3 Steps To Understanding Your Worth

Step 1

Accepting The Reality

Its Tuesday morning, you wake up ready for work just to remember you were made redundant yesterday due to the recession. You would assume a sigh of relief at the thought of a lay in, but really your mind goes blank after a quick flash of realisation. You are out of work and it will soon catch up with you financially if you don’t act quick! After a couple of days making the most of the quiet house and time to yourself, you take responsibility and start to consider your options.

Perhaps you message close friends and family on the off chance they can get you in somewhere half decent, you will probably look up roles similar to the one you just came out of — it seems like the most sensible thing to do, right? There are a few things you should probably think about before focusing on your old role. If the company you worked for was relatively big, it could mean that your role has been reduced by many companies with the same sort of structure and the same idea of cutting costs — largely reducing your chances of finding it or getting it due to the amount of qualified people applying for limited roles.

Its worth thinking about what your aim was or is in your career, it could be time to assess what a fresh start might look like. Visualise the sort of company or work environment you want to be in and start by looking at anything available at those places. If you have had a career somewhere for a while, it could be difficult to take a step back! You might feel it was wasted or feel embarrassed at the prospect of stepping down the ladder. However, depending on where you see your career going, you might want to get on a different ladder…

Step 2

Understanding Your Skills

Yes, you will need to swallow your pride — but you will also need to reflect on your time in your previous jobs and recognise the skills you have that you used and developed to be successful in what you did. Remove the context of your old working environment, focus on the traits and actions that made you capable of operating and completing your work tasks — this is key to helping you move forward and broaden your search for a new position.

Who are you? What would your friends and family say that you are good at? What situations do you feel comfortable in? Maybe you were working in sales before, but consider what traits you used and actions you made. As a salesperson you would have been empathetic and understanding toward other people, you would have known a product or service inside out, negotiated, you would have known multiple procedures and been able to navigate certain issues. Let’s shorten that — Empathetic, eye for detail, problem solver, calm under pressure — this paints you in a slightly different light against just being a salesperson.

Perhaps you were a middle manager and feel lost without running your department and leading a team. You will most likely have a better understanding of your skill set and where it is best placed — consider your leadership traits, time keeping, multitasking, interpersonal skills. Avoid the mindset that you are constrained by the parameters of your old environment, that you are only suited to that market or management structure. Of course experience counts, but demonstrating personality and relevant skills can make a big difference!

Step 3

Keeping A Productive Mindset

Understanding your worth can take a lot of battling with your unconscious bias and want to self deprecate. Following steps 1 and 2 take a lot of open mindedness and self awareness and willingness to think both objectively and positively to broaden your idea of what could be next.

The old mindset advice might seem like a cop-out when faced with adversity and the inevitability of negative events effecting the direction of your life. I was going to use the word ‘positive’ in this sub heading, but productive is more realistic as well as, well, productive! No matter what cards we are dealt — we are in the game, and we must play. If you lose a hand, the cards are dealt again and you have feedback from the last session! Clarity on your own situation and knowing the tools you have moving forward, both personally and externally, go a long way toward your actions and your progress.

“The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.” — Charles Dickens, Author

This Dickens metaphor is a great round off to the sentiment of this article, to realise your worth you must first muster the strength to think objectively about yourself and your scenario and then have the courage to act on it! Only then can you go on to shine.