Each month at PromoteBlackWomen.com, we commit to building a stronger career through consistent action. This month, our commitment is: Articulate Your Value.
Specifically, we'll take a quick look at articulating individual achievements in the company, setting goals to take inventory of the skills we bring to the workplace, and communicating success when working on a team project.
Think about where you have room to get stronger when it comes to communicating what you really do?
For many of us, that absolutely means communicating with a manager or leader in the workplace, and for some of us that means adding an extra slide to a presentation to get more people on board with the goal because you’re communicating something more than yourself, you’re communicating about a project or about your departments or teams goal.
While our focus this month is on articulating value, each action you take and the specific commitment you make should help your career get a little bit closer to the vision that you hold for it.
Okay, now let's take a closer look at articulating our value.
Communicating your value is not the same as communicating your worth.
It's important at this point to make a distinction here. You as a person contribute tremendous value in our society, in our communities, and in your families. We’re going to separate that from the value in the workplace. Communicating my value is not the same as communicating my worth.
Let’s be able to take smaller bites from that. We’re separating "what is the worth that I bring to the company," and breaking that down into a little bit of a smaller bite to think specifically about the value that you bring to a customer or with an actual organization.
A little bit of a mind shift here.
So what are some of the things that you do, and what is the difference between the business gain?
You might be sending emails, creating a PowerPoint deck, or even organizing an event; none of those things are actually communicating what you’re doing.
It’s really important to explain what is meant by this, so we’re going to look at two components. The two components are:
THE TWO COMPONENTS ARE:
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What you do to get it done (tasks and logistics)
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The problem that you’re solving for people that you’re helping - students, customers, business owners (business value)
Let's think about words we can use to articulate a business benefit. It’s usually something like:
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Saving time and frustration
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Students get the information they need to apply for internships
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Customers are satisfied and keep buying more product
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Experience less turnover
Those are all benefits. Not once mentioned is the thing being done. Instead, what's discussed is the achieved benefit.
There's a good chance that if you're looking for a promotion, you've probably spent some serious time getting things done, but you actually may not have communicated that to a colleague, a mentor, or managers in another department when they ask you what you’re working on. In other words, we're really good at doing the work and maybe not as good as communicating our value. That changes now. This month. Together, we’ll get better at actually talking about our achievements.
So what do you need to communicate this month? Think about a personal goal that you have. Something that you’re working on. What do you want to communicate about this month? Are you saving time and saving frustration?
Be sure to tell us what you're communicating this month and how we can support you.
Whatever problem you’re solving. That benefit is basically about having a shared understanding.
Shared understanding is how people connect to the value. The second component, business benefit, is how you communicate a shared understanding of value to the organization.
WHERE DO YOU USUALLY DO THIS?
This is typically done in status reports to your manager, emails to coworkers, and before the pandemic it was at the water cooler. People are asking you what you do, or what you’re working on and you’re talking about some of the logistics. And we’re going to shift to talking about the benefit to the people that you’re serving.
There is formal and information communication. This leads us to the focus this month: Actually articulating your value.
Now, many of you are already writing great emails or doing really good presentations.
Few of us have a really solid system for communicating the benefit of what we are doing and the people we are helping.
