Value: Avoiding WTAF in the First Place

This week, I’m revisiting one of the most impactful posts from the early days of my Substack newsletter – "Value: Avoiding WTAF in the first place." Value is a pillar of my signature VIEW framework. This cornerstone post explores lessons learned from one of my most challenging career experiences and how understanding value can help avoid the dreaded "WTAF" moment.

Since the original post was published over seven months ago (time flies!) more than 600 new readers have joined us in asking “WTAF are we doing here?” on LinkedIn and on Substack. Thank you for subscribing, reading, and being part of this journey.

Whether you're a long-time subscriber or new to WTAF, I invite you to reflect on how you realize value in your ecosystems and what steps you can take to create clarity, find autonomy, and build trust. I hope you enjoy this post - it is one of my favorites!

Valuably yours,

Leah

Value: Avoiding WTAF in the First Place

One of the most formative professional experiences I’ve had was working on consulting engagements known as Value Based Deals, or VBDs for short. These programs were intended to provide consulting services that realized actual, tangible, quantifiable benefits for clients (think beaucoup bucks CapEx and OpEx savings for Fortune 100 companies) without upfront payment. This was particularly appealing during the economic downturn in 2008 and the aftermath, but was only a good proposition if my team could actually deliver.

These experiences were some of the most challenging work I did in my career due to the high expectations, intense pressure, and rigorous pace. I’ve been thinking about VBDs in the context of WTAF: If we know what we’re here to do, and establish a means to do it, perhaps we won’t be left saying “what the actual fuck am I doing here?” The ability to channel our energy toward what we know will be truly rewarding and additive to our goals reminds us, ah, yes, THIS is what I’m doing here. We create more leverage because we are trusted and contribute valuably to collective goals. We make progress toward our own ultimate destination. Focusing on our value can help define what is authentic and beneficial to ourselves.

These Value Based Deals were high risk programs front-loaded with premium staff and work. Lots of work. When executed correctly, the VBDs delivered huge savings for clients, and a generous share of the savings as payment for the firm (ideally a phenomenal ROI).

To be successful in this type of engagement, leaders and teams needed to be savvy, innovative and focused on mitigating risks. I focused on delivering, and actually realizing value for clients (e.g. bringing real savings dollars in the door, not just a theoretical plan), and thereby increased our value through the effort and trust built during the programs. Basically, my team had a huge target, took on a large addressable scope to find savings, negotiated terms allowing great autonomy, and ensured trust with clients through structure and transparency.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve taken from these experiences and how I’ve applied this thinking personally throughout my own career. Start with Clarity (what value will you deliver?), establish Autonomy (how will you set yourself up for success?) and build Trust (how can you partner to reach your goals?). Think of this as a framework to take control of your time, your worth, your success and realize your own value.

Clarity | What value will you deliver?

The clarity started from the top: VBDs were structured through long, rigorous negotiations with our clients that left no ambiguity about how much would be targeted as savings (outcome), how long it would take (timeline), roles and responsibilities of all parties involved (accountability). Once the deal was signed, the managers and team were brought into the decision with full awareness of the mission and expectations. This clarity allowed everyone to be focused on what they had to do to be successful to achieve the outcome.

How to channel a clarity mindset for ourselves

By making expectations and desired outcomes clear, we know what good looks like and have a direction to move in. You’ll know what you can contribute - what value you deliver - in your career or in our communities. We may not know how to achieve this ultimate outcome (yet) but will be able to figure out the next right thing to do to start down a path and know who to ask for help and guidance along the way. Start by exploring:

• Who are the stakeholders of your success? Who really benefits when you do a great job? What outcomes are they looking for? What is success for them? This is like my client’s goals in the VBDs. How does this translate to your work?
• How do you benefit from your stakeholders’ success? What might you ask for once you contribute to them achieving their goals? This is like the fees the firm collected, the return on that big upfront investment.
• Which of your strengths do you use to do this work? Markus Buckingham explains “a strength is an activity that strengthens you. You often look forward to it and time seems to fly when you’re actually doing it. And when you’re done, you feel proud, satisfied, maybe even energized.”
• What can you look to others to contribute? Consider the areas that aren’t your strengths, the things that drain you or drag you down. These are the areas to off-load, because these take away from delivering your true value.

