How the value of your work is often hidden
John Niland
Supporting professionals to build a powerful professional identity in the Age of A.I., rooted in self-worth and self-belief
Even when you do a great job for your organisation or client, there are many forces that obscure the value of your work.?Few professionals realise how true this is, how the value of their work is often hidden… sometimes by their own communication and behaviour.?
Let’s take a typical example. Monica is a coach who uses her talents and experience to help others make a mid-career pivot, so that their work is more meaningful and inspiring. How does Monica talk about the value of her services??
(In this case, let’s assume that Monica is an independent professional. If she works for an organisation e.g. a coaching company, the risk of hidden value is even higher!)
Here are a few of the ways in which Monica is quite likely to discuss her services, depending on her preferred communication style.?
a) Talking through her coaching bio and qualifications. This may include the accreditations she possesses, the courses she has done, the number of year’s experience she possesses, the authors and thought-leaders with whom she is connected, etc.
b) Her values and sense of purpose: perhaps narrated via her own personal story of career transformation, or the vision that motivates her coaching practice.?
c) The nature of the relationship she forms with her clients; including the way they describe Monica e.g. as an “inspiring activator of ideas”, a “trusted sounding-board” or a “nurturer of deep, reflective space”.?
d) Her philosophy of life and work, perhaps supported by a methodology, a series of resources and/or a program.?
***The value problem: while all of these may be interesting (even touching), they do not even come close to describing the value of Monica’s work. ***
What is missing?
?
Understanding Value
The value of anything is the difference it makes: the reason why it’s important.? For a host of reasons, this “difference” is often invisible.? For example, in Monica’s case…
> the “difference” (or beneficial effects) often happen after the coaching engagement. For example, a new level of confidence (arising from work with Monica) may only flower into opportunity after several months.
> the positive impact can easily go unnoticed by the client. As soon as they have solved a problem, busy professionals often move on to the next priority. This is particularly true in our current hectic world. So, the value of work often disappears as soon as a problem is solved.??
> even when beneficial effects are noticed, the link to Monica’s work might not be self-evident. For example, the client might see that “the opportunities are coming from an alliance partner”, forgetting that it was the insights developed via work with Monica that connected the partner to the client in the first place.?
Even when value is evident, it can quickly turn into expectation, even entitlement. This is well summed up in the following aphorisms:
领英推荐
The first time you do something for free……You create Appreciation
The second time you do something for free……You create Anticipation
The third time you do something for free……You create Expectation
The fourth time you do something for free……You create Entitlement
The fifth time you do something for free……You create Dependency
Hidden Value
Our next webinar on Tuesday April 30th is “11 ways that most professionals devalue their work ”, In this session, we will dig into practical examples, exploring the pitfalls that nearly all of us have fallen into, often arising from deep values around excellence and service.?
This webinar will cover:?
- 11 of the most common ways that professionals diminish their value
- how to spot and correct these behaviours in your career or business
- examples of how self-worth makes a tangible difference
- 4 tips for interviews: to make subsequent negotiation easier
- 5 practical habits to incorporates into your day-to-day conversations with clients and prospects?
? John Niland, April 2024. For enquiries about John as coach or speaker, on topics of self-worth and professional identity, see www.selfworthacademy.com or email [email protected]