Learning to Value Yourself
I read a pretty good article the other day over on Steven Downes’ site. Although it was posted almost a year ago, I only came across it recently. In it, he posits the things he believes every person should take the time to learn.
One of his points - how to value yourself - got me to thinking about how value is related throughout a professional organization, and why it’s important for you as a leader to know your value, and understand where you are and where you want to be.
Value is in the Eyes of the Beholder
Our “value” to an organization can be defined in many ways. Usually though, we’re really talking about the factors that you as an individual bring to the table that benefit the organization as a whole.
Often, if we don’t consciously explore our own view of what we think our value is to the organization is, we fail to fully understand it. Being confident in what we know we can both deliver and achieve within the structure enables us to act more effectively as a leader.
The problem is, we are often over confident in our value when we relate it to tasks, but overly critical of it when we relate ourselves to others.
What’s Your Value?
This is a fully participative blog post. I want you to take out a piece of paper and write down every person in your company. If that’s too daunting a task, write down everyone you can remember off hand, but be sure to include both superiors and juniors.
Now, put that list in order from most to least valuable as far as their worth to the organization. This is completely your opinion, but be honest, and make sure no two people share a spot. Of course, make sure you include yourself!
So where did you end up? I’d imagine, somewhere near the middle, depending on your experience and the organization.
Measuring Yourself Against Your Peers
It’s time now to evaluate how your personal performance compares with how you see yourself, value wise. Take a look at the names you feel are persons that are less valuable than you to the company. What is it that you bring that makes you more important than them? Do their teams do work that the company could afford to lose before yours? What you will find by doing this are the specific strengths and key qualities that you bring to the organization. Do you embody and perform to those strengths on a daily basis?
Now take a look at the names you designated has having more value than you to the company. Why is this so? Are they more experienced? Do they process skills you do not? Are they in a better position to make decisions than you are? Looking at these names, you should find the focus you need to build yourself to the next level.
So, What’s the Point?
Most of this will give you a common sense overview of what you (should) already know. The point is that until you actually take stock of where you stand, it’s difficult to make sure that you properly value yourself within the organization. Finding ways to increase your value enables you to continue to grow.
As a leader though, knowing your value will help you allow others to discover theirs. Being able to lead a team that knows exactly where they stand and what they can do to increase their worth to you and the organization gives them clear goals and direction.
At the end of the day, we’re all rated on a scale that equates our value to the organization. The better you understand this, and how it directly impacts you, the better you will be - both on your own and as a leader.
New here? Don't forget to subscribe, either by RSS feed or email notification to keep up with the latest articles!
Great article, Dave. I was evaluating myself and my coworkers briefly while reading the article just as a mental note, but will for sure write down all their names and where they fall on the list. My views of how I see them in value is greatly different than how some of the management (or lack of) see all of us of value. I tend to measure value in how well someone performs as a leader. The definitions of leadership just within the organization I’m in are very skewed.
Since this was the perfect time for me to be reading this article about valueing myself… I will evaluate those coworkers around me on paper and reaccess how I can change my opinion about ‘value’ in terms of myself.
Thanks for the article and good luck with the website. I have bookmarked it and will visit again.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:09 pmThanks Lucia. It’s often the case that your opinions of yourself and your co-workers are pretty different from those leading the group.
I’d hope that one of the things that my article brings out is that if this is so, it could be a case of misplaced values; what you may consider important might not be seen as such by management. What you could do is write out 2 lists: your’s, and “management’s” and see where they differ.
From that, you could ask yourself what things the people on the management list are doing that you are not. That might give you a good place to start.
Remember though, sometimes your values won’t match the organizations, and some leaders clearly aren’t. Perhaps you should pass along my site and foster some discussion!
July 8th, 2007 at 9:40 am