Man on the Moon
Elevate your story: from Tasks & Activities to the Value you bring.
There is a famous story about John F. Kennedy’s visit to the NASA space center in the early days of the Apollo project. On his way, JFK greeted a janitor and asked him what he was doing for NASA. The janitor proudly responded: “Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the Moon.”
As cliche as this great story has become, it clearly shows how purpose can illuminate even the most mundane daily tasks. Now think about how a sense of value and purpose can elevate the stories you tell during a job interview.
Don’t mix up Activities and Value Provided
To many of us, this change of perspective from Tasks& Activities to Value & Purpose is not obvious. It seems especially hard when the tasks we perform are rather qualitative in nature. So how do we go about it? Let me respond to you with two examples and two questions that help us shift the perspective.
Which job is your Customer hiring you for?
The first story comes from the book “Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career”. Imagine a full-time translator, Mika, working between English and Japanese, whose main Customers are law firms. When asked what Value she provided, Mika’s first answer was “translating documents from Japanese to English”. The workshop facilitator challenged her on how translating the documents differed from Key Activities.
Mika looked puzzled.
“What job is the law firm hiring you to help them with?” the facilitator continued.
Mika thought for a moment. “Win a lawsuit,” she replied.
“So help them do that job,” the facilitator went on. “‘Translating documents from Japanese to English’ is a Key Activity. Your Value Provided might be something like ‘creating persuasive documentation to help win a multi-million dollar lawsuit.’ Never let Clients equate Key Activities with Value Provided.”
Mika’s eyes shone. “This is a new way of thinking for me,” she said. “I’ve been searching for a way to remodel my work. I think I’ve found it.”
The first key takeaway here: when thinking about how to define the Value you provide, ask yourself,
“What job is the Customer ‘hiring’ me to perform? What benefits do Customers gain as a result of that job?”
What is at stake?
The second example comes from one of my recent 1-2-1 coaching sessions. Victoria (her first name changed for confidentiality reasons) is a seasoned government affairs and public policy manager. When I asked her about her biggest achievements, she shared with me an exciting story of how she had masterfully helped reverse a parliamentary majority vote on an issue critical for her previous employer. As interesting as it was, the story got truly exciting when, with the help of a few open questions, I understood what was at stake for the company: access to a few emerging markets worth hundreds of billions.
Here is the second key takeaway - your story will be an immediate attention-grabber when you clearly say at the outset what’s at stake - for you & for your Customer. The more primal the stakes are - survival, protection of loved ones, etc. - the better. The stakes make the value you provide crystal clear.