The Difference Between Your Value and Knowing You’re Valuable
By: Brian Monheiser
Tags: Integrity, Corporate Culture, Military, Geospatial Industry, Geospatial

I’ve been in the GIS, Geospatial, and GEOINT community for 20 years now and it makes me feel old saying it. I will take the feeling old because it also means that I’ve learned and experienced a lot in those 20 years, and I look forward to the lessons and experiences of the next 20 years.

My geospatial journey started with the Marine Corps and that is without question the single greatest decision of my life other than the decision to become a father. My time the Corps was followed by experiences and opportunities with Anteon, BAE Systems, NW Systems, Esri, and most recently Boundless. Each of these professional waypoints has provided me a lifetime of lessons learned (good and bad) and shaped how and who I am as a professional, but none has had the impact (excluding the Marine Corps) that Spatial Networks has. I am forever grateful for those other opportunities, but in Spatial Networks I found something special.

I found a culture and a professional family. A family that genuinely cares about one another and cares about doing what’s best for the customer and the greater good before that of the individual. This corporate culture is a scaled up and out version of our founder’s (Tony Quartararo) personal code of conduct, and conduct referred to as “Professional Integrity.” He demands it of himself, demands it of his employees, and demands that we demand it from our own relationships. My move to Spatial Networks was valuable for many reasons, but most importantly because it has re-energized me and resulted in deeper/more mission-focused thinking than ever before and a new tagline:

Know the difference between your value and being valuable.

Every single person within an organization is both, but they all bring something different to the table. Everyone has value within their organization, and is also valuable to someone both inside and outside their organization — and that goes for the geospatial community as much as (in some cases, maybe more than) anywhere else.

Most people can tell you what their value is to their employer. Fewer people truly understand why they’re valuable.

I’ll explain the difference:

In the Marines, I provided value as a geospatial analyst. It was my job to be prepared, be precise, and explain the battlefield. I’d build a virtual world for the guys headed out there so when they arrived, it was like they’d already been there: There’s a five-story building. There’s a broken-out window on the east side of the third floor. There’s a back door where you can get out.

That was the value I brought to that role.

But when those guys completed the mission and were one step closer to going home to their families? That’s why I was valuable.

Here’s another example: Account executives provide value to their companies by establishing and maintaining relationships with their customers and bringing in revenue.

But account executives are valuable to their customers because they act as advisors and advocates. With their knowledge of the company and product, account executives are able to make recommendations to help their customers be successful and solve problems. (If their customers are not successful, they won’t be customers for long.)

So, you see the difference. But not everyone does.

Here at Spatial Networks, I don’t think our software developers truly understand how valuable they are.

They know their value: They build best-in-class software solutions to help our customers solve their problems. They come in, they write their code, and they go home. (A little oversimplification, maybe, but you get it.)

What they don’t know is exactly how their work impacts the end user.

They don’t see the decisions our customers make with the information they are able to derive from our software. They don’t see that their work — in many cases — literally saves lives.

It’s a big deal! (It’s also why I was so excited to join the team last year.)

So you can see why it’s important, as an employee, to understand more than just your value to a company. When you understand why you’re valuable, you find purpose and passion in your job and in your life. Then you not only find more joy in your work, but you have more power over your whole career.

And as a boss, you want your employees to know why they’re valuable because people who are passionate about their jobs work harder — gladly.

When everyone in an organization knows not just their value, but why they are valuable, everyone wins together!