"Tell me why you're valuable."
It's a simple question, yet for many people it's one of the hardest to answer. Not because they aren't valuable, but because they've never really stopped to think about it.
We Describe What We Do, Not What We're Worth
Most of us instinctively reach for the same kind of answer. We describe what we do.
- I'm organised.
- I'm good with people.
- I'm reliable.
- I'm a good property manager.
All true.
But none of it is your value. What you've listed there are your skills, or maybe your role title.
Here's the distinction worth holding onto:
Skills are what you do. Value is the difference you create.
Take someone who says they're organised.
Their real value isn't the colour-coded spreadsheets or the perfectly managed calendar. Their value is that people trust them. They create certainty. They make life just a little bit easier for everyone around them.
Or think about someone working in recruitment.
Their value was never about filling vacancies. It's about helping businesses build stronger teams, and about changing the entire trajectory of someone's career through the right opportunity landing at the right time.
- The skill is recruitment.
- The value is the transformation and the outcomes that follow because that one person now exists within that team, within that organisation.
Why We Miss Our Own Value
More often than not, we overlook our own value simply because it feels ordinary to us.
The things that come naturally are usually the things we quietly assume everyone else can do too. And ironically, that's exactly where our greatest value tends to be hiding.
Turning the Question On Myself
Recently, I decided to put myself through the same exercise. I asked myself the question directly:
Why am I valuable?
My first instinct, unsurprisingly, was to list everything I do.
- I'm an HR leader.
- I coach.
- I recruit.
- I lead teams.
- I solve people problems.
All true. But none of it explained why people come looking for me specifically.
So, I kept pushing myself with a follow-up question:
"So what?"
Eventually, I landed somewhere more honest.
My value isn't my HR knowledge. It's my judgement.
People don't come to me because I know employment law inside out, or because I understand recruitment processes better than most.
They come to me because I help them make better decisions, for my team, for my department, for the businesses we work with, for Place. Our clients lean on my judgement when they're deciding which path to take.
I see past the problem that's been presented to me. I read people and situations. I ask the questions that nobody else has thought to ask yet. I balance commercial outcomes with genuine care, and ultimately, I help people move forward with a bit more clarity and confidence than they had before.
That's my value.
HR is simply one of the ways it gets delivered.
That one shift in thinking changed everything for me. It made me realise that a job title was never our identity, it's just the vehicle our value happens to travel in.
A Better Question to Ask Yourself
If you're still not sure what your own value is, try starting somewhere different.
- What do people consistently come to you for?
- What do they thank you for?
- When have you made someone else's job, life, or decision noticeably easier?
Then, once you've got an answer, push it further with one more question:
So what?
"I'm organised." So what?
"People know they can rely on me." So what?
"They don't have to worry when I'm involved."
Now you're getting closer to the real thing.
Your value was never really that you're organised. Your value is that you create trust and certainty. That's the actual difference you make.
What Actually Defines Your Value
Your job title, your qualifications, and your years of experience all matter, of course. But none of them define your value.
What defines your value is the impact you leave behind once you've moved on. The clarity you bring to a room. The confidence you help build in other people. The problems you quietly solve. The opportunities you help create for someone else.
Ironically, the people who carry the greatest value are often the ones least aware of it. They mistake simply recognising their own strengths for arrogance, when really, it's nothing more than self-awareness.
Understanding your value was never about believing you're better than anyone else.
It's about understanding the difference you make, so that you can contribute with real confidence, back yourself the moment an opportunity arises, and finally stop waiting around for someone else to tell you what you're worth.
The Question Worth Sitting With
So, I'll leave you with just one question.
Not: What do you do?
But: What difference do you make?
Because that's where your value has been quietly hiding, all along.
@makinglemonade.au