Something I really don’t like is when I see women doing genuinely valuable work, but not getting the career recognition they deserve for it.
Sometimes this can be due to visibility of the work, but often it’s because the value is a bit less tangible and harder to demonstrate. This can cause issues in competitive performance and promotion processes when comparisons are being drawn with others who have contributions that are more easily linked to the business metrics.
Take something like organising a team get-together. It needs to be done, people enjoy them, they bring everyone together, and being the organiser often generates a lot of lovely thanks.
“Thank you, that was really helpful” from your boss does of course have some career value – in areas like building trust, good working relationships, and hopefully in terms of their support and sponsorship. Career value that can be articulated and will be understood more broadly usually matters too though, especially when it comes to career advancement.
Drawing the line
To carry on the example, if you do arrange the team get-together, how do you translate that into business value? What collaborations were initiated there, what problems were solved or moved forward, what was different because of it? Are there lines that can be drawn to something being done more efficiently as a result, successes shared that generate other client conversations and potentially pipeline, or people initiatives that were discussed to improve employee satisfaction or retention? How can those connections be evidenced? Are there metrics that can be pulled, quotes that can be gathered from attendees?
Sometimes the line is already there and just needs attention drawing to it. Other times the work itself needs some reshaping before anyone can see it. I once championed an initiative to encourage more collaboration and knowledge sharing between regions. I believed strongly in its importance, but it wasn’t easy to prove success. In the end I negotiated some changes to the global employee survey so the initiatives could be linked more directly to areas that were measured and valued such as employee satisfaction and skills development.
Making sure others can see it too
Knowing where the line is yourself is only part of it – there’s also how you tell the story around it, so the connection is visible for others too.
A client I worked with had delivered a great piece of work that had good potential to be offered to other clients. Her first challenge was telling the story of its value well enough to get other teams interested. Once she’d mastered that, the second was tracking the value it went on to create downstream, and then joining the dots back to her original contribution.
When we’re naturally collaborative, and naturally share what we’ve learned to help others be successful, we can sometimes fall short on how we track the value that’s been generated as a result of our actions.
Starting from day one
Another client is soon starting a new role, and her planning for the first few weeks includes seeking understanding around what’s valued, what’s measured, and what the broader aims are for the team she’s joining. That way, right from the start, she can apply that lens, understand how the activities map to those aims and make helpful decisions about where to put her time.
Not everything is a transaction
I’m not suggesting for a moment here that everything we do has to be because there’s an immediate line of sight to business value. Sometimes it’s simply the right thing to do, or what we want to do. That said, there often still is a useful story to tell and line to draw that we can miss. Many women I know mentor other women – I did this too throughout my corporate career. I’ve yet to meet someone who did this primarily for their own career value – it’s much more typically about paying it forward, seeing others progress, and enjoyment. I’d still argue that it’s important to talk about and be recognised in terms of business value as well though.
A few questions worth asking
Whether you’re deciding where to invest your time or thinking about how to talk about work you’ve already done, it’s worth considering:
- What does the organisation value, and how does this work contribute to it? Does it contribute to a metric or a key objective?
- What difference has my involvement made, directly and indirectly, and how can I evidence that quantitatively or qualitatively?
- Who would I like to understand the value of this contribution, and how can I help them see it?
- Is this work helping me build the experience, reputation or relationships I need for where I want to go next?
If you’re weighing up whether to take something new on in the first place, this “Before saying yes” infographic might be helpful.
If making sure your contributions are being properly recognised and valued is something you’re working through, whether in your current role or as you prepare for a new one, it’s something I help clients with regularly. You’re welcome to send me a message or book a call.
Further reading
If you’re thinking about how your contributions are recognised and how they support your career progression, you might also find these articles useful: