Career Competencies: Know Your Worth & Limits
J.T. O'Donnell
Founder & CEO, Work It DAILY | Board of Directors, McCoy | Career & Professional Development | Job Search | HR & Recruiting | Employer Branding | Recruitment Marketing | Talent Management | Executive Coaching
There are certain core competencies to being a successful professional. We each need to know how to manage our business-of-one if we want to achieve our goals. Those core competencies are:
- Identify our most valuable skill sets.
- Market our skills that are most in-demand.
- Target who we want to market ourselves to.
- Articulate our ability to solve an employer's problems and alleviate their pain.
- Proactively start and engage in meaningful industry conversations.
- Position ourselves as a subject-matter expert.
- Know our worth.
- Know our limits.
Worth & Limits = Least Developed
The last two, knowing our worth and limits, are often the least developed competencies. Time and again, I see professionals fail to negotiate for more money, or take the job when the offer doesn't meet their core criteria without trying to improve it. The result? Accepting less than they should. This creates a level of dissatisfaction that can lead to feelings of professional inadequacy. I've also seen plenty of people over-estimate their value and turn down good jobs because they thought they were worth more, or there was a better deal to be had. These individuals also end up feeling inadequate as well. Especially, when they go on to be unable to land a better job.
SOLUTION: Get Clear on 7 & 8 (Then, Use Them to Improve 1-6)
When you can articulate your worth and limits, you can focus on using the other professional competencies to leverage them. Here are some of the things you can do to develop better awareness of your values and limits:
- Every six months, take steps to evaluate your worth in the marketplace. Visit sites like Glassdoor.com, Salary.com & Payscale.com to see what the going rates are for your skill sets. Why so often? Because in this economy, our value is fluctuating frequently. You can be the rockstar of your skill set one month, and then be seen as a 'dime a dozen' the next.
- Construct a strategy to improve your skill sets annually and make sure they are in areas that are growing, not dying.
- Identify your must-haves, nice-to-haves and don't-wants and determine how flexible you can be when negotiating a new job offer, annual review, or promotion. In the heat of the moment, you want to be able to articulate them without hesitation.
It's much easier to market with confidence your skills and abilities when you know what you want to get in exchange for your services. As a business-of-one, the goal is to work "with" a company, not "for" it.
How do you assess your worth and limits?
I'd love to hear how readers are making sure they are on-target with these professional competencies.
If you want to read more of what I've written, check out my articles on Inc.com.
P.S. - First time reading my posts? Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Not only do I write for Linkedin, but I'm also founder of a popular career advice site,CAREEREALISM,and currently run the career coaching program,CareerHMO. I hope you'll check them both out!
If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also like:
CAREEREALISM’s Founder, J.T. O’Donnell is a nationally syndicated career expert and workplace consultant who helps American workers of all ages find greater professional satisfaction. Her book, CAREEREALISM: The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career, outlines her highly successful career-coaching methodology. Purchase her e-book of CAREEREALISM for only $9.95 by clicking here !
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Sales Coordinator at Robertson Inc.
9 年Great article! We have all been in situations where what we think our worth should be have compromised our limits. However, as long as we continue learning and developing within those limits, only then our worth will be acknowledged.
"Versatile Growth Hacker | Customer Success Expert | Soft Skills Trainer | MNC & International Voice Process Expert | LinkedIn Speaker | Back to Hack, Ready to Deliver!"
9 年Highly meaningful insight and guide to make the needed changes Appreciate and do the right things right and become bright like a shinning light ! Appreciate it immensely .
Project Manager
9 年It's lists like this that help keep me focused (and sane!) when everything around me is in upheaval. Sometimes, you need to step back and look at the original goal to 1) determine if it needs to change or 2) am I still heading in the right direction! Thanks, J.T.! ;-)
Public Transportation Tribal Liaison, Washington State Department of Transportation; State Manager, Rural Transportation Assistance Prog
9 年Thanks J. T. Having been on the journey for a time now, I'm not sure why it hadn't occurred to me to list my priorities in my next position. Great reminders.
Controller
9 年Great article, solid advice, thank you!