Most of us struggle to articulate the value we bring to our organisation. Our employment history usually points to our technical knowledge and skills. Maybe it was in systems development or cyber security, large scale projects, or perhaps data and analytics. But whilst your knowledge and skills are good starting points for defining your value, that is not sufficient for a leadership role. Your value as a leader needs to also include the transferable strength that has supported you throughout your career and more than likely, in your life in general.
However, most of us cannot clearly convey our strength and therefore the value we bring. It is worth getting a handle on it though. It is likely to have got you where you are today and it will play an important role in your future success. Zenger Folkman research on the topic suggests that “great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths”.
If you can identify your inherent strength, you can also take it to a new level. For example, Julie got into IT because she loved solving technical problems. But once she moved into leadership, she had to apply her problem-solving strength to the bigger strategic challenges that her organisation faced. That in turn meant learning how to get the best out of her team. The bigger results she accomplished through an aligned team increased her value proposition as a game-changing leader. Her success means that she is now highly sought after and she gets to take on even bigger strategic challenges.
In fact, Julie’s momentum is like the principle outlined in Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel, a new monograph to accompany his best-selling book, Good to Great. He uses the metaphor of a flywheel, which harnesses the power of momentum as it compounds over time. Companies like Amazon, Intel and Vanguard have used the flywheel principle to articulate the interlocking factors that contribute to their success.
Why not use the flywheel principle to pinpoint the contributing factors to your successful momentum in much the same way? Below is a version for a ‘problem solver’ like Julie. It starts with her strength and leads into the interconnecting elements that contribute to the value that she brings.
What is the value that you bring?
Best regards, Brian
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