Know Their Worth

Know Their Worth

John Paul Derryberry

A typical thing happened on my journey into leadership. Little faith was put into those at the front lines. We were often disregarded as having little worth. There were platitudes made, but the kind that ring hollow over time. It always melded into a 'know your place and know your worth,' which, in leadership's view, wasn’t much. It had a profound impact on my view of how we conduct ourselves. It was in those moments of knowing that just 10% of the front-line staff failed to show that the whole thing would come crumbling down. It would be a five-alarm crisis, despite this, never really more than what was exactly needed to keep the wheels in motion. My guess is that it’s often like this in numerous other industries.  

There has been a significant cultural shift in recognizing one's individual worth. Understanding the value you bring to your team, your family, your place of work, and numerous other areas of life. And yes, I think it’s important to understand your worth to your part of the world. You more than likely add value to the numerous groups you interact with. I will not suggest otherwise, but I will suggest we spend too much attempting to quantify our own worth and miss the bigger picture. We fail to understand the value of those around us. In fact, we often dismiss their value and only focus on the negative aspects of those around us. This is a product of adding more to our math equation of our value. I often remind people I’m the leader of no one if people stop following me. I refuse to do anything that undercuts the fact that my staff have tremendous value.

It is, in fact, a way for leadership to continually claim that their brilliance is worth more than the day-in and day-out work completed by others. I have worked for 3 to 4 brilliant leaders, and I will never say it doesn’t matter because they made us better. I have also worked for three to four leaders who were difficult to work with, and if it weren’t for the value of others on the team, everything would have fallen apart. A common theme among those horrible leaders is that they were quick to talk about their own worth, but rarely took the time to understand the worth of those around them. They do not ask questions, offer no support, and believe their mere presence is enough to ensure positive results.

As I have grown, appreciating the worth of those around me has led to better outcomes in all aspects of life. The view is different, looking at people as adding to life most of the time, instead of always looking for ways to say they are diminishing life. It’s an argument that leadership is often overpaid and overvalued. As a leader, I’m not really supposed to say this, but it’s true. Give me one brilliant leader and a so-so team, and I will show you a group that will struggle. Show me a good leader with a better team, and I’ll show you a group that will move things forward. Show me a couple that knows their partner’s worth, and I’ll show you two people who will constantly turn toward each other in difficult times. Show me the other, well, we all know the results of that type of dynamic.

I want to be crystal clear here: everyone should work on understanding their worth, and leaders will always make a little more than others. There are risks and exposure that come with leading that other positions are shielded from. That does not lessen the notion that we would all do better if we knew the worth of other people a great deal more. Recognize their need to keep society moving, the family functional, or the outcomes in sight. All this is probably baked into me from feeling worthless for a period of time in my life, and it wasn't until a couple of professors flipped that narrative on its head.  They taught me that an educator who doesn’t understand the worth of their students can never really educate someone. A leader who doesn't understand the worth of those who follow doesn’t really have anyone to lead.