Value is not an easy concept to grasp at first! It needs a lot of experience to understand it and even more experience to be able to provide value to the people you associate with. The problem with value is that it means something different for each one of us. And it does not relate always to money!
For me, for instance, extra value in a project is to provide more tools and ways to continue the stakeholders in pursuing their objectives. On a personal level, providing value means to make people doing more of what they want, to look better and to feel better without doing it too obviously! For someone else might be to free the time to do more important things they want to do. But, in essence, everybody agrees, that value has to do with something that someone when receiving it, transforms his/her life for the better!
The value does not necessarily relate to money or financial assets. You do not need the fortune to provide to someone, you associate with, a little bit more of what his or she expecting from you! Either personally or professionally. In business, the things are more structured and the value, usually, is measured in quantified terms (products, outputs, etc.)
But many times, to provide value or do more for someone is very simple and does not cost you a dime! You can provide someone intangible things and still to worth a lot for his/her. Things like some of your time, an acknowledgment, a laugh or a smile, a sign that you are paying attention, a gesture, etc.
In practice, there are many ways you can use to provide value to someone or to a situation. Here are some you might want to use in your everyday life:
- Pay attention to objections, questions, worries, anxieties, fears, etc. of people, for these, are the indicators of the areas they might need assistance
- Listen carefully what they have to say to understand what makes them troubled
- Stand in their shoes. Think about the problems they have to solve and the situations they have to deal with and find out what you would have done in their position. Use that knowledge to help them more effectively
- Treat your significant other, your family and your close friends in a more professional manner. Do not take anything for granted. You should always be able to surprise them and provide them things that are important to them in a manner that shows respect, caring, and deliberation.
- Do more than what they expect from you, to do
- Do a work on his/her behalf
- Elaborate something or research something of importance and provide it to the one you think he/she can benefit the most from its usage
- Introduce to someone a new concept, an idea, an approach, a new tool he/she could use to achieve more in his/her life
- Do not create them overload or put them to do extra work. Instead, do that work and provide the output to the ones they can use it
- Think about something someone would need and provide it to him/her, without a cost
- Provide SMART and viable solutions to be quickly and promptly employed by them
The whole point of providing value is to help them in the way they want to be helped and not on how you are thinking that they should be assisted. Try to treat, with the same mindset, all the people you associate with, either in your personal or/and in professional life. Because the value provided should be a mindset cultivated by you to employ it in every situation!
When you want to provide value, you should always try not to provide the fish itself but rather to train the people you are interested in, on how to fish! Training and inspiration should always work in tandem!
