Personal Values: Maddie’s Version
Shauna was the first person to ask me to really think about and identify my values, and it was a task I took seriously. Values make up who you are, and I am a complex person with a long learning history. How do I sum up what’s important to me in 3 words? As it turns out, I only needed two.
While authenticity and curiosity are certainly not the only things that are important to me, they are the most important things. They carry through lines across my entire life. And when I decided to burn down my entire belief system, these are what I kept.
Authenticity
This was the easiest value for me to identify. When Shauna first asked me to identify my values, I was at a pivotal point in my life. I was taking everything I had been taught growing up, examining it, and deciding whether to keep or burn it. I ended up burning quite a few beliefs. During this time, I was drawn to very specific types of creators- nonbinary and trans people. I felt so much connection to these creators that I questioned my own gender expression. As it turns out, I was not drawn to them for their rejection of society’s gender norms (though I love and respect my trans and nonbinary friends, I am a cisgender woman). I was drawn to these creators for their authenticity. For the way they reject what doesn’t work for them and build a community that does.
To me, authenticity means being yourself no matter what. I am a different person in different settings (hello stimulus discrimination), but even when I’m different, I’m myself.
Professionally, this means I’ll ask the question when I have it. I’ll give the praise when it’s deserved. And I’ll give the feedback when necessary.
As a supervisor, I expect authenticity from my supervisees. If you’re going through something, I don’t expect you to cover it up (though I don’t need details unless you want to share). If you’re excited about a particular task, I expect you to follow the reinforcement and do that task to the best of your ability. When I ask “tell me about yourself”, I expect to hear about you as a multifaceted person, not just your professional life. Authenticity doesn’t have to be your personal value, but I expect some level of authenticity from my supervisees.
Curiosity
I’ve been curious my entire life, but curiosity hasn’t always been reinforced. I remember asking my mom how soap never gets dirty and being told that it just works that way. As an adult, it is very important to me to reinforce question asking and to find the answers when I don’t know. When I was a clinician, my favorite moments were showing a client how to find the answers to their questions. I love being curious, going down rabbit holes, and helping others satisfy their own curiosity.
Professionally, curiosity means that I will ask a lot of questions. I tell people that I will always have questions, but then I will give a solid end product after my questions have been answered. I view questions as a positive, never as a negative.
As a supervisor, I want my supervisees to be curious. My career change from clinical work to marketing started because I went down a rabbit hole. If you have a question, a thought, or an idea, I want you to see it through. Maybe it leads to nothing. Or maybe it leads to a breakthrough.
Conclusion
In short, my biggest values are authenticity and curiosity. These show up differently in my personal life and my professional life, but I hold myself to a high standard of living my values, and I expect my supervisees to be at least a little bit authentic and curious as well. I am so excited for Forward Found and I’m excited to connect and help you identify your own values, discover what they mean to you, and guide you along your journey.
