Everyone has values – whether you can state what they are or not.
Your values guide you through your life – they are the things that you think are most important. Some people value love over money, others value prosperity over affection. Some value nature over hard work, while others prioritise dedication over playfulness.
Your values are personal but they come to work with you. The way you lead your baby room will depend on your values, either unconsciously or consciously. If you can find out what your values are, you can bring them to work in a conscious way and use them to positively shape what happens in the baby room and the decisions you make day to day.
A baby room leader who knows that what matters most to them are the values of love, attachment and warmth, will bring these values consciously into their interactions with the babies, parents/carers and their colleagues. They will reflect regularly on their practice to see whether it is aligned with love, attachment and warmth. How they set up the room will depend on these values. They will have particular feelings about the importance of the key person arrangement and they might try to set norms for how the team can support one another everyday.
On the other hand, a baby room leader with core values of creativity and curiosity will lead a different kind of baby room. More of their attention may go on thinking about the opportunities for stimulation among the babies. They may place more of an emphasis on getting outdoors or engaging in messy play. Of course, they’ll still know the importance of attachment and nurture, but what they reflect on and how they advance practice in the room will be different.
Values aren’t right or wrong, but knowing what your values are can be empowering when it comes to thinking about how you want to develop your baby room. You can return to your values when things don’t feel right or you’ve had a tough day and find that they give you the boost you need to keep going.
So how can you identify your values? Visualisation is a great tool for this – we’ll talk about that more in the future. But why don’t you start with this short, fun quiz on your personal values and see whether what comes back resonate for you.