Employees fall into one of three categories: valuable, satisfactory and expendable. The real question to be asked here is, “Can you honestly identify your category?”
Simply put, valued employees are valued because they are valuable. That that may seem a little, "Duh?" but the truth is that the vast majority of employees never really figure this out. They wonder why the guy in the next office or the co-worker they've been working alongside all of a sudden gets a job offer from another company and those same employees chalk it up to "luck." Those same employees fail to realize that they themselves fall into one of the two latter categories and feel helpless that they can’t seem to catch a break. Nor do they form any course of action that would move them up to the “valuable” category.
Many companies who employ valued employees never really figure it out either. They just assume that the valued employee feels valued and wouldn't really want to go anywhere else. That's short-sighted, head-in-the-sand, delusional thinking. This is the “What’s In It For Me” age. Even the Gen Y’s entering the workforce have a greater propensity for long-range planning, retirement benefits, investment strategies than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. They are focused on the end of their work life before they even start. They are going to find a company who values their contribution (just like Mom and Dad did when they brought home their “Participant” ribbon), and are willing to accept that they view the work as something that supports their lifestyle – not the other way around. They have a healthy sense of work-life balance and those with that healthy sense often perform better – thus becoming valued employees.
Valued employees are called “valued” because they are valuable: they’re better at the job, make a bigger contribution, are engaged better, are solution-focused instead of problem-focused, are more efficient, achieve higher productivity and realize their worth to the organization. In essence, valued employees are valued because of their self-leadership abilities. What company wouldn’t want valued employees?
But companies, in this era of political-correctness, don’t want to seem to favor the valued employee for fear of resentment from the other employees. They feel they can’t play favorites for fear of causing dissension in the ranks. So they do nothing. One person’s effort ends up being celebrated as a team achievement. The rest of the team knows who did the work. The valuable employee feels cheated that they didn’t get the recognition they deserved. And guess what, dissension starts to form in the ranks. The employees, all of them, think management is out of touch with the organization.
Attitude Adjustment: As a manager, you need to publicly commend your valued employees – often. Celebrate their successes. It sets a standard to which you expect performance. Those not up to the challenge will likely just move on. That’s OK, they weren’t valued employees anyway. Others will figure out that they have the power to improve their own performance and will likely strategize a plan to do so – eventually becoming valued employees themselves.
Attitude Adjustment: As an employee, you have the power to determine your future. Right now, you’re being paid exactly what the organization thinks you’re worth. Want your pay to increase? Then become more valuable. It’s the valued employees who make the most money, get the better perks and get celebrated more often. That person could be you but then that choice is yours. Don’t tell me that you’re stuck in your job because you can’t catch a break. You’re there by your own doing. If you don’t change your attitude and become accountable for your results, well then you’ll end up getting what you’ve always gotten.
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