Autonomy | Set yourself up for success

These programs were structured to give us the most addressable scope possible, meaning if we had a target of saving $100M for a client, we would cast a wide net and make sure we had the most spend in which to find savings. Teams were staffed with the most knowledgeable experts and the most diligent operators. The work was positioned with clear asks of the clients. Our delivery team had access to everything we would need from both the client and the firm and the ability to use these resources how we saw fit to achieve the shared goals of the mission.

How to find autonomy and get control

Identifying the scope you can personally control to achieve an outcome is the key here. Once there is clarity about the work you do, we can build from that scope and explore how you position the most opportunity to be successful. Remember, VBDs are high risk/high reward… Now’s the time to mitigate the risk of failure.

• What is the scope that you can personally control? Can you carve out a clear outcome or goal that you can actually deliver? Knowing what you are able to influence and what is in your control is they key to mitigating risk. Eliminate as much uncertainty and chance as possible.
• What do you need? Time? Space? A green field to start from? A template to build off? Figure out what you need to ask for to deliver your value as quickly as possible. By having the resources available, you can focus on using them to achieve the goal and reap the benefits.
• How do you build the best team? Think about the areas that you feel least confident about, where you may have the least experience or aren’t your strengths. Who can support you by taking on that work? Matthew Syed’s book Rebel Ideas illustrates this concept.

• Who do you need in your corner? Who might be able to provide what you need? Which of your stakeholders can you ask for the resources? Their interest in your success can motivate investment in your work.
• How can you create the most likelihood for success? How can you “cast the widest net” to give yourself the most chance of achieving your goal? How can you get the most tries for success, the most at-bats?
• How do you know when to quit? How do you know when a path isn’t leading to your intended destination or outcome? We used to say “no dry holes”, meaning stop doing work that you know isn’t going to deliver. Do not waste your time or energy pursuing a plan that isn’t going anywhere - cut your losses and concentrate on a more likely path to success.

Trust | Partnering to reach the goal

Creating a trusting partnership was critical to the success of our programs.

• Trust was established before the deal in the proposal phase by demonstrating credibility.
• Trust grew through negotiating the terms of the deal - high risk, high reward; fair terms demonstrated commitment from both sides.
• Trust was solidified through delivery with frequent, transparent conversations about progress - what was working, what wasn’t. How each side could do more to ensure the mutual success of the program. Understanding when to double down for more gains or when to quit because the efforts were not returning results.

I often use the Trust Quotient developed by Trusted Advisor Associates LLC as a framework for building and maintaining trust.

The Trust Quotient reminds us that trustworthiness comes from our credibility (skills and mastery), reliability (consistency), intimacy (familiarity or closeness), and low self-orientation (put others first). Trustworthiness allowed us to deliver the VBD programs repeatedly, often with the same clients.

How to build and grow your trustworthiness

How can you facilitate trust in your relationships? How do you face someone across the table in a negotiation and move to the same side of the table, working together to achieve mutual success?

• Foster transparency and vulnerability. How can you have a real talk about what isn’t working and what appears to be the path to success? Can you be forthcoming about where you want to develop and grow?
• Curate awareness of our perceptions. Being aware of how our own actions and behaviors are perceived by others, and what their actions and behaviors reveal where we stand with each other. Perception is often reality. What can change to move perception to where we want it to be?

“If you don’t like what is being said, change the conversation.” - Don Draper (neé Dick Whitman)

• Consider your TQ. Of course there’s a tool for gauging your trustworthiness. Here’s a link to the Trusted Advisor assessment if you want to give it a whirl. You may need to sign up for a newsletter to get your results - I am not endorsed or affiliated with Trusted Advisor, just think it is a useful tool.

Be Valued for your focus on Value

These value based deals were the most demanding work I did in my consulting career. They were also the most formative and personally valuable work I did in my early career. Through them I learned how to work with and lead a team under high pressure, how to partner and build trust to achieve great rewards, and how to deliver what is truly valuable. These are the lessons and relationships that formed my perspective on how to do work that matters, and how to be valued for my focus on value.