Module 3 — Lesson 4

In this lesson you’ll learn:

• How to share the results of the COREvalues report with your clients

Sharing the COREvalues report with clients

The COREvalues report is the most robust and detailed report of all the COREnology reports. The results from this exercise will influence and inform how you address your client’s priorities, views, obstacles, and culture.

Their values should be the foundation of their financial plan.

The report is easy to use and provides insightful discussion points for you and your clients. 

Preparing for the Client Meeting

Before the meeting, review the individual and shared values pages, the heat map and the estate planning next steps. This will take you about 10 minutes.

As you begin the meeting, remember to share the reason why the family is exploring COREvalues:   

1. Values drive what we do and how we act.

When we act in a way that aligns with the values we believe in, we feel satisfied, confident, and content with ourselves.

Our core values can become a “to be” list – a list of who we are and what we hold as essential and directional. Understanding our core values can also protect us from the tyranny of the urgent.

2. Values help hold us steady.

They drive our decision-making process and can act as a behavioral guidance system.

When our action flows from a values-based decision, we become marked by greater confidence and less inner conflict.

3. Values can create long-lasting connections with others.

When we learn about others’ values, we often learn about their personal stories and come to understand and respect them in new ways.

When a family doesn’t have a clear understanding of who they are and what they value, it often leads to dysfunction, distrust, lack of alignment, miscommunication, unclear goals, and a lack of purpose and vision.

This report helps families create a strong foundation so they can avoid these threats to their legacy. 

In addition, the report provides families with: 

• A shared vocabulary they can use to build deeper connection and understanding

• A chance to create deep understanding and pass on valuable lessons by telling the stories that inspired their individual COREvalues 

• An opportunity to listen, hear, and visually see how each family member’s values complement the others, and contribute something meaningful to the family as a whole

• A starting point to addressing conflicts that might arise due to conflicting values

• Addressing concerns that family member who doesn’t share one’s values doesn’t have any values at all 

Some ideas about values: 

Values can be innate (born this way), experiential (shaped by an experience), or aspirational (what we want to be). 

Some values are internal (ex: wisdom), and some are external (ex: connection). Often times they are both. And neither is better than the other.

Unlike personality, your values often change as you learn, grow, and experience life. 

Meeting Outline

Here is a meeting outline that allows families to interact and be involved with the report: 

Review Individual and Family Values

Begin by reviewing each individual values report, one by one. Your goal is to listen attentively and get each family member involved. 

Read through the top values for each family member, one at a time. For each person, do a few of the following: 

• Ask the person if the values seem like a good fit and if they feel innate, experiential, or aspirational.

• Ask if they can think of a story or experience from their life might have shaped one of their values.

• Ask a question about an individual value. “Loyalty is at the top of your list. How has loyalty both helped and challenged you?”

• Ask if they can think of a moment in recent memory when they made a choice that aligned with that value or admired someone else making a choice in alignment with that value.

• Ask the rest of the family if they see these values play out in the individual’s life, and invite them to share examples.

• Point out noticings, connections, similarities between family members, etc. 

COREstyles Overview

Once each person has had a chance to talk about their values, move on to the COREstyles heatmap. (The heat map discussion can also go after the family’s shared values if you prefer.) 

The next portion of the lesson is meant to help you understand the COREstyles heat map.

We have categorized each of the values in the COREnology assessment into 4 quadrants to help families better understand of how their values might inform their behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives on life.

The 4 Quadrants (and their associated motivating questions) are:

• Artistic

• Productive

• Inspired

• Ethical

Artistic

Artistic values: Artistry, Connection, Creativity, Experience, Humor, Optimism
Motivating Question: How can I best engage the world around me?

People in the Artistic Quadrant tend to think outside of the box and admire originality. They are drawn toward metaphors, allegories, and symbolic ways of communicating concepts and ideas. They are driven to make something out of nothing and to leave the world enriched by their work.

Their minds may be “messier” than those of people who are more logically oriented. Part of this may be due to the fact that their unconscious minds are often hard at work finding creative solutions to problems.

