Determining Your Value in the Workplace

When you judge yourself, as we all do, how do you measure up? What do you feel you have to offer to your organization - and is that offering given the value, validity, and respect it deserves? What is your worth or do you even consider your worth at all? Or are you just another delusional mammal?

Why is it important to understand your personal currency? I’m going to be frank and say that not only is it important to recognize your innate worth, it’s critical that you do or else you might end up living in great delusion. I am telling you, that would be seriously ridiculous.

In the past 10 years, I got the privilege to work with already 3 different employers,  both public and private sectors. I am glad that I was given the opportunity to work with the best minds of these 3 organizations. While the opportunities were great, I was also given the challenge to work with people who have parasitic attitudes, delusional mammals or even those who are good as deadwood. Inasmuch as I would like to avoid these types of people, I think that they are really everywhere. In fact,  the latest experience I had was just this week and it was terrible! It totally pissed me off and ruined the start of my year.  Yet still, life has to be taken lightly, as my New Year's  Resolution goes.

Anyways, going back to the main topic, according to the highly regarded Oxford American Dictionary, worth means “sufficiently good, important, or interesting to justify a specified action.” If you failed to meet any of these, then you might want to consider assessing yourself again. Or better ask your colleague as to how much is your worth.

And so, I am writing this to share the experiences I had with the best managers and superiors I had worked in the past and how worth defined their values towards work. When you will learn this by heart, you won't be misguided by your positions or delusions. Here are some of the school of thoughts I remember and you might want to apply these in your lives, regardless of your positions.

1. IQ is irrelevant, practical thinking ability matters. In this life, practical smarts are of far greater value than IQ scores. Of course,  I am not saying that you can’t have both, because you can. Exams do not make one person more valuable than another. If you have the ability to make sound decisions then you are way ahead of the curve.

Yes, academics may elevate someone, but that is only superficial. My uncle has high IQ but lack of common sense cost him his life. There will always be people whose test results are both higher and lower than yours. Those results have nothing to do with your self-worth or personal value.

Believe me when I say, I have met a lot of people with high IQs who have never earned respect from their subordinates. Why? Because they feel they are still in school and forgot they are now in the real world. Work is not an examination, it requires action and accomplishment. " People w0n't care about your self esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself",  Gates said.

2. Life is about learning what works and what doesn’t. In the learning process, success and failure have equal value as long as we learn from them. Never link your self-worth to the results you produce. Your are a person, not an accomplishment.

But then again, remember that ACCOMPLISHMENT is a wonderful thing.  We all feel great when we work at something and get the results we wanted. I don't think anyone who have not accomplished anything at all could understand this. 

Also, you have to consider that sometimes, determining your worth is not for you to decide solely  but by the people around you.

3. Never mistake looks,  outrageous behavior, rank or material wealth as a measure of self-worth. Substance is the name of the game. No matter how nicely wrapped a package is, the important thing is what’s inside.

Always remember: " When we are true to our personal ethics, we have integrity. When we care about the welfare of others, we have compassion. When we give without expecting anything in return, we are generous." Cultivate these qualities for these are all that matter to be a person of substance."