The Value Gap in You

I'm not a manager but I've managed small teams and have been managed by bunch of managers during my career so far. I've come to a personal conclusion (with a strong chance of being completely wrong) that I've a Real value and a Perceived value. And from one manager to another there is a difference in these two values from time to time. This gap can lead to good career opportunities or a stale period in the career.

So what is the Real value - these are the capabilities and differentiators I show on my resume. It's there on a piece of paper that goes to the manager and he makes a decision based on the black-and-white letters he sees on it. I'm experienced in some of those things and in others I would be a complete novice. Also these are tagged to you for future reference as well. A bit shaky definition, eh! Well, it's what people know about me, it could be simple definition about me - like an engineer, analyst, singer or a programmer etc.

And what is the Perceived value - well, the best way to describe it is 'what others think about you'. It's the perception of the others about you. Sometimes this value is entirely baseless and other times it is based on experience the other person had with you. It could be a random chat in the lift or the messed up presentation you gave! This value is also formed of what you think about yourself as some times I don't know what I can do. This value is very important as a higher value in this can help in stepping inside otherwise doors that would have been closed for me. In a way it is the adjective assigned to me.

If you've decided to read further - I now propose that there is a gap between these two values. So I'll try to take you to three possible scenarios when one value is different from the other leading to the gap.

Real value > Perceived value - so basically the perceived value is lower than my real value. Is it advantageous? From my experience a BIG NO. This shows a lack of confidence in my abilities. People already know what I can do but they don't think I can do any more than that. I'm good but not much hope of being better or the best. Is there a way to solve this problem? Yes, I've to market myself more and involve in activities which are seen as 'above and beyond'. It could be a case of adding more value to your skill set so there is opportunity to close the learning gap and minimize this gap or even close the gap.

Real value < Perceived value - this is messed up! I'm not really sure how this could happen. And I don't want to comment about others as I'll definitely get comments which would imply I'm comparing myself with others with biases because they got the appreciation but I didn't. But if we think sensibly we've seen people who are perceived highly for some unknown reasons. I'll give them benefit of doubt. But if this was to happen with me then I've a big learning gap to cover. As people would send me work that's way beyond my abilities.

So as I said in the beginning this is not a theory and hasn't been conclusively proven by evidences but just based on personal understanding. How much do you agree with me?