"Calculating Your True Value" — (It's All About The Thinking) - By: Virginia McBride

Resumes reveal your history — what you have done, achieved. However, ask yourself what is the value of the history? What role does the history play in my emerging future? Only two things control the direction of your future — your skills and your character. Each contributes greatly to your value in the present and certainly in the future. Skills shape what you can do. Character shapes the principles which guide your actions. What then is the value of your skills and character to situations and people that are important to you?

To begin the calculating, list the skills that you enjoy most. These include people skills related to communication, cooperation, and leadership. They also include analytical skills related to understanding problems, testing solutions, translating data into information. They also include synthetical skills relating to envisioning marketing possibilities, designing strategies, developing accountability measures.

Take, for example, communication skills. Look first at the oral skills. List them first — doing stand-up presentations, leading meetings, engaging employees, resolving disputes, conducting performance evaluations. Then, start to look to the situations in which you use them. Presentations run the gamut --- being an invited conference speaker, giving sales presentations to potential clients, conducting training sessions for employees.

Each of these has a value. Speeches establish value through fees paid to the speaker and through experience and recognition provided by the sponsoring organization. Verifying the dollar value, if important to you, could be accomplished by asking members of the National Speakers Association what fees they charge. Valuing experience and recognition typically emerges as professional reputation. Sales presentations translate into purchase dollars. Training appears as increased productivity and as fewer mistakes.

Next, look at the writing skills --- drafting strategic plans, designing marketing campaigns, creating scripts for slide or video shows, visualizing future ventures. Calculating dollar value with writing skills involves a bit of research. Consult the publication "Writer's Market." Here you will find dollar values expressed by category and task per hour, project, event, run-minute, day, article, column, page, and word.

On your own explore the value of analytical and synthetical skills. Translating these skills to dollars, again, takes some research. Professional associations offer significant information. Chambers of Commerce also have data to help with your calculations. In both you might possibly find a person willing to help you calculate the true value, a value which relates to what they pay employees or outside companies to do the work.

Dollar value equates not to total value. To your findings, estimate how you feel about what you are doing and how you feel when you are using your skills. Also, estimate the impact of what you do. Especially evaluate how people who encounter you benefit from what you do. Have you made their lives more fun, less stressful, more imaginative, less mundane, etc.? In the end, you should have some fairly concrete picture of the value of your skills to you and the value of your skills to improving the lives of others.

Finally, do a character assessment. What traits do you have that you value? Initiative? Work ethic? Loyalty? Appreciation? Visualization? Trustworthiness? Empathy? Compassion? Encouragement? Foresight? Study how you exhibit these traits. Who knows that you have these traits? How did they come to know that you have them? None of this information translates to dollar value as such. However, each character trait you have and you show to others creates the deepest kind of value for you and for your relationships with others. From these traits come your core values. Your core values translate into principles to live by. In turn, as you live by them, others emulate your behavior. Your principles impact their lives. Your true value emerges.

About the Author

Virginia L. McBride, The Haven Maven Founder, EPROW Images Creator, "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE THINKING" Virginia builds personalized "thinking environments" to strengthen innovative thought. Working with EPROW Images, clients assess their skills and analyze their character. Their skills plus character equals their true value. To qualify for a free 30-minute consultation, submit a "pitch" through EPROW's PAPPY program => http://www.eprowimages.com

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Virginia-McBride/49884

Additional Articles From - Home | Self improvement | Job hunting