Why someone does what they do
The Personal Values Profile shows which values drive a person: what truly matters, which choices follow from that, and where friction arises with people who look at things from another perspective.
- Four value perspectives
- Substantiated profile
- Only through Certified Partners
- Combines with DISC and Interests
The Personal Values Profile
Values are the convictions a person holds on to: they determine what is seen as important, right and worthwhile. They steer choices, ambitions and the way someone looks at others — usually without ever being spelled out.
The profile maps those values along two questions: which goals does someone work towards — their own or the shared ones — and whose effort is expected: their own, or the group's. Those two questions produce four value perspectives.
Everyone recognises something of themselves in all four perspectives, but not to the same degree. The profile shows which perspective weighs heaviest, how pronounced that is, and what it means for communication, collaboration and the environment in which someone thrives.
No perspective is better than another. They differ in what they consider important — and that difference explains much of the friction that arises in teams.
The four value perspectives
Each perspective is named after its two core values.
- Fairness and togethernessSees life as a quest.
- Responsibility and loyaltySees life as a test we have to pass.
- Autonomy and freedomSees life as a challenge.
- Harmony and possibilitiesSees life as a palette full of chances and possibilities.
Four perspectives, two axes
Choose a perspective to see what drives someone, how they decide, where friction with the other perspectives arises and how to work with them.
How to read the Values model
The headings describe different layers of a values perspective: its core question, position on the two axes, view on life, what drives someone and how they decide. Choose a perspective to open its detailed explanation.
The names and texts above come from the Q4 model; your profile scores all four perspectives, not just one.
Why values are not the same as style
Personal Values and Personal Style (DISC) measure two different layers. Side by side they explain why someone does something as well as how they do it.
Personal Values
The why
- Consciously formed: values grow out of upbringing, experience and thought
- Changeable: a major experience or a new environment can shift them
- Steer choices, ambitions and what someone finds worthwhile
- Explain why collaboration chafes even when the behaviour fits fine
Personal Style (DISC)
The how
- Largely unconscious: a core pattern set early on
- Stable: the pattern stays recognisable over the years
- Steers pace, tone and the way someone reacts
- Explains how behaviour comes across to others
Two things the profile shows separately
Clarity
How sharply someone knows what matters to them. With little clarity the four perspectives sit close together and choices shift from situation to situation.
Intensity
How heavily the values weigh. Strong values give direction and grip, but also make it harder to move with an environment that sees things differently.
Under pressure, behaviour more often comes from an unmet need than from a value. The profile helps to tell the two apart — and that is exactly where a conversation with a Certified Partner makes the difference.
See the Personal Style (DISC) profileWhat the Personal Values Profile contains
The profile is written personally, in plain language, and is meant to be discussed with a Certified Partner.
Your value perspective
The perspective that weighs heaviest, with core values and view on life.
Scores on all four
Charts with the score on each perspective, plus the clarity and the intensity of the values.
Drivers
What sets someone in motion and where their energy comes from.
Growth opportunities
Strengths with the pitfall attached to each, so a strong point does not overshoot unnoticed.
Values in communication
How the values work through in contact with others, and what happens then.
Values at work
What does and does not work, with concrete tips for the manager and for colleagues.
Background
An explanation of the model, of values versus needs, and of how values develop.
See a complete values profile
Want to see what the Personal Values Profile looks like? Leave your details and view the example profile straight away.
- The full profile, exactly as a participant receives it
- Including charts, growth opportunities and tips
- Available immediately, with no waiting
When to use this profile
The Personal Values Profile suits adults in work and career contexts, and is always fed back in a guided conversation.
Coaches and trainers
As depth in a coaching programme, alongside or after a DISC profile.
Managers
To understand what motivates each employee and what holds them back.
Teams
To trace recurring friction back to different perspectives instead of to personalities.
Career questions
When there is doubt about a role, a move or a next step.
Organisation and culture
To place people's values next to the values the organisation stands for.
Recruitment and selection
As a conversation tool for the question of fit with the environment and the assignment.
What this profile is used for
The Personal Values Profile is used in coaching, team development and career questions — wherever the behaviour fits but motivation is the question.
Language for motivation
What drives a person becomes discussable, without the conversation staying vague.
Better choices
Career, role and job choices are tested against what someone genuinely finds important.
Less unexplained friction
Conflicts in teams often turn out to be a clash of perspectives, not of personalities.
A fitting environment
It becomes visible which culture, structure and management give someone energy — and which do not.
Stronger leadership
Managers see how to connect with each employee to gain real support.
Organisational values
People's values become comparable with the values the organisation stands for.
Values alongside style and interests
Q4 Profiles looks at three motivators. Personal Values are one of them; together they explain why someone does what they do.
Needs — Personal Style (DISC)
How someone behaves and what they need from those around them: pace, direction, cooperation and precision.
