To grow in your career, there is no other way but to increase your value. The more value you have, the more value you can provide to others and the more reward you will get in return (both financially and in other forms). That’s why it’s essential to invest your time and money to increase your value.
There are several ways to increase your value, but here I’d like to focus on six roles that can help you do that. Three of the roles come from The Tipping Point and two come from The World Is Flat. I may miss some roles (feel free to share your thoughts in the comments) but I believe these six roles can give you competitive advantage in your career. Here they are:
1. Maven
Mavens are the people who know practically everything about their fields. They are the masters of knowledge. A maven is the go-to person when people have questions regarding the field. To be a maven, you should have deep curiosity and deep desire to learn. You should also have the discipline to keep learning even when you don’t feel like to.
2. Connector
Connectors are the people who know a lot of people. They are the masters of networking. They are the people who seem to know everybody. As a connector, your connection is the value you can provide to others. When someone has a need, he may get the solution through your network.
3. Salesman
Salesmen are the people who can persuade others. They are the masters of persuasion. They can convince others to buy from them or to do something they want. Of course, a good salesman will deliver real value without being manipulative.
4. Synthesizer
Synthesizers are the people who can connect different fields and come up with fresh ideas. They are the masters of ideas. Synthesizers live in the Intersection (a term from The Medici Effect) where ideas from different fields collide and form new ideas.
5. Explainer
Explainers are the people who can explain complex concepts in simple ways so that they can be understood easily. They are the masters of transferring knowledge. They may not know everything, but they can make whatever they know easily understood by others.
6. System builder
System builders are the people who can create systems around what they are involved in. A system builder can organize something so that it works independently without his intervention. The system can keep providing value while the system builder works on creating new systems.
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Which role do you think is best for you? In practice you may have more than one role but you should choose just one as your core competence. Spreading yourself too thin won’t do you good. To increase your value, choose the role in which you have personal strengths.
Photo by hashmil
All of these roles seem to feed of the Maven. If you’re not a Maven, you’re a Maven’s assistant.
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Kathy,
In my opinion, these roles complement each other. They are equally important since they provide value in different ways.
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Great article. I can see myself falling into several of these, so I’ll definitely work on excelling in just one.
I agree with Kathy because I also think that all these roles are equally important, in the end in does not matter the role and the strategies you are using, as long as the results will be the expected ones
deepikaur,
I also see the same thing with myself. But now I have an idea about where to work more.
Anca,
I agree. Of course, you will perform better if the role you choose matches your personal strengths.
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I am probably most gifted as a connector. But I am working on balancing that with being a maven. As Gary Vaynerchuck would say, You can have wonderful connecting skills, but if your product stinks, you don’t have much to offer when you connect. On the other hand, you can be a maven, but if you are not connecting, you don’t have many people to share that expertise with. So I am aiming for both 🙂
Steve,
Of course, we should have at least certain level of knowledge and connecting skills to be useful to others. So I agree that we need to develop both (and perhaps some other roles as well). But I think you should pick just one of them as your main role and make it excellent. After all, a connector can always work together with a maven 🙂
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[…] by. Whether you have a job or are currently looking for one, there is no time like the present to increase your value . One way to do this is through education. Going back to school and earning or finishing a degree […]