Artistic people are curious and love new experiences, new points of view, and new ways of seeing things. They often “connect the dots” in ways that others do not.

People in the Artistic Quadrant tend to be more dynamic in both their thinking and actions (Dynamic Motion).

Productive

Productive values: Achievement, Determination, Health, Independence, Knowledge, Strength
Motivating Question: How can I optimize a process to achieve our goals?

Those who are in the Productive Quadrant are results-oriented and tend to look for ways to demonstrate or measure outcomes. They pride themselves on the slow, steady discipline that accomplishes great things. They are self-disciplined and independent; they don’t need the crack of the whip to keep them on task.

Productive people are self-correcting. They take criticism constructively and apply it. They pay attention to their own processes and try to refine them in order to be at their most productive.

People in the Productive Quadrant tend to be more dynamic in their thinking and resolute in their actions (Resolute Motion).

Inspired

Inspired values: Courage, Empathy, Faith, Generosity, Gratitude, Wisdom
Motivating Question: What is the ideal in a situation and how do we reach it? 

Individuals in the Inspired Quadrant desire a world as it should be, and they work to achieve that ideal. They want to leave the world a better place than they found it.

Those in the Inspired Quadrant are often spiritually driven. They are attracted to the transcendent – those qualities that are eternal and bigger than the individual.

They believe that life has a purpose higher than mere survival and that each human being has a purpose and a destiny to unlock. They have the courage to stand alone if necessary.

People in the Inspired Quadrant tend to be more resolute in their thinking and dynamic in their actions (Dynamic Mind).

Ethical

Ethical values: Forgiveness, Integrity, Justice, Loyalty, Respect, Responsibility
Motivating Question: What good principles are the best for this situation? 

The Ethical Quadrant is comprised of those who are driven by doing the right thing. They act on principle and are guided by ethics and morality. They believe in shining a light on injustice and are driven to fight for those who cannot fight or speak for themselves.

For those in the Ethical Quadrant, their word is their bond. They are honest, even when it costs them personally to be so. They do the right thing even when no one is looking and do not take credit for other people’s work. Ethical people regard trust as one of the most important factors in human relationships.

People in the Ethical Quadrant tend to be more resolute in both their thinking and their actions (Resolute Mind).

Defining Your COREstyle

The COREvalues assessment identifies each individual’s Core Values. Each value belongs to one of the quadrants discussed above. Your COREstyle is made up of the 2 most prominent quadrants in your top 5 values. This is what we refer to as your QUADRANT BLEND.

So, for example, if your answers to the survey place you primarily in the Artistic Quadrant and secondarily in the Inspired Quadrant, than you would be a Trailblazer (AI).

In the report Appendix you can find in-depth information about the heat map and each COREstyle. Click below to access it now.

As you lead the family through the heatmap, follow these steps:

• We all ask four questions, just in a different order.  

• Explain the question attached to each quadrant. 

• Explain the ideas of dynamism; motion; mind; and resoluteness. 

• Explain paradox power if necessary. 

Point out where each person in the family lands on the map. 

• Does this seem to fit? 

• Any surprises? 

• How do you see this play out in your interactions? 

Be prepared to help include any outliers. 

• Different values do not mean no values. 

• How do these differences help your family? 

• Strength in similarity as well as unity in diversity. 

As a wrap-up to the heatmap, remind them of their shared family values: 

• Review their top five shared values. 

• Note where individuals overlap or are different. 

• Do these values accurately define your family? 

  • Use the family photo analogy. 

  • We might change over time, but you can still recognize each person in the photo. 

  • Likewise with our family values. They may change, but we often see the similarities that remain part of our family shared values. 

Finally, move on to the tangibles of this exercise: 

Encourage clients to continue to have these discussions! 

• Knowing each other’s values gives insight into priorities, reactions, etc. 

• Reference the action steps listed in the report (on the page following the heat map).

Steps for estate planning: 

• In the report Appendix are individualized suggestions that meet the family’s top shared values.

• Talk about which options make the most sense and what steps to take next. 

Steps for individual growth: 

• Review the matrix worksheet below to help individuals act on their COREvalues by intentionally planning their time, talent, and treasure.