Explore Personal StylePersonal Values — this profile
What someone considers important and which choices follow from it: what they stand for and what they resist.
Interests
Where the attraction lies: the kind of work and the activities someone enjoys.
Explore Personal Interests
The three instruments can be used separately, but they are stronger together: style shows how someone works, values why they choose, interests where their energy comes from.
Connecting with every perspective
Anyone communicating from their own values easily misses the other person. Per perspective: what connects, and what provokes resistance.
- Type IV
Fairness and togetherness
How to connect
- Be sincere: saying 'yes' and doing 'no' is fatal
- Name the shared interest behind a plan
- Keep agreements and do not pass judgement on others
What provokes resistance
- Making promises and not keeping them
- Arguing in order to be proved right
- Gossip, judgement or idealism brushed aside with cynicism
- Type III
Responsibility and loyalty
How to connect
- Be clear about expectations and agreements
- Announce changes in good time and explain why
- Acknowledge the effort made for the whole
What provokes resistance
- Agreements that are not kept
- Exceptions for whoever finds them convenient
- Loose plans without a clear division of roles
- Type I
Autonomy and freedom
How to connect
- Hand over the goal and leave the route open
- Make visible what this person achieved themselves
- Explain a rule rather than simply imposing it
What provokes resistance
- Group decisions on details this person can settle alone
- Procedures and oversight without explanation
- Compulsory meetings that yield little
- Type II
Harmony and possibilities
How to connect
- Take a moment for the contact before getting to the point
- Sketch possibilities rather than one fixed route
- Name dissatisfaction early and kindly
What provokes resistance
- A conflict that gets sharpened rather than settled
- Decisions taken over people's heads
- An environment where only the result counts
The profile works this out for the reader's own perspective, including the strength and the pitfall that come with it.
What works, and what does not
Values rarely clash with the content of the work; they clash with the environment around it. Per perspective, the conditions that give energy and the ones that drain it.
Fairness and togetherness
Works well
- Work in which personal commitment makes a difference
- Organisational goals and values that match their own
- Room for differences and a learning culture
Works against them
- A culture where personal success outranks shared success
- Hierarchy that revolves around differences in position
- Work without influence, or without people
Responsibility and loyalty
Works well
- An organisation with clear structure and clear roles
- A team where people help and hold each other to account
- Work with a visible shared goal
Works against them
- Non-commitment and a constantly shifting course
- A culture where self-interest comes first
- Unclear responsibilities
Autonomy and freedom
Works well
- Being able to work and decide independently
- Clear agreements on results, without a prescribed method
- Recognition for a personal achievement
Works against them
- Tight procedures and oversight of the work
- A culture where everything has to be decided together
- Work in which their own contribution stays invisible
Harmony and possibilities
Works well
- Working together in an open, pleasant atmosphere
- Room to learn and develop
- Variety and a view of new chances
Works against them
- A hard, blame-driven culture
- Continuous conflict or internal competition
- Work that stays the same year after year
When the organisation's values match the employee's, work becomes easier by itself. When they diverge, it costs energy every single day.
From questionnaire to conversation
Four steps, from invitation to application in practice.
Invitation
A Certified Partner sets up the profile and sends the participant a personal invitation.
Online questionnaire
The participant completes the questionnaire online, calmly, at a moment of their choosing.
Profile and feedback
The profile is discussed in a conversation: recognition, nuance and the participant's own words.
Application
The outcome lands in a coaching programme, a team session or a concrete career choice.
Work with Personal Values yourself
In the certification training you learn to administer and feed back the values profile, and to link drivers to behaviour in coaching and teams.
- Understand the model and the four perspectives down to the nuances
- Practise feeding back a profile
- Combine values with Personal Style (DISC) and EQ-i
- Administer profiles yourself through the Q4 platform after certification
What partners say about it
Q4 Profiles works with a network of Certified Partners who use the instruments every day.
For years I've used Q4 Profiles' DISC in my work as a coach. For my coachees the DISC profile is a wonderful way to understand themselves better. 'A whole world opened up for me,' they often tell me. And that's what it's all about!
HTHielle TillemaCoachWhat truly sets Q4 apart are the in-depth insights their profiles offer, going further than most other DISC providers. I'm incredibly glad Q4 came into my path.
PBPaula de BrouwerYour True NatureThanks to the certification in Q4 Profiles' instruments I've been able to strengthen my services considerably. The tools have contributed to my professional and personal growth. I'm grateful to Q4 Profiles for the past 20 years.
EKEd van 't KloosterSo Human
Frequently asked questions
Question not listed? Feel free to get in touch.
Curious what values could bring to your practice?
Tell us briefly what you are working on. We will think along about using the Personal Values Profile — in coaching, in a team or across the organisation.
- Advice on using it in your situation
- A Certified Partner near you
- Information about certification