How to record value¶
One of the most valuable things you can do is get in the habit of thinking about the value you generate.
The premise is simple. You will not get ahead in your career because you have skills or experience, or because you did your job well, or worked very hard. What will count in the end is value - the value that you create and the value that someone judges that you will bring.
The importance of demonstrating value¶
The best thing you can do for yourself is demonstrate the value you create. An example is in your CV, where showing your value is key.
But, it is not always easy to think like this. We tend to think how hard we worked, how good our intentions were, how much care we put in. We think less often about the value that came out of our efforts.
Value also isn’t really easy to define, though it’s very recognisable when you see it. The best way to arrive at it is through the question: what changed, in a positive way, because of something I did?
Having examples to demonstrate¶
When applying for a job you will need to have multiple examples of value ready to hand, to answer questions and to show how you will behave in the situations that you’ll have to face. And when you’re in a job, the question of the value you bring will come up over and over again: when you have a period performance or pay review, when you apply for a promotion, when you make a request for something.
Collect your examples in a structured way, that shows what you did and why it mattered:
Effort |
Value |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Action |
Started |
Result |
Noted |
Sphere |
Arranged lunchtime science study-groups for fellow students before final exams |
Jun 2017 |
Even the ones who had expected to do badly got good passes; I got all A1s |
Aug 2007 |
My education |
Organised a campaign for better recycling facilities in our apartment building |
Dec 2017 |
Building management provided proper containers/reliable collection for recyclables |
Feb 2017 |
Social responsibility |
Defined an engineering team protocol for responding to customer feedback |
Apr 2019 |
Three top customers mentioned delight at having engineering directly in the loop |
Jul 2015 |
Team function |
Rewrote all the tutorials for the product |
Jul 2019 |
We saw a 20% drop in common new-user support requests in three months |
Nov 2017 |
Customer focus |
Gave a presentation about inconsistencies in our CLI design to the team |
Aug 2022 |
CTO agreed it needed addressing (a priority); was improved before the next release |
Sep 2022 |
Product focus |
Raised a concern about communication style of a senior colleague |
Jan 2023 |
Manager agreed it was an issue; colleague was offered training but decided to leave |
Jan 2023 |
Speaking up |
Why use this structure¶
The structure is important. First of all, it separates the effort - the action you took - from the value - the result you obtained. They are different dimensions of what you did.
To a certain extent the effort is your perception of what you did - your story - but the result is an objective - literally measurable if possible - thing that you brought about in the world. Any observer should be able to agree on the result.
The sphere is the third dimension. It’s the bigger picture or the values, that give the result meaning. They are why you took the action and why we care about the result. You should be able to say “I believe in…” of each of them.
It’s important to include the sphere. One reason is that it helps you see more clearly where you are succeeding in creating value and where perhaps not - for example, you might notice that you don’t have good examples of helping others. And, putting each one in a particular sphere this way helps remind you, when you need to come up with an example, why the things you have done matter.
Include the date you started the effort, just to make sure you can pin it down in time and give it firm reality in your mind, and the date you noted the result - when you reflected on what you did and its value, and decided it was something you should be proud to have associated with you.
In interviews you will hear many questions that start: “Tell me about a time when…” - when is an important questions, and being able to be confident and precise about when gives your answers credibility and value.
Why you need to do this¶
It’s important to get in the habit of thinking about the things you do in terms of value, and to create for yourself a record of them. You might imagine you will remember these things, but you will not. What is more, the act of recording them as advised is what will help frame actions and incidents that you can actually use.
You will find that you go back to this record again and again.
In interviews you will be asked questions like:
Tell me about a time when…
How would you deal with…
Can you give me an example of…
Everyone has examples from their work and life that they could use to illustrate a time when they demonstrated customer focus, or show how they would how they would deal with a difficult colleague, or give an example of helping improve a a team process. But unless they have a way of recording those examples, that helps keep them alive in their minds, it won’t actually happen.
In work, you will have performance reviews, in which you’re asked to reflect on your own performance. Being armed with specific, concrete examples that illustrate the qualities you want to show and the progress you have made helps you do that much more effectively. It’s one thing to say “I am pleased with the progress I made to understand our team priorities better” and really quite another to have an example that shows it.
Career advancement hinges on successful demonstration of value; this is a way of making sure that the demonstration of it is not left to chance.