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Know Your Value: How to Recognize Your Worth and Communicate It at Work · Unspoken Career Truths

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  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
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  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert.
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  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
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  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
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  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
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  so you can show up with confidence at work.
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  Hey Cara, how's it going? Good.
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  Today we're going to talk about something.
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  It starts with AV. What do you think it is?
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  Well, I know what it is, but it should be something clever to
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  guess that starts with the victories.
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  Yeah, that would be funny if we talked about victories,
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  actually. It's value, and you didn't know,
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  so I guess my joke fell flat. But value, I think it's a word
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  that carries a lot of weight and a lot of power.
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  And I think it's one that many people think about often in
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  their professional life and their personal life in so many
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  different ways. How am I bringing value?
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  What value do I bring to my role?
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  What value do I bring to my family or my relationships?
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  Like it's a very, it's a small world word, but it's a very
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  complicated word. And I think it can be really
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  tricky how you like measure it or how you feel value, how you
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  feel valued or your principles or standards and like how you
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  how we associate it with worth. I think that's why it's like
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  such a strong word that people think about.
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  I don't know. What do you think, Cara?
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  How do you? Well, you know, what's funny is
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  I just recently learned that the phrase pursuit of happiness that
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  Thomas Jefferson put into our Constitution isn't necessarily
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  what we think of as happiness, where we're like, yeah, like,
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  just do something fun. He actually would have meant it
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  in the, in the way of like when you're when you are fulfilled,
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  when you're doing something that's fulfilling.
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  And so hearing you talk about like value, I'm thinking a lot
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  about that same thing where you might say like value.
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  It's when you buy, you know, a multi pack and you save some
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  money. But then there's another way to
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  think about value, especially at work where it's like, are you
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  contributing? Are you feeling valued?
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  Are you feeling like you're fulfilling a purpose or a
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  meaning in your life? I love that Cara and I think
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  that's super important. And that's like another
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  dimension of value, right? Like do you feel like you're
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  being fulfilled, but also are you bringing that value
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  externally as well when you're at work or in your personal life
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  and, and all of those different aspects.
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  So that's what we're going to focus on today.
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  And from a professional standpoint, I think it's very
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  heavily associated with like things like imposter syndrome,
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  right? Because if you don't know your
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  value or you don't feel your value in an organization, one,
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  it's hard to expect others to kind of recognize it.
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  And also it's hard for you to kind of be your, your best at
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  work because you might be questioning things when maybe
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  you don't need to. And so it can, it can create a
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  really challenge and challenging dynamic.
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  I don't know, Clara. Have you ever experienced that?
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  Well, it's interesting. I'm thinking about how there's
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  different ways that people feel valued.
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  And so I like as a manager, it was really interesting for me
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  when at different places asking people the question of like,
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  what makes you feel valued? Because it's not always a raise.
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  And some people it's like, hey, I need to kind of hear feedback
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  daily. You sort of like realize it,
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  like I should be checking in and telling people they're valuable
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  every day so that they feel part of the community.
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  And so again, like you're saying, it's really easy to kind
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  of second guess yourself or to not even know how other people
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  and what kind of feedback they need to feel valued.
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  And it, it makes such a difference when you are going to
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  a place where you know you're contributing and where you know,
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  you feel, you know that other people are glad to see you when
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  you come through the door or glad to see you when you pop up
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  in a meeting or glad for the thing you do and they're
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  thanking you for it. So I think that is a piece of
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  value. And then of course, we do all
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  still also want the raise and the communication of what you've
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  actually contributed to the business.
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  I think that's such a great point, Cara.
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  You know, it reminds me of the love languages, you know, the
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  like 4 love languages, right? Like it's really important when
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  you're in a personal relationship to understand like
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  how the other piece person feels loved.
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  And I think from a work standpoint, that's super
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  important too, whether it's you and your manager or you and your
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  team, like really understanding what drives them, what makes
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  them feel good. Because to your point, Cara,
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  everybody's different, right? Like, yeah.
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  And it on big and small scales. Like some people love swag.
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  And like, I could care less about swag, but I love
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  compliments. And like, you tell me a
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  compliment or you write something down that I did well,
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  like, I'm happy. So yeah.
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  No, I absolutely love that. Yeah.
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  Like for me, I like to be recognized for my work, right?
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  Like, and I like people to acknowledge it.
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  I'm also medium on swag, but you know, like recognition and also
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  like getting the credit for the work that you've done.
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  Like that's really big for me. So for everybody listening, I
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  would encourage you to ask your team what makes your team feel
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  valued and really understand that and start putting it into
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  practice. And I think you'll see the teams
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  operate even at a higher caliber because they're feeling like
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  they're valued and they're part of the team.
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  Yeah, and honestly, like having your team vote on things like,
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  would they rather a pizza party? Would they rather a gift cards?
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  Would they rather a competition? Like different teams are
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  different. And when you can do something
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  that's a collective reward for the group, that can be really
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  powerful. I love that example.
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  So I always won something, a very small team.
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  And you know how you usually have like team retreats, right,
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  Where you either do planning or everybody goes somewhere and
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  does something fun. We talked about it and we were
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  like, what would we want to do that would make us feel like
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  connected but also give us time to like reset.
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  And since it was a small team, we went to a spa and we did
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  yoga. And I was like, I've never done
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  this from a work perspective, but because we were small, it's
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  easier when you're a smaller team.
