Value and Validation

There is only one way to keep growing in your career

Provide more value

You provide more value for what you take home – and you keep growing
Usually
– You do more for the same price
– Or you do the same thing for cheaper

But one important step is required before you can

– Go ask for that next raise
– Go ask for a contract renegotiation
– Go ask for an upsell

Validating Your Value

In a silo, it is easy to think that you are running the show. 

Oftentimes, it feels like that without you, the company will be handicapped.
That you are invaluable.
That you are irreplaceable.

But how do you know that for sure?

I mean just go talk to any manager out there, they will proudly tell you how they run the whole ship – come next firing round, the company is fine letting go 10s of the likes of them.

So were they running the ship?
Or were they just running their delusions?

Hard to say

But what I can say is in many cases, even when people are providing value, they aren’t doing a good job of validating it.

Without validation, your value….is well, not valued enough.
And without blinking, you will be replaced with the next best offer.

So you know you have to provide more value
And now you know validating that value is important

What next?

Go to our new best friend gpt
Ask ‘How does one validate the value they provide to the stakeholders’
And honestly, you will get some pretty good suggestions:

– Defining Objectives and Metrics to deliver upon
– Communicating regularly and often
– Working with feedback loops
– Working your skills benchmarking
Etc etc

But in my experience, when you know, for sure, that you are not being valued enough, you need to ‘all in’.

---

Looking for more helpful tools, guides, and templates?

---

The ‘All In’

The ‘All In’ can take many shapes depending on your role, skills, and arrangements.
But basically, it’s a gamble against all odds.

It has to be something where 

– If you win, you make significant progress in your career
– If you lose, it is time to find new work

Don’t read this as simply as ‘hold your client/employer hostage’ – that never works or increases your value – at most, it will make you an exploitative failed professional.

But do read this as knowing your worth, knowing what you should be valued at fairly, and then demanding what is due – if you care of course.

Typically any CEO, Client, Customer – will need a promise of two things:

1 Feasible Budget
2 Longterm Trust

And you offer them both by lessons taught earlier

– You justify the budget by the value you are providing, ensuring there is no better offer out there compared to you
– You justify the trust by committing to the relationship long term, ensuring you will stick to the arrangement agreed upon

Have you ever validated your value? If yes, then what method did you employ?

Keep Growing!

---