Segment from ‘Pursue Value Not Goals,’ by Morten Hansen

from "Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More" by Morten Hansen

The value equation hinges on three components. The first of these has to do with how much your work benefits other people or your organization. The phrase "benefits to others" can mean contributing to your department, your office, a colleague, your company, your customers, your clients, or your suppliers (or even to the community or environment). The benefits themselves can take various forms, including enabling others to do their jobs better, helping create new products, or devising better methods for getting work done. 

The second component of value is the quality of your work—the degree of accuracy, insight, novelty, and reliability of your work output. 

The final component of value is how efficiently you work. 

To produce great value at work is to create output that benefits others tremendously and that is done efficiently and with high quality.