The Lived Experience Quotient: The Most Overlooked and Undervalued Set of Strengths
Someone recently asked me, “Which one of your life or personal experiences deserves to be on your resume?” My mind went right to cookie-cutter responses about awards I won outside of work or how I managed to build a dynamic career starting with an English degree but I landed on this response: Honestly, I would have to say thriving as a Lived Experiencer — someone who has first-hand experience living as a member of a minority group — and maintaining my sense of self-worth, my belief in my capabilities, the determination to accomplish anything I envision, my spiritual grounding, and my compassion despite being in settings and environments that don’t typically signal that I’m welcome or expected to excel.
There is a strength of spirit I recognize in others like myself who manage to navigate and triumph in spaces as members of marginalized groups and emerge successful with our sense of self and a centeredness intact. I identify this strength as the Lived Experience Quotient. The value of the Lived Experience is something we should be able to recognize in ourselves, that others should recognize, and that we should claim as an asset both professionally and personally.
So how do we break down the Lived Experience Quotient into a set of skills that help Lived Experiencers navigate the workplace? What traits do we hone to excel in our work environments?
- Resilience — from repeatedly enduring and overcoming obstacles
- Adaptability — required to adjust to different treatment and behaviors across environments
- Empathy — developed from always having to read people and gauge how to engage
- Mental Toughness & Grit — developed through managing our own emotions to stay motivated and focused in unwelcoming and unfriendly spaces
- Cultural Competence — knowing how to assess individuals’ thought processes, beliefs, and motivations that differ from our own, and understanding marginalization, oppression, discrimination, exclusion, and prejudice
- Resourcefulness & Problem Solving — learning how to accomplish tasks and goals despite barriers and others’ unwillingness to assist, support, or advocate for us
- Strong Work Ethic & Dynamism — as a result of knowing that we, our conduct, and our work will be judged more critically than others, which can require expending exponentially more effort than even your superiors
- Self-Motivation — necessary for building and maintaining momentum when we’re constantly underestimated or criticized
Through the application of these skills, we exhibit more commonly recognized talents around communication, innovation, systems thinking, cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence, and building social capital.
And how do these skills set us apart in a work environment? I can share a few examples from my own experience:
- As a leader in two startups — my Lived Experience feeling unseen and unguided helped me to thrive in the midst of the ambiguity that is common in an organization that is in the forming stages and on its way to defining its structure. These skills have also helped me establish my authority and assert myself in shaping inclusive, innovative cultures.
- As a consultant — my Lived Experience of having to continually read the room prepared me to successfully adapt to constantly being assigned to new projects, which means learning new clients, new environments, and new subject matter, and adapting my engagement style to communicate and serve in a range of contexts.
- As an entrepreneur — my Lived Experience of being prejudged led me to take the initiative to create my own opportunity and space to grow without boundaries and impediments that exist elsewhere solely due to my identity. My experiences have also given me the confidence to do things differently than average businesses.
And why is the Lived Experience Quotient overlooked in the workplace?
- In most cases, only other Lived Experiencers recognize these skills in each other. When I see people who look like me who have reached the pinnacle of their profession, my awe and admiration comes not only from respect for their knowledge and expertise but an understanding of everything they must have overcome to get there. There’s an unspoken understanding among us that we need to acknowledge and more deliberately give voice to. Sometimes we don’t even recognize it in ourselves as a strength because we have become so used to operating in this way.
- Even if we want to acknowledge this particular skill set, most spaces don’t send the signal that it’s safe to articulate its value or relevance. Going back to the original question I opened this post with, some organizational cultures might not even know how to process my conveying my strengths as a Lived Experiencer on my resume or in an interview. But why shouldn’t I, given that resumes and interviews are the primary touchpoints for self-promotion and my experience is truly what shaped me into the professional I am?
- Because the Lived Experience quotient is not discussed, organizations don’t teach recruiters or managers how to recognize and utilize this skill set. If we articulate the value of our experience but individuals in key decision-making roles don’t understand or honor it, the whole point is lost.
So what’s the next step? The issue right now is that we’re not talking about the Lived Experiencer’s skills. In order for these skills to be valued, they have to be recognized, and in order for them to be maximized, they have to be acknowledged and measured. This requires organizations to expand their cultural competence and understanding of the backgrounds and experiences of individuals in marginalized groups by listening to their stories and intentionally creating opportunities for learning. When organizations operate and manage talent with cultural competence, they create space for skill sets like these to be articulated, identified, and utilized.
There is magic in your midst and you owe it to the Lived Experiencers in your organization and yourselves to tap into these hard-earned gifts.
