The Intersection of Perceived and True Value

by: Michael Jordan

““Continuous alignment requires an unflinching commitment to adding value and communicating its meaningful impact on others.””

— Michael T. Jordan

I can recall the moment a new direct report gave me this extremely well-rehearsed ending to his introductory phone call to me.  He warned that I “should never succeed nor fail in silence”. 

That phrase ended up becoming my mantra during that period of my career and it still hits me hard to this day.  Here’s why: 

• No business person with integrity would ever fail in silence.  Also, the risk to the business is too high.  I always use a line I got from a former work teammate. He would say he had five words he “never wanted to hear”. 1. You 2. Never 3. Told 4. Me 5. That

• If you succeed and score victories in silence, then you’re left only communicating your failures.

• Therefore, communicating success has to be the counterbalance to business transparency. The ol’ “good news, bad news”.

As usual I will protect the names of the innocent in the below rough accounting of a recent conversation.  It was with a small business owner colleague that has made a decision to move away from being a solo operator to what some would call an “ensemble firm”.   

Our discussion reminded me of that dramatic warning about silence.

We were discussing how he would slowly remove himself from most, if not all, daily operating functions and toward maximum impact on business growth. He would have to shift how he spent his time and his role would have to switch toward being more outward facing.  In other words, we were flushing out his value and its quantitative relationship to daily activity.  

““Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  ”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Image credit: Carl Richards

I shared that in my experience, and he agreed, it is also not enough to put in the long hours only to continuously add value in a vacuum.  You must operate within it and communicate it relentlessly.

In short,  

1. your perceived value must match your true value. 

2. You must not succeed in silence.

3. Do not be apologetic. Your transparency should be without bounds.

If there is no alignment between two parties on the meaning of value, then there can be no lasting relationship.  Eventually said relationship will be commoditized away. When you deal with humans you have to accept that we are all flawed.  Most of us have short memories.  Continuous alignment requires an unflinching commitment to adding value and communicating its meaningful impact on others. Fair warning, there has to be humility in execution.

The immediate implementation goal should be to create ‘proper imbalance’ in the allocation of your most finite resource.  Time should be dealt with a strict bias toward those things that accomplish your aim (even if that aim is to help someone else reach their goals).  Key among them are consistent communication and engagement.

That same colleague went on to share how he had an eye-opening exchange with one of his top clients recently.  His office had recently adopted online scheduling software. 

When this client clicked his link to schedule an appointment, he was shocked at how busy the calendar was for even a phone call. He felt proud to know my colleague is in high demand.

I bet he would easily understand the business decision to create more infrastructure through addition of new team members. The client’s perceived value now matches the business owner’s true value.

I’m not saying to go buy new software or to show off your packed calendar.  There’s not always a direct correlation between scarcity and true value. However, I am saying to “never succeed nor fail in silence”. It’s essential for continued success.  Any other way, you risk giving up control over how others define what you bring to the business relationship.

Own it.  Share it. You’ll attract it.