Are You the Primary Value Creator?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

You likely have more work on your to-do list than you can possibly complete today. Or this week. Or this month. In fact, if your to-do list is anything like mine, then crossing something off the list (or, in my case, checking the complete box in Omnifocus) has the strange of effect of causing two items to take the place of the one you just completed. But some of the work on your to-do list doesn’t really belong to you.

Here is the one question you can ask yourself to know whether the work belongs to you, or whether you should give it to its real owner.

The Test for All Work

The one question you need to ask yourself before you commit to doing the work is this: “Am I the primary value creator for this work?”

If you are the person that needs to create the unique value necessary to completing some task, then by all means, do that work. But for a lot of tasks on your to-do list, you aren’t the primary value creator. Someone else should really being doing that work because they can add more value to the work than you can. Or someone else should be doing because it really belongs to them. In this case, you’re probably only doing the work because you’ve rationalized it by telling yourself that by the time you trained someone, you could have done it yourself. Or maybe you’ve told yourself the big lie that there is no one can do the work as well as you can.

If you aren’t the primary value creator, you should give the work to the person that does create that unique and special value. Give the work to its rightful owner. By giving away the work in which you aren’t the primary value creator, you free yourself to do your real work, the work that only you can create the unique and special value required.