The other day I read an article by Kelly Barner titled “What if there is no value in what you’re doing?”
While Barner was posing this question from the standpoint of being a procurement professional, it is nonetheless a powerful yet simple question that all of us at one point should be asking ourselves. After all, and regardless of whether we are talking about our employers or clients or for that matter our personal relationships, I believe that we need to truly assess our impact on others to better understand our value proposition.
For example, why would a client wish to continue to deal with you if you fail to meet their needs on a consistent basis? Why would your present employer keep you on the payroll if they could not clearly identify how your efforts contributed to their bottom line?
It is at this point that Barner introduces the important difference between performing an important task and creating value. According to Barner, “if you are struggling to define value for your organization or to demonstrate measurably that you have created it,” the problem may be your area of focus.
In the following excerpt from my new book The Future of You! Creating Your Enduring Brand, I talk about this disconnect between fulfilling a task and establishing your value;
Over the years I have seen many careers take an unexpected turn toward the unemployment line. The reason was also fairly simple. The individuals, while experienced and talented, had lost sight of how their unique abilities were valued by the organizations for whom they worked. In other words, they lost sight of how they solved their company’s or client’s problems and thus failed to make an indelible and enduring mark. In essence, they failed to build a legacy based on filling a tangible need.
So here is my question to you . . . what tangible need are you filling for your employer or client? How are you able to clearly demonstrate this value?
In Part 2 of this post I will delve deeper into how you not only find a need and fill it (thank you Ruth Stafford Peale), but demonstrate it in a manner that enables you to make your own indelible and enduring mark.
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Procurement Insights 
Kelly Barner
May 17, 2013
Thank you Roz – it is always interesting to see how an idea from one profession or discipline translates to another!
I think you’ve called out an important tension that exists in the creation of value: while we all need to ‘get it done’ in order to add value, checking those items off our daily to-do list is not value in and of itself. We all profess to want to create value or be more strategic, but we have to leave our comfort zone in order to do so. There is no value without risk, and so each one of us needs to find an opportunity to take ‘the road less traveled by’ (thank you Robert Frost) in order to make a difference.
At the same time, as you accurately point out, you will lose clients if you don’t also meet their regular needs on a daily basis. Balancing the need to stay on top of tasks while also going above and beyond to add value is a real challenge. I imagine that is why so few of us are able to do it, at least not as often as we should.
Navdeep Sidhu
May 21, 2013
I think the key word in that is “tangible.” What real value/benefit are you providing that no one else can? What do you bring to the table that makes your existence a necessity the company cannot function without.
Kelly Barner
May 24, 2013
And to your point about tangibility, Navdeep, any value that procurement claims to create must be tracked with metrics that prove the promised benefits are being delivered – even when the money saved or efficiencies uncovered are absorbed back into the business.