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  We could do that. But it was so true to who we
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  were as a team and how we approach things.
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  And so it felt really great and I felt super valued and we came
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  together and connected. Yeah, one of my favorites is I
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  was on a team where we had snacks in the office all the
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  time, but we would run these little like weekly things where
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  when it was your week you could pick the snack mix and it was
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  like weird snack mixes. So mine for example is Fritos
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  and Junior Mints and like. I just so many questions Cara.
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  But everyone secretly maybe not has this weird mix of stuff and
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  so you could just kind of like pick your salty and you're sweet
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  and your whatever flavors and not mix them together for your
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  team. But everyone then sort of
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  enjoyed and got to know you in a different way.
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  It was very fun. A lot of follow up questions but
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  I'm gonna leave that one there. But I do love Junior Mints.
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  So let's talk about how can you get clear on value for for
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  yourself. And then I think we hit on some
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  for if you're a manager and you have a team.
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  So definitely asking them how they feel valued, but for you
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  tracking your impact, right? And that can be like a list of
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  wins. It can be a list of projects.
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  It can be a list of the times that you felt like you were
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  adding value or you felt great in your role or you felt like
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  you were contributing. I think it's important to really
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  kind of write those things down just so that you remember them,
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  right, because it's end of year review time.
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  I know I was just writing mine a week or so ago and it's hard to
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  remember back. But I have this document where I
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  write all these things down. And if I ever get like an
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  accolade or someone says something or says, Hey, I really
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  like this because of XY or ZI put it in that document so that
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  I can look and I can review. And it, it makes it easier to
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  remember everything you've done and the impact you've made
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  versus trying to like, be like, what did I do like 3 months ago?
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  Yeah. And one of the things as we're
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  talking about value, I'm also thinking about the values you
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  have. And many like, for me, a lot of
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  times noticing something that I've done well also then
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  contributes back to like the rubric of either what my job
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  description is, which makes filling out yourself assessments
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  really easier because you can also kind of say, OK, did I
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  actually meet these kind of goals and not just what you kind
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  of guessed you would meet at, but was I just fulfilling the
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  job buckets? But then also kind of what do
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  you value? Because it's really easy to also
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  look at all these external factors.
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  But it's things like if it's important to you, to, you know,
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  show up as your whole authentic self at work, no one's going to
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  really reward or call that out. But if it's important to you, it
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  might still be worthwhile keeping track of when you've
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  done that really well and you can reflect on it and still like
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  your job or whatever that you know is to you.
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  If it's, you know, doing something nice for Co workers,
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  building out like community there whatever those values,
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  other values that you might have in addition to the actual value
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  of the job description. I think that's an.
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  That's an excellent point, Cara, because I think value, like I
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  said, has many different dimensions.
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  So another thing you can do is also ask for feedback.
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  So I'm going to go back to the yearly review.
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  If you have a yearly review, a lot of times you get peer
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  feedback, right? So asking other people like what
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  do you see as my strengths or how did I make the most impact
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  on you this year for this project we worked on or
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  something like that? I think it's important also to
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  have to see yourself through other people's eyes, because
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  sometimes we can be super critical and it can be really
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  hard to see what value we're driving or how we're creating
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  impact. But it's much clearer for other
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  people and you want to get that feedback and you want to hear it
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  from them. Yeah, and for anyone who missed
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  last week, we did a whole feedback week.
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  So there's lots of ways to talk about feedback.
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  How to give and how to get. It's a 2 parter.
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  Make sure you listen to that one.
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  And then the other thing, I think from a value perspective,
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  and this is more around what you were saying, Carl, with like job
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  description and things like that, it's really important to
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  know your value in your role and in your organization.
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  So know what your salary range is for your position, know what
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  the job description is for your position in other organizations.
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  Know what skills are required or potentially what new
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  certifications you can get. It's just always important to
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  kind of stay on top of the market as well because the
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  person that you work for or the organization that you work for
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  might not always be looking at those things, But it's important
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  for you to do that so that you can stay on par and also make
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  sure that you're getting paid for the value that you're
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  delivering. Yeah, one thing I didn't
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  realize, like early in my career was how different job titles can
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  be from company to company. Depending on.
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  Size, yeah, and some companies are really strict about it and
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  they have all these levels and they really cap what you can
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  make depending on what your title is.
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  But then when you move from somewhere else where maybe
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  you've had a title, they're kind of briefly looking maybe at your
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  company's size and guessing at what level you are.
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  So if you have a good sense of, well, here's what other roles
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  that sound like me but may have different titles are, it's
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  actually really helpful to be in conversation when you're job
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  hunting to then have that, well, this is what it's similar to
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  another kind of organization or a different organization.
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  It might be called this, but here's what my scope of work
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  was. So understanding that it's not
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  going to be just a quick like job title and then you're going
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  to know your salary right away. So just to kind of sum it all
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  up, make sure that you know your value, you know your values, and
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  you know what makes your team feel valued.
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  So many different aspects. And when we're talking about the
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  word value, but maybe write down this week three things that you
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  felt were really impactful, where you felt valued or how you
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  felt valued. And then maybe ask a colleague,
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  because it's end of your time, about how they saw you creating
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  impact on a project or what some of your strengths were, and
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  you'll see all of those little pieces that might not come into
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  view in your own eyes, but through other people's.
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  Hi everyone I wish you all victory with your values.
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  Bye. That's a wrap.
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  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
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