Let’s start with a quiet truth: you already have core values. Even if you’ve never written them down. Even if you’ve never said them out loud.
They show up every time you feel joy in your work. Every time you feel anger in a meeting. Every time you advocate for a student, push back on an initiative, or redesign a form that makes no sense.
Values are already steering the ship. But when you don’t name them clearly — especially in academia, especially in leadership — chaos tends to name them for you.
When You Don’t Name Your Values, Other People Will
Your calendar will fill with someone else’s priorities.
Your leadership style will default to the loudest voice in the room.
Your career path will start chasing titles, not meaning.
And eventually, you’ll look up and wonder how you got here — doing too much of what doesn’t matter, not enough of what does.
But when you do name your values, everything changes. Not overnight, but over time. Alignment becomes a practice. Decision-making gets lighter. Burnout becomes easier to catch — and recover from.
Because your values aren’t just about who you are. They’re about what you protect.
Choose Words That Feel Like You
The goal isn’t to choose the right values — it’s to choose the true ones.
Not what sounds good on a poster. Not what HR told you to care about. But what actually governs the way you show up in your best moments. The moments you’re most proud of. The ones you wish happened more often.
Mine include things like Curiosity, Joy, Discovery, Clarity, Grace, and Impact. That’s not a prescription. That’s a map of what lights me up — and what drains me when it’s missing.
What about you?
If you don’t know where to start, think about what you complain about. (Seriously.) The things that frustrate you most are often the flip side of your core values.
Hate when things are disorganized? Maybe you value Consistency.
Can’t stand when people rush decisions? You might value Wisdom or Intentionality.
Frustrated by performative busywork? You probably value Purpose or Simplicity.
This Week’s Practice
Grab a pen. No, not the one with the dying ink. A good one. The one that makes you feel like a professor and a poet.
Write down 5–10 words that feel like the best version of you. Let them be a little aspirational, but still recognizable.
Then — here’s the part most people skip — write a sentence about what that value actually means to you. How it shows up. What it protects.
Don’t just write “Integrity.” Write “I do what I say I’ll do — and I expect the same from others.”
Don’t just write “Creativity.” Write “I find new ways when the old ways stop working.”
By next week, you’ll be ready to start making decisions and building systems that reflect those values — not just react to whatever crisis shows up first.
Because that’s what we’re doing here. Building the aligned version of you, one step at a time.
Article publié pour la première fois le 13/10/2025
