What Are You Worth v What Is Your Worth?

The two sound the same. We are only changing a few letters, so what difference does that make?

Surely it’s all the same.

I don’t think so, and here’s why.

What are you worth? implies a monetary value. How much would it cost to replace you? How long would it take to find your replacement? What amount of profit or income do you produce for your workplace?

These all equate you to a number. Whilst it may not be possible to be very specific, a ballpark could be gleaned with minimal effort. Particularly by someone in house who understands the industry and the way your firm works.

What is your worth? is both a personal experience and a business one.

The answer is qualitative this time, rather than quantitative. Your worth is subjective and may vary depending on who you ask and their relationship to, and perception of, you.

Your manager may say you are an integral part of the business and that growth would plummet without your insights.

Your partner may say that you are irreplaceable and form part of their identity too.

Whereas the colleague with an eye on your role may say that you are outdated and backward looking, and they would be a much better candidate.

How you perceive your worth depends on a multitude of factors.

Your sense of purpose. Whether you feel that your work and life are aligned to it. Your energy levels.

Are you feeling great, with plenty of drive, whilst maintaining a healthy body and having fun along the way?

Or are you feeling depleted and run down?

Perhaps you are worried about a parent or one of the crises happening in the world around you. Feeling sad and overwhelmed, wondering when it will all stop. How can you be happy when there is so much devastation?

Ideas whizzing around your head at night.

Beliefs designed to keep you safe, holding you back.

There are infinite possibilities for how you perceive your worth.

Which Are Businesses Typically Best At?

Businesses tend to measure and value what are you worth.

It’s easier.

Comparing people using this metric is easier too.

It’s very difficult to compare Brian, who is great at relationships but not so good at compliance, with Vanessa, who is diligent but lacks innovation.

When Brian is evaluated using quantitative metrics, the business can see that his connection to people builds the sales pipeline really well. This converts into £500,000 sales, so Brian is worth a large amount.

Vanessa is part of the team which executes the work that Brian has brought in. She is quieter and less obtrusive. Whilst her skills are essential, the perception is often that if Vanessa can’t do the job well, there are 101 other Vanessas waiting in the wings.

So, due to demand and supply, Vanessa is worth far less.

What the business is missing is that compliance failure is a huge threat to the business. One slip and that could be a six figure sum lost, as well as a dent to the company reputation.

Vanessa also comes up with ideas on how to smooth processes so that what took six people now only takes five. Furthermore, she has shared her knowledge on how clients like things done with her whole team, so that client retention is almost 100%.

These things are harder to record and harder to value.

Especially without spending considerable time with each person, or backtracking and looking at the overall client journey and the contributions of each.

Convenience and specifics tend to trump deeper work and exploration.

Who Is Right? Which Basis Is Best?

It is all correct and all useful.

Just for different purposes.

For you personally, the most important question is how you perceive your own worth.

This is where the business you work for should place its focus too, because when you have low self worth you will be unable to have as much impact as you or the business would like.

You just can’t.

You only have a finite amount of personal resources.

If you are sleeping badly, it affects everything else: your relationships, health, diet, exercise, patience and perspective.

When self worth is low, people often swing to extremes.

Comfort eating and little or no exercise at one end.

Extra gym sessions and fanatical attention to diet at the other.

Extremes may look different, but long term they are rarely nourishing.

Low Self Worth at Work

When someone is experiencing low self worth, they are less focused. Commitment may remain, but productivity drops off. Ideas stop coming. Tempers fray. Isolation increases.

It becomes a downward spiral.

This is not their fault. They cannot just shrug and get on with things.

Time and rebuilding will be needed.

Learning to see your worth as more than just the work role you have gives you more redundancy.

Being challenged at work but having an amazing time playing guitar in a rock band, the fun you are having helps you to weather the storm at work.

Enjoying conversation with friends and family on a regular basis helps when there is something difficult that needs to be discussed.

Who are you when you cut away the job you do?

What do you stand for?

If you had a magic wand and could spend your time doing anything you wanted, what would you do?

I’d run a stillness sanctuary and tend the land that it stands on. Probably whilst sewing and embroidering all manner of things to look pretty or useful.

Work allows us to feel useful. To be of service.

If you don’t already have other outlets for that, find some.

It might be useful to the planet rather than to other people. It might involve volunteering or just holding doors open and offering an arm to someone struggling to cross the road.

Being useful doesn’t need a title or a reason.

It can happen just by being you.

Focussing on being nice. Looking for ways you can help.

So if self worth is not rebuilt through job title, praise or performance alone, where do we begin?

One place is surprisingly simple.

We return to our hands.

Manual hobbies can be used as a proactive tool to maintain self worth and energy, and also to repair low self worth.

A manual hobby is something which involves your hands and mind. Something where you lose your sense of time and engage wholly with the hobby.

Things like playing a musical instrument, woodworking, sewing, cooking or pottery.

Sewing can be done at a range of different levels and in many styles. I like Boro stitching as it does not require a high level of skill. The act of doing it is soothing, even if you never finish the piece.

Kits which are portable enough to go in a pocket or handbag mean that they can be done on the go.

Five minutes of mindfulness like this really can boost the mood, increase self esteem and improve focus, confidence and clarity.

Whatever your choice of hobby, the point is not to become good at something else.

The point is to remember that your worth was never only held in your job title, your output, your usefulness to others or the number someone could attach to your role.

Your worth is something you return to.

Through your hands.

Through your choices.

Through the parts of you that still exist when the workday ends.