How To Make Yourself Invaluable In The Marketplace

How do you assess someone’s worth? I’m not talking about their worth as a spouse, parent or friend, I’m talking about worth in the marketplace – the job market. My first job was packing potatoes in a greengrocery. I was good. I earnt 40 cents an hour and after a few months I was “head-hunted” by a rival business that paid me 10 cents for every packet I filled. These days, working as a motivational speaker, I’m paid a bit more than that. It’s easy to work out what a banknote is worth, because its value is printed on the note, but with people it’s more difficult.

What are you worth to your employer? If you run your own business how much are you worth to the company? Would you like to increase your value? You increase your value by what you give, not what you take. It’s a simple formula: You get out what you put in – you get what you attract. Of course it’s possible to increase your worth at work and attract a bigger pay packet, but you need a millionaire mindset, you need to go up to the next level.

Volunteer for the Projects Others Run Away From

Too many people go to work every day just to pass the time. For example I know this man who went to the company’s Occupational Health and Safety Officer and asked: “Can you teach me yoga?” The OH&S officer replied, “How flexible are you?” and the guy said, “I can take every Tuesday off”. That perfectly sums up a lot of people’s attitudes to work. They don’t want to be there. They look for easy projects that keep them occupied and don’t attract too much attention, but if you want to become invaluable in a workplace you are going to have to hunt down the projects that will actually contribute to the company’s success. They will be challenging, but they’ll be worthwhile. I believe in this life you can’t stay stationary – if you are not going forward, you are going backwards and I’m afraid that success is uphill all the way. To increase your value at work you need to be the one who volunteers for the project other workers run away from. As I’ve said, too many people just go to work and shuffle through the day. One such person said to me: “I love work. It fascinates me. I sit and look at it for hours!”

Offer Solutions

To be invaluable you’re going to need to come up with innovative ideas. That applies to owner-operators and employees. Your boss doesn’t want someone who comes to them with problems, managers want staff offering solutions. If you hear your colleagues whinging that something isn’t working, find the solution and you’ll automatically increase your value.

Give More Than is Expected of You

It’s also vital that you always put in extra effort. I’m not encouraging you to brown nose to your boss, but give more than is expected of you. Think of the most valued team players you’ve met in your career – the people who are faithful, trustworthy and called on first in a crisis. If you want to increase your value to an organisation then that’s who you need to become. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, life is not a bed, it’s a ladder, so start working your way to the top.

Upskill and Learn

To be invaluable at work you need to be constantly upskilling, constantly learning. You may even have to pay for some of your studies yourself, but there is a lot of free information on the internet. You will increase your value to an organisation if you are the only one with a particular skill. For example, if your company is installing robotic machinery you could learn some basic computer programming. Yes, there are courses that teach this. You will then be called on first if there are problems with the new machine. By the way, many experts believe that the rise of automation will lead to wide-scale job losses in the future. I’m not convinced that robots will replace people on mass. I think people like to have other people around – artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Become an Asset to the Decision Makers

If you want to become invaluable at work, aim to make your manager’s job easier. Your boss might be over worked and stressed, but by taking on tough projects you will quickly become the one she or he can lean on and trust. If you take on more work, it may free them up to concentrate on their managerial tasks and then they’ll always fight to keep you on the team. Becoming invaluable at work will increase your chances of getting a pay rise and promotion, and make your position more secure. It’s also crucial that you understand the company from your manager’s view point. You need to know what the company’s objectives and priorities are. Also if you become an asset to the boss, you will have an influential player on your side in the future. In the private sector it is so often not about what you know, but who you know. During the entire course of your career you need to be creating relationships with people who matter, you need to be building relationships with managers and other doers and shakers.

Be Careful Who You Associate With

Remember that some associations at work can be harmful to your career. You may think the office clown is a hoot, but if you spend a great deal of time with the office joker chances are that your boss won’t take you seriously either. Our success is determined by those we hang around with. Who we hang around with decides what we become and what we earn. Look at who you hang out with and study them. Your friends and closest work colleagues must enrich your life, not detract from your career. Assess what your friends are causing you to feel, think and believe. Have you allowed them to have too much influence on you?

Help Others Do Well

Those closest to you will determine the outcome of your life. Hang around people who like going to the pub and you’ll go to the pub, hang around healthy people and you’ll get healthy, hang around people, who succeed at work and you’ll succeed. But remember whatever you make happen in other people’s lives, your supporters will make happen for you. If you want to do well at work, then help others to do well, don’t undermine them. Be a team player. The aim of team work is not so you have someone else to blame for your mistakes! Teamwork is about getting better solutions through collaboration and sharing. At work if you have specialist knowledge, then share your expertise with the team and value add to the project. Be willing to train other and you’ll soon be valued as a skilled trainer. This will also help managers identify you as a future leader.

These are true and trusted ways to become an invaluable employee; however, I have a sad truth, bad bosses and unhealthy workplaces often fail to appreciate an invaluable employee. If you feel that you’ve been a solid gold employee but have gone unnoticed, then it is time to shop around for a new job. The Seek jobsite surveyed thousands of Australians recently and discovered that 22% of Aussies change jobs because of a negative experience at work – namely bad bosses and feeling unappreciated. If you feel this way, then jump ship, but do your homework and make sure you find a quality company to go to. Research its reputation and history online and ideally track down some people who work there or recently worked there. The other option of course to go into business for yourself and turn your passion into profit!