If your personal values are in conflict with those of the organisation where you work, the following will happen:

1.    You will be demotivated

2.    You will find it difficult to get up in the morning to work without knowing why.

3.    You will not attain your full potential

4.    You will believe that everyone in your work place is against you

5.    You will not see anything good in the organisation where you work and earn a living

The tragedy of it is that very few people know and understand their personal values. They become disgruntled in their work place without knowing why and never see anything good in the organisation. They are the ones that complain about the organisation’s policies to anyone and everyone who cares to listen. Not only does lack of personal values clarity hinder the individual’s growth in an organisation, it also affects their personal relationships and aspirations. If you do not have clarity around your personal values, get the help of a Coach.

An ex-colleague of mine once told me of how he left his previous employer to take up a lesser role in a different organisation. He mentioned leaving his position as a manager when he was due to be promoted to a senior manager position to take up a deputy manager role in a new organisation. He said he left because of toxic corporate values which were not in line with his personal values and the organisation collapsed four years after he left. When he left, he told himself he had nothing to lose and everything to gain in the long run. Whatever he was going to lose in the short run, he will make up for it in the long run. That is exactly what happened.

Another ex-colleague of mine recounted how all the places he worked collapsed due to poor corporate values and governance. He was aware of the malpractices going on in the organisation but did not speak up nor did he leave for fear of losing his job which he lost eventually when the organisations collapsed.

When your personal values are in conflict with your organization’s values, you either speak up or you quit and look for the one that has similar values to yours. You also have the option to start your own business where you can practice your values and you will be surprised that you will earn a living and be happy at the same time but it requires courage.

There was a time in my career when I wanted to leave my job without another one because of toxic corporate values. I left eventually to take up a lesser role in another organization with similar values as mine and I did not regret it.