be accountable for their actions as the actions taken by the team can improve or worsen the health condition of a person. Health care business needs to address to the medical issues promptly so punctuality cannot be ignored. Be it giving medicines, taking for doctor visits or performing various tests, everything needs to be done on time. We are improving our services and outreach activities based on the past results and feedback. We are growing and learning at the same time. Similarly the organization is performing well because of the cooperation and collaboration among different departments within the organization. The relationship we have with our partner organizations and clients also hold great importance in our existence and growth.

References

Andolsek, D. M., & Stebe , J. (2004, August 1). International Journal of Cross Cultural Management. Multinational Perspective on Work Values nad Commitments .

Joy, F. (2017, January 7). Black Enterprise. Are You Spending Your Time Wisely?

Life Optimizer. (2007, November 4). Attention Management.