#YesSheCan In-Depth: Know Your Worth

Our careers, our salaries and recognition for our work can shed a light on how we feel about our own worth. We might dilute our successes or brush over our hard work which leads to us not being given what we deserve.

In this #YesSheCan blog, we’re going to be talking about worth and what that means to us in our careers.

What does it mean to know your worth?

Worth can be different things to many of us whether our worth is measured by what we do in our personal life or workplace. However, it all funnels down to one thing – our self-confidence and belief.

We need to understand what skills, strengths, and achievements we have and how they are important in the workplace and in our personal life.

If we didn’t have these, would we still be a pro in our career and with our expertise?
Do our strengths make us stand out in our careers?
Does all the above help us to produce outstanding work and result in positive feedback?

Knowing our own worth and how we value those skills and achievements is determined on how much we believe in ourselves to achieve great things. Unfortunately sometimes, we don’t recognise the potential and skill we have.

Recognising Those Signs

We need to recognise those negative thoughts and feelings that we may have when thinking about our worth. For example, you may like your skills aren’t enough or that you feel like you don’t get enough recognition for you work. More often than not, these views aren’t actually coming from yourself – many of these feelings may be caused by external factors – such as, your workplace.

If we know ourselves that we are doing great things in our careers and achieving positive results, but we don’t feel that’s being recognised or honoured by leaders in your workplace, that must mean our worth is not valued – right?

Wrong. Lack of recognition doesn’t diminish our worth, but it can clearly cause issues with your own view of your skills. This problem lies within the culture in your workplace.

There are signs you can spot which can determine that you aren’t being given the positive energy you deserve for your work:

You’re a top performer and your work always brings positive results – but you’re never given a pay rise.

You are asked to do more tasks than other but not getting recognition.

Despite being successful, the rewards of that success are given to someone else in your team.

You may already see these signs and as a result, your worth may be valued less by those in your workplace and more importantly, yourself. If we continue, we may be stuck in a cycle of having those feelings and being treated poorly in our careers.

However, you can put an end to experiencing this behaviour and it’s important to remember that not all workplace environments are like this.

Honour Your Worth

Don’t be disheartened or stop pursuing your career if you feel like you’re experiencing the descriptions above – you can succeed within a positive workplace and feel that your worth is being valued. There are steps you can take to eliminate these feelings and to place yourself in a better place.

1 – Have that difficult conversation

The first step is to establish where you stand in your current workplace. This can begin with a conversation with whoever leads your team or peers. Can I have some feedback from my recent work? Can I discuss the opportunity of a pay rise? Will I be able to talk about a promotion?

If you are given a less than satisfactory answer or even a straight no when you believe it should be 100% a yes – then don’t settle. These conversations may be difficult, but you will be able to see first-hand how your worth is being valued. You can then decide to look at other options such as seeking a job in a better environment.

2 – Write down your skills and achievements

This can be done at any point in your career, but can be so important in this type of situation. Going through each step of your career and viewing how you’ve built your skillset and how you’ve used those to achieve great results will clearly show you that your worth should be honoured.

It’s also a great reminder for yourself on those rough days that you have totally got this and that you’re in a great spot in your career and your worth shouldn’t be viewed for anything less than that

3 – Don’t lose sight of your worth

When we have these feelings and experiences, we may lose sight of what we actually want from our careers and then accept anything less than what we’re worth. This can be a big disadvantage for us, especially if we do enter the job market and pursue a new job. We may downgrade ourselves or dilute those achievements which results in your worth not shining as bright as it can.

Along with the last step, really think about why you excel in your chosen career. Think about the greatness you possess and how you use that day to day. Be your own cheerleader and know your worth.

This is not easy and will be an important journey in your career – but you will come out the other side realising that you may not have been valued as highly as you should have.