Careerist, Entrepreneur

Don’t Think You’re Valuable? Think Again.

Posted by Ryan Paugh on March 19, 2008 at 4:11 am.

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Editor’s Note: This post on understanding your strengths is from Ryan Paugh, who writes about millennial workplace issues at his blog, Employee Evolution.

As a twenty-something, one reality we face is that we really can’t be anything we want to be. Between our parents, teachers, and Walt Disney, it was easy to believe the lie, but when reality finally sets in, limitations become pretty obvious.

Take me for example. I’ll never be an all-star football player. And as much as I’d love to strut my stuff as a pro-athlete, I wouldn’t make it through a day. But just because I shouldn’t be on the field doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be passionate about the game.

The same idea can be applied to anything we do in our lives. If we have a passion, but the shoe doesn’t seem to fit, there’s typically a way to harness your strengths and contribute in some way.

As a first-time entrepreneur, I’ve learned a lot about myself in a short period of time. I’m not very business savvy and I generally suck with numbers. So when I had to find a way to bring value to the table in my new career I was initially stuck.

I soon discovered that just because I wasn’t one of the key players, I was still a valuable member of the team. While the business side was off doing “business stuff,” I was covering the communication aspects of the business, dealing with people and fixing glitches that only I knew how to handle.

Accepting that I didn’t have to be a front man in order to be valuable made my career a lot more rewarding. And I can confidently say that without my work the business wouldn’t be running as smooth.

A lot of people will argue that you can’t survive in a business where core competencies are not your strengths. But don’t sell yourself short. There’s always a way to be valuable, even if you’re not the captain of the team.

Here’s a few places t start:

Know what you hate, but more importantly, know what you like.

If you know you hate finance, don’t do finance. But if you’re passionate about working with other people, go out of your way to help somebody every day.

Make what you love doing the focal point of your job. Do it right, and people will take notice of how valuable you truly are.

Keep learning! And listen to the critics.

Some people honestly believe that if they’re an expert there’s nothing left to be learned. Not only are these people delusional, but they usually know a lot less than they thought.

Always seize opportunities to learn and grow. Whether it’s reading, writing, blogging or just taking good criticisms to heart, constant cultivation will put you on top.

Study the people around you. Know their weaknesses.

One way that you can see how valuable you really are is by noticing where other people fall short of perfection. If you notice someone sucking at something, offer to pick up the slack.

In a solid team environment this type of interaction will work in everyone’s benefit. But if you have an office do-it-all on your hands, that’s a completely different story.

Editor’s Note: I’m running a contest this week at Twenty Set, and every comment on this post (and all others for this week) counts as an entry.  Please review the prizes here.  Thanks!

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  • I especially like the 'know what you like' point, cause that's where we're likely to shine. I feel that. It's so hard to do more than just satisfactory work in something we find unimportant or mundane.

    To really show your value you need to push back one's frustration, and just do it as if you love it. Somehow, love it all.
  • TH,

    Exactly. What's really important is to find the things you love and make sure they're the focus of what you do.

    If you do that, success is likely to follow.

    -RP
  • Amy
    I'm actually doing research on how Millennials conduct research and how they use library resources. I'm a Millennial librarian in an academic library. I think "Keep Learning! And listen to the critics" is most important. It is essential to continue learning and prospering in our given fields. Blogs was a great place to start. I love adding subscriptions to my RSS feed. It helps me to stay on top of my game by reading other people's ideas, successes, and failures. I feel lucky to work in a field where professional development is deemed important because libraries have an obligation to stay current with tech. trends and generational changes.
  • Ryan,

    To keep learning is the key to success at any level. When we hired our first round of employees, I learned a great deal by listening to them, their experiences and their thoughts. While they may be coming to work for our team, the openness we have to learning from them is making us, in essence, a stronger team.

    Also knowing your role, your strengths and what you like and hate was something we under evaluated. After we realized that we would be stronger as a team performing tasks each individual is good at/loves, things started moving much quicker. and more productive. I hate finance too, so I outsourced it to a guy that loves a good money challenge and I can focus on the music and SEO world that drive my creative genes.

    Glad to see that you are still building community relations by guest posting, joining conversations and meeting new internet faces everyday. That is a key component to bringing value to your company!
  • Rory
    "Make what you love doing the focal point of your job. Do it right, and people will take notice of how valuable you truly are."

    While I think this is a great point, to some extent it isn't applicable to every job. For example I can try to focus on the parts of my job that I love, but in reality the parts I love are few and far between so I'm probably better off just finding a new job!

    I suppose what you are writing about is based on the assumption that you are already in a job you generally like, in which case you're advice is very good :-)
  • @Rory - in which case, focus on where your value is (is the message I got from Ryan), even if/when you're searching for a new job.

    I go through some pretty bummer stretches at work, but it's amazing how that 'good' work can revitalize you, and even help you push for better quality on that crap that no one's going to see anyway.

    Don't mean to try to answer for Ryan, but today was the day I negotiated a raise, and focussed on the future value aspect - managers love seeing that you're taking charge of your own value and strong-points.
  • Rory
    @t h rive - you make a really good point! I agree that the times when I am able to do the fun stuff, it gives me a new energy on the job that carries me through some of the rough patches... I just wish the rough patches were much shorter!
  • Hi Greg,

    Thanks for the comments. This whole guest posting thing is actually a lot of fun for me because I get to see the BC community from all angles. Thanks to Monica for letting me write it.

    Maybe I can make a cameo on Rollett Marketing next!

    Rory,

    Maybe you do need a new job. The concept here is to do what makes you happy and if you're not getting enough of what you love out of what you do, then by all means get out of there..

    But before you do, step back and see if you can approach things differently. Sometimes we're so frustrated about our current situation that we walk away without really trying to make things better.
  • Great comments, and thanks again Ryan for writing this.

    What I love about this post is the concept of everyone doing the work they are best at. Teamwork. Steve Pavlina wrote about a book called Life on Purpose awhile back that talks about this very concept. The #1 rule to living a life with purpose is:

    Become Incredibly Selfish - Spend your days with 'in the beam' activities–those activities that are full expressions of your life purpose–and delegate 'out of the beam' activities to other people who will find those activities to be 'in their beam.'

    Penelope, Ryan, and Ryan write about the group dynamics of their startup business a lot and it's really cool that they are willing to share with everyone how they achieve this. It's something we should all strive for in our families, work groups, and other relationships.
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