Making Yourself More Valuable

Has your company recovered from the economic downturn? How has it affected your training function? How has it affected you personally? How secure is your job? Even companies that have had “no layoff” policies for years find themselves in the position of needing to lay people off in order to cut costs. For most companies it is a required part of cost cutting to survive. It is not fun and in most cases, it is not taken lightly.

This article is largely about making yourself more valuable – to you and whatever organization you work with – either now or in the future. It can also serve as a roadmap to helping your organization be more competitive and to move from survive to thrive.

There are three skills sets that are required for people to be effective wherever they are, in the organization: Technical Skills, Functional Skills, and Personal Skills. As an employee, technical skills are critical. As one moves up the ladder, however, they become less important. For example, one who manages an information systems department does not need to have the same comprehensive set of programming skills that a programmer does.

Functional skills such as planning, staffing, organizing, delegating, etc. are less important at an employee level and become critical as you move up the organization ladder. The skills that remain constant are the people skills. Andre Carnegie, founder of Bethlehem Steel and at one time the richest man in the world said that he would pay more for someone who knew how to work with people than for any other skill. If anything, the need for these personal skills grows as we move up the organizational ladder.

Many times, we refer to personal skills as “soft skills”. Beginning today, let me encourage you to call them Core Skills! Let me suggest ten that each of us should be developing and then I’ll recommend a resource for you. Today, as never before, your organization needs you (and other employees) who can:

1. Make and keep commitments. This means that a “yes” is a “yes” and a “no” is a “no”. Many people make promises and don’t follow through. Or they over promise and under deliver. What if you and all the employees in your organization were known as people who made commitments and kept them. Do you think this would help you gain a competitive advantage?

2. Face each day with a positive attitude. It’s been said that we burn three times as much energy when thinking negatively as when thinking positively. What if you and each person in your organization looked for ways things could be done, instead of reasons why they couldn’t? What if we looked at the potentials and possibilities, instead of the problems?

3. Persist until you succeed. Most people quit one step short of success. Thomas Edison, who failed ten thousand times, before successfully creating a practical, sustainable light bulb said most people would not have failed if they had simply tried one more time.

4. Have a clear positive self-image. For years, I have sold and conducted a program that thousands of others could sell and conduct as well. My price was even a bit higher. There were always those that were willing to cut the price a bit – even a lot – just to make a sale. I didn’t. When asked what justified the difference I said, “All other things being equal, you get me with this.” I didn’t say it to brag or be boastful. My attitude was the same at 25 that it is at 55. What I mean is that I’m committed to getting you results, not just selling you a product. That attitude, that self-concept, that commitment, is worth the difference.

5. Multiply your value 100 fold. Many people focus on the MDR – the Minimum Daily Requirement, that is, what is the least I can do and still get by. My focus is on what is the most we can give to add value to whatever we do. For example, in 2003, at ASTD’s International Conference in New Orleans and at our own “Creative Training Techniques” Fall Event I led a special pre-conference session titled: Training and Performance Solutions: 514 Ways to Increase the Impact and Results of Your Training Performance. In preparing for this, I asked myself, what is the highest value I could deliver to this group? The conclusion was an interactive session based on the needs of those actually attending. I went back through over thirty years of files to pull together 20 modules of in-depth content that could be covered. I ended up with a 500 plus page manual that goes to the participants as a resource. In this way, I multiply my value 100 fold.

Over 100 years ago a nurse in a Boston “poorhouse” got in the habit of eating her lunch in the basement next to a cage that held a girl who was considered little more than an animal. The poorhouse was a home for charity cases, and the little girl was there with the mentally ill, with prostitutes, and with people who could not maintain functioning lives in the society of that day. The girl’s name was little Annie. Little Annie had contracted trachoma, a disease of the eyes, when she was about 5. This disorder is not unusual where there is poor hygiene, and Anne's situation was not good. She was physically strong, but the disease was left untreated and she gradually lost her vision, although she was never totally blind.
Each day the nurse talked to her as she ate lunch. Eventually the nurse talked officials in to bringing little Annie upstairs where she was eventually rehabilitated.

50 years late a woman was receiving from the Queen of England the highest honor England can bestow on a non-citizen. She was asked how a woman both blind and deaf could have accomplished all that she had with such handicaps. Helen Keller replied that it would not have been possible without her teacher, Anne Sullivan – little Annie. Here was an apparently insignificant woman, a nurse, who made an apparently insignificant impact on a little girl, Anne Sullivan, who made an impact on a little girl, Helen Keller, who made an impact on millions. The nurse multiplied her value 100 fold.

I’m out of space for now. I’ll give you the other five next time. If you want to put into practice some of what we talked about in this article let me know and I'll give you some additional tips, strategies, and resources.

Until next time -- add value and make a difference!