Unless you’ve been living up on the mountain in a cave or under a rock, you should know by now that the whole world is going through a major slump.
Once big and mighty corporations are crumbling under huge losses and are seeking government aide to bail them out of bankruptcy.
Millions of jobs are lost around the world. Yours could be at stake now. But do you know that even during bad times like this when a company needs to downsize, there are certain people who are retrenchment-proof, while there are certain people who are retrenchment-prone?
Now let’s take a look at the different categories of people below and see which category you belong to.
The Value Reducers
The habit of this category of people is they always do less than expected. Whatever you ask them to do, they’ll always fail to meet the requirement.
These are people whom, if you ask them to hand in a proposal in 3 days, they’ll hand it in on the fourth day. If you set them a sales target of $100,000, they’ll come back with $70,000 or $80,000. Sometimes, they’ll even do a lot less than expected.
As a result, they’re considered by their employers to be a liability to the company because they reduce the value of the company.
No employer would invest in such employees because the employer understands there’ll be no return, or worse, negative return on investment if they ever invest in these employees’ training and upgrading.
Therefore, people who do less than expected will never receive pay increment or promotion no matter how long they’ve been with the company. They’d be considered lucky if they even managed to remain employed.
In times of economic recession, such as now, these are the people first to be laid off when the company resorts to retrenchment to cut costs.
The Value Sustainers
For this category of people, they are responsible and they always do as they are told. If you ask them to make 10 cold calls, they’ll make exactly 10 cold calls. And they’d always come in on time and leave the office on time.
This group of people is basically good workers, except there’s one problem. That is they always do as expected.
Now, what’s wrong with doing as expected?
As a matter of fact, there’s nothing really wrong with that. However, if you do only as expected, you’re not adding value to your company. You’re mainly sustaining the value of your company.
Although you may still be considered an asset to the company, you’re simply a dispensable asset.
Nevertheless, as a value sustainer, you’d still enjoy pay increment and promotion because you’re still a responsible worker who’ll fulfil your work obligations.
But if fulfilling your obligations and getting things done is all you’ll do for your company, it’s very likely that you’ll never have a breakthrough in your career and there’ll always be a ceiling to how high you can climb in the corporate ladder and how much money you’ll make.
The Value Creators
If you want to be above the crowd, if you want to be indispensable to your employer, then you’d need to develop the habit of doing more than expected.
Value creators are the people who’ll take the initiative to go the extra mile for their employers, clients, business associates and/or co-workers. They’re always willing to put in that little extra effort to do things better.
More often than not, these are also the people who will receive the promotions, pay raises, bonuses, and extra benefits. They’ll always be the first hired and the last fired. Thus, they never have to worry about job security, even during a recession.
Their employers are also more likely to perceive them as indispensable assets to the company because they create a lot of value for the company.
They’re always the ones who help the company to increase sales, reduce costs, increase productivity, build better relationships with clients, and so on.
So, if you want to rise to the top, make more money, be certain of your job, start doing more than expected and take the initiative to go the extra mile. As Wayne Dyer said, “It’s never crowded along the extra mile.”
So which category do you belong to?
Cheers~
This article is a contribution to Insight Writer’s Group Writing Project on Creating Value.
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on Feb 7th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I envision a future where people create value for themselves, and not just for the blood sucking companies that they work for. When someone works, they should be sharing the value with their employer. They should be able to have fruits of their labor if they get laid off.
The problem with the current situation is that someone could spend years creating value for a company, and get laid off. And then when its time for them to get a new job, their success depends on a recommendation from the previous job. This is not conducive to creating value for ourselves, and it is wrong.
Also, I’ve heard that the more indispensable you are to a company, the less likely you will be promoted. I tend to agree with that.
on Feb 8th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Hi Trey,
Thank you for offering your view on the topic. I’m all for people creating value for themselves by going self-employed or starting their own business.
Nevertheless, the main point of my article is to advocate that no matter what you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, you always have to seek to provide the greatest value you can deliver. This is a habit and attitude we all should carry.
I do agree there are many unappreciative and amoral employers out there who care for nothing and no-one else but their own profits.
But I’m sure you’d agree there are also good employers around. There are always 2 sides of the coin in all things.
If you’re so unfortunate to be working for a crooked employer, then you have to make a choice to stay or leave. You always have a choice. And you have to assume responsibility for making the choice.
Cheers~
Mark
on Feb 8th, 2009 at 10:54 am
[...] Are you creating enough value to be indispensable during this rough economic time? by Mark Foo – “Value creators are the people who’ll take the initiative to go the extra mile for their employers, clients, business associates and/or co-workers. They’re always willing to put in that little extra effort to do things better.” [...]
on Feb 16th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
[...] as if they were a gold pot, trying to squeeze every drop of gold out of them without providing much value in [...]