The key to career success? Knowing and communicating your value

In the corporate world, it takes more than just doing your job well to climb the career ladder. Many deserving people find themselves overlooked and underappreciated, despite being valuable contributors.

So, what sets the successful people apart? You know, those people who get the recognition and the opportunities? It’s not *just* that they were a commercial trainee! ;-) (Although graduate programmes do help, they are not enough on their own!)

The key lies in effectively communicating your value to the right people.

Communicating your contributions and the value of them is THE critical thing that separates those that climb the ladder from those that don’t.

The Importance of Clear Communication

Imagine you have a treasure trove of skills, accomplishments, and ideas (you do!). If no one knows about them, they may as well not exist. Your superiors and decision-makers need to understand the true extent of what you do – and *could* do - and the difference it makes. By communicating that clearly, you provide them with the knowledge and insights necessary to recognise your contributions.

You help them to help you.

Making Your Accomplishments Visible

One of the fundamental aspects of this is about making your accomplishments visible. It's not enough to quietly deliver; your accomplishments will not speak for themselves in most jobs.?It’s only when things go wrong that people proactively notice.

So, ensure your achievements are known and appreciated by the relevant stakeholders!

Keep track of your successes, big and small, and share them with your managers, colleagues etc.?It doesn’t have to be icky! In a 1:1 with your manager, just stating the facts of what you did and the outcome will make your wins clear.

And this demonstrates your value and contributions.

Helping them to help you.

Crafting Your Value Proposition

Those of you in marketing will know about a value proposition.?What sets you apart from others? What do you bring to the table that others may not? And why is that valuable?

It could be your sales experience.?It could be your experience in a parallel industry. It could be your experience in R&D projects.

Develop a concise statement that captures the essence of your value proposition, highlighting your unique strengths and how this impacts the workplace.

And this helps stakeholders see why you are an asset to the team.

Helping them to help you.

Tailoring Your Message to the Audience

An important part of effective communication is knowing your audience. Different people have different priorities, so it's essential to adapt your communication to emphasise the aspects that resonate most with each individual or group.

By speaking to their needs, you can customise your value proposition to demonstrate how you can contribute to their success.

Result? You and your message are more impactful and they see what you offer more clearly.

Helping them to help you.

Who has your back?

As well as communication skills, you need advocates – people who will vouch for you and talk you up. ?

This isn’t a case of sucking up to people – this is just about building working relationships of mutual respect.?So get involved in those cross-functional projects, those mentoring programmes, those networking events.

The more people that know about you and your strengths, the more likely people will advocate for you.

But I hate people who brag...

For many of us, talking about ourselves is uncomfortable, to say the least.?

And positively frowned on in our childhoods! (Anyone else raised being told not to show off? Not just me then!)

This isn’t about bragging or showing off.?It’s about learning how to just articulate what you have done and what were the results of that.

Trust me, the people in power don’t like show offs either.?Those that advance aren’t showing off.?They are just stating an accurate sequence of actions, with the positive outcomes.

If you care about the company you work for, you want the right people getting the roles with influence.?And the way to make sure of that is to help those that make decisions know what you have achieved.

Help them to help you.

In summary

Nowadays, just doing great work is not enough to get recognition and promotions. You have to be visible and make your value visible.

You do this by:

• communicating your accomplishments
• creating a ‘YOU’ value proposition
• tailoring your message to the audience
• building those respectful relationships

?Get all this right and you help decision-makers to help you get the opportunities you always deserved.?

An action to take: in your next 1:1 with your manager, share 3 recent achievements that they might not know about. And see how good it feels.