How to Communicate Your Value at Work: Being Capable Is Not the Same as Being Understood

Welcome to another RCL session. This time around, this session's topic was narrative positioning for growth at work. And in the opening minutes, Deepak made a statement that set the tone for everything that followed. In his own words, "being good at your work is not the same as being understood for your work."

That is the sentence worth putting on a t-shirt. And it is what I would like to break down in today's blog.

The Problem Nobody Warned You About: Why Good Work Doesn't Communicate Your Value at Work

Here is what most professionals do. They work hard, develop real skills, deliver real results, and then assume that the quality of the output will eventually speak for itself. Sadly, it doesn't work that way.

And the reason is not that the work is bad. Most times, the work is often excellent… the problem is that excellent work, left unexplained, makes you replaceable.

See, in any Lego set, there are thousands of identical orange four-blocks, and you can swap any one of them out without consequence. But there is always one piece that can only go in one specific part of the model. That piece is irreplaceable. The goal of narrative positioning is to stop being the orange four-block and become the piece that cannot be substituted.

The cost of not doing this is specific and measurable. You get passed over for promotions, you get assessed backward, meaning someone looks at what you did two roles ago and uses that as the measure of your ceiling today. You are visible in the room but unclear in the minds of the people who matter. And that gap, between being seen and being understood, is where careers quietly stall.

Why Your LinkedIn Profile Is Making It Harder to Communicate Your Value at Work

Resumes and LinkedIn profiles, as most professionals write them, do three things only. They list duties and responsibilities, they list tools and skills, and somewhere in the middle they drop a few isolated achievements copied from the last performance review.

That is a description. And a description, however well written, tells people where you have been. It does not tell them where you are going, what value you create beyond tasks, or why your experience matters for what comes next. The moment your profile reads like a job description, the HR person files you under a label and moves on.

Positioning is different. Positioning answers the question the reader is actually asking, which is not what did this person do, but what will this person do for us and where are they headed? That shift is what moves you from being filed to being remembered.

The Four-Part Framework That Helps You Communicate Your Value at Work

This is where the session became most practical, and Deepak laid out four dimensions that need to work together for narrative positioning to hold.

Clarity.

You know what you want to be known for, and you can say it in one sentence. Not a paragraph, not a list of adjectives, one sentence about the value you create and the way you create it. Most professionals have never tried to write this sentence, which is precisely why it is so difficult the first time and so powerful once it exists.

Value articulation.

You explain outcomes, not tasks. The difference is significant. "I prepare reports" is a task. "I prepare analysis that allows senior leadership to make decisions about where to invest over the next quarter" is a value statement. One of those makes the reader lean forward. Numbers make it even sharper. Specific outcomes land differently than general claims, and the professional who has trained themselves to speak in outcomes rather than duties is immediately more noticeable than the one who has not.

Direction.

You have made it clear, to at least two people who matter, what you want next and why. Deepak was specific about this. Telling your manager that you want to grow and get promoted is not a direction. That is a raised fist. A direction is naming the three roles you are building toward and asking precisely how this person can help you move there. One gives your sponsor a box to work with. The other gives them an open field, and most sponsors do not have the time to navigate open fields on your behalf. This is the same logic behind the internal advancement strategy most professionals never build.

Consistency.

Your LinkedIn, your resume, and the way you talk about yourself in person all tell the same story. The moment those three are out of alignment, you create friction for anyone trying to advocate for you. If the resume says one thing and LinkedIn says another, the person trying to put your name in a room has nothing coherent to work with.

Deepak was clear that most professionals are missing at least one of these four, and that the gap they do not close here is the gap that shows up later in the promotion conversation.

Description Versus Positioning: The Real Test of How Well You Communicate Your Value at Work

Deepak put two candidates on the screen in Section 6 of the session, and the contrast was stark.

Candidate A wrote: "Strong operational background. Led teams across multiple functions."

Candidate B wrote: "Built and scaled two operational functions from scratch. Most recently led a team through a restructure that preserved headcount and cut delivery time by 35%."

Both candidates may have done exactly the same work, but Candidate B gave context, named the event, and named the outcome. Candidate A gave a description that could have been written by anyone, about anyone.

Now ask yourself, which version is closer to what your resume currently says.

Deepak told the story of getting his role at Sun Microsystems from a conversation with a recruiter at his gym. That pivot happened because he could, in under a minute, articulate his direction and what he was building toward. The recruiter happened to have exactly the right opening. But that outcome was only possible because the narrative was already there, ready to deploy.

The professionals who are advancing right now are not necessarily the most talented people in the room. They are the ones who have made their talent visible to the people who decide.

The Four Questions That Help You Communicate Your Value at Work This Week

Deepak closed the session with four questions he uses in his own coaching work. They are worth writing down.

1. What do I want someone to understand about me, quickly? Not in paragraphs, in one precise value statement.

2. What value do I create beyond the tasks I complete… can I name outcomes, numbers, and the specific difference my presence made?

3. What are the strongest themes across my experience… is there a coherent pattern, or does my history read as a series of disconnected jobs?

4. Does my current story support the next move I want to make? In other words, am I describing the professional I was two roles ago, or the professional I am becoming?

If the honest answer to any of those is unclear, that is where the work starts. Now you have the information dialed down, let’s help you with the implementation. See, this July, we are launching the new RISEUP, a solution for professional decision-making. And we are currently inviting 300 more "Founding Builders" to join our current platform for free.

Join the waitlist and receive 100% Free Lifetime Access to the Builder Tier on the new platform as a thank-you for your early feedback.