I have said this repeatedly to myself over the years – "…you become valuable only when you add value to others". It is like a personal 'mantra' or credo that I try to live by. And, I ask everyone who comes to me for leadership guidance, to do the same.
If you can improve yourself, the processes in your company, and if you can help your colleagues, you instantly become valuable at your workplace. The key for success is the ability to focus on continuous personal and organisational improvement.
In management philosophy, especially in the manufacturing sector, there is a concept called the 'Principles of Lean'. In simple parlance, these principles focus on creating more value for customers with fewer resources. Or in short, it is about increasing a business's value proposition.
As individuals, we can emulate this philosophy for personal growth.
Value creation happens when the quality of service you deliver is perceived by your bosses or the people who pay your salary as being higher than the cost of paying you. This means you are successful at providing what your company needs, but you do it better, faster and cheaper than others.
For example, the people I promote faster, offer more rewarding roles, or the biggest responsibilities in my companies, are those who literally do more than what I pay them for to start off with.
I look at high performers, of course, when making these decisions. But to be frank, more importantly, I examine a person's attitude before promoting them.
I don't respond to cloying staff who do things well only when I am around. I find people who spend an inordinate amount of time only trying to 'make me happy', simply not worth my time or energy. And they usually are the most toxic people when I am not around.
Instead, I value team members who understand what I am doing, and extend this spirit to our customers and stakeholders. I see the worth of employees who take ownership of my businesses even though they may be earning starter-level salaries, but behave with integrity and do their best, when representing me and my company.
"Do more than what you get paid for, so one day you'll get paid more than what you do." A wise person said this to me a long time ago. Today, I see the truth in what he said.
Next, conduct 'action-research' on yourself. Evaluate what you do during your daily work. Record your actions and check if you could have done things better. Scrutinise your actions with a keen eye.
Examine if your actions create value for your customer, and often your 'customer' is your employer. Manage and improve your workflow by eliminating all the non-value-added activities. Look to see where you waste time, take unnecessary steps, indulge in duplication of effort, miscommunicate or tend to be careless.
The best tip I can offer you is to learn and understand how the Pareto Principle works. It's also known as the 80/20 rule. Attempt a Pareto analysis on your daily work-life. If you do the analysis honestly, you will be astonished at how much time you spend each day doing things that simply do not add value to you.
Also, I remind my coachees to develop self-belief, because it facilitates finding creative solutions at work.
If, for example, you approach a problem at the workplace with 'disbelief', you will tend to feel anxious and often your thinking gets clouded. Finding solutions becomes less likely when you feel this way.
Conversely, when you approach issues at work with self-belief, you think more lucidly. This state of mind helps you to reason more clearly, and I personally find problem-solving more effective. Above all, I lean towards to becoming more imaginative when I approach an issue with the belief that I can overcome it.
How do you develop self-belief?
Most people who lack self-belief have a strong inclination to filter out the positive aspects about themselves. Do you acknowledge your achievements, or do you obsess about all your failures?
I recommend that you consciously work on identifying and acknowledging your results and strengths. A lot of psychological tests and programmes that help raise a person's self-esteem focus on getting people to list out their accomplishments. You might want to try this.
And, don't compare yourself to others. It is a futile exercise, because no matter how good you are at something, you will always discover someone who is better. It is all about you becoming the best version of yourself. So, do not sabotage your own self-belief.
And finally, focus on your self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability or capacity to get results. Everyone needs to develop the confidence that they can achieve results. Confidence comes when you increase your competency. Work on increasing your competencies. As your self-belief increases, so does your value.
So don't keep 'dreaming' about a higher salary. Work on increasing your value by being valuable to others, and the rewards are the result.
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller "So, You Want To Get Promoted?
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
