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Frameworks / The Core Values Index

Know how you're wired, and how your team is.

The Core Values Index measures what drives you and how you naturally contribute, the part of you that doesn't change. I give it to the leaders and teams I work with.

Based on the Core Values Index™ assessment by Lynn Ellsworth Taylor

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Model · CVI quadrantsLeading: Builder
SAMPLE PROFILE · ILLUSTRATION INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY COMMUNITY INTUITIVE COGNITIVE PRACTICAL CREATIVE Builder POWER Merchant LOVE KNOWLEDGE Banker WISDOM Innovator

›Everyone has all four

The shape is the mix: which values lead and which sit quiet. Sample profiles, for illustration.

The idea

In brief.

The Core Values Index (CVI), created by Lynn Ellsworth Taylor, is an assessment of your innate nature: the core drive that stays the same whatever your role, your mood or your circumstances. Many personality tests measure how you behave. The CVI is built to measure what's underneath.

It sorts that drive into four core values. Builders bring power: action and results. Merchants bring love: vision and relationships. Innovators bring wisdom: they assess problems and find solutions. Bankers bring knowledge: information, accuracy and protecting what's been built.

Everyone has all four, in a different mix. The quadrants show which lead, and the pairs say even more. Builders and Merchants are intuitive; Bankers and Innovators are cognitive. Builders and Bankers are practical; Merchants and Innovators are creative.

Each value also has a way it goes wrong under stress. Knowing yours, and your teammates', takes the sting out of a lot of conflict.

Core Values Index™ and CVI™ are trademarks of Taylor Protocols, Inc. The descriptions here are my own summaries.

The quadrants

Four core values.

Power

Builder

Action and results. Builders decide, take charge and get things done. Under stress, that power can turn into intimidation.

Love

Merchant

Vision and relationships. Merchants see what could be, rally people around it and help them grow. Feeling unappreciated, they can slip into manipulating.

Wisdom

Innovator

Assessment and solutions. Innovators figure out how things work, spot what's broken and fix it. When something seems foolish, they interrogate it.

Knowledge

Banker

Information and conservation. Bankers gather the facts, keep things accurate and fair, and protect what's been built. Feeling uninformed, they judge from a distance.

With clients

How I use it.

Part of my work inExecutive Coaching →
  1. Take the assessmentA short online assessment, then a report on your core values, your strengths and how you handle conflict.
  2. Debrief one on oneWe walk through your results together: where your energy comes from, what drains it and what happens to you under pressure.
  3. Map the teamWith the leadership team's results side by side, it's clear why some pairs click and others grind. We use that to put people in the right seats.
  4. Hire with itThe CVI helps match people to roles that fit how they're wired, so you're not asking a Banker to do a Builder's job.

Try this

Questions to ask your team.

  • Which of the four values energizes you, and which drains you?
  • What do you do under stress, and what does your team see?
  • Is each person wired for the seat they're in?
  • Which pairs on the team clash, and is it a values difference?
  • Is the team missing one of the four entirely?

Related insights

More on this.

More frameworks

Next step

Take the CVI with me.

Book a free 30-minute call, and I'll walk you through how the Core Values Index works for you and your team.

Book a free 30-minute call →