Value is created through three different sources: positional, personal and proficiency. During your working life, it’s really important to understand the source of your value, because there are pros and cons to each.
Positional value comes from your role or your environment. Think about a large organisation, where your value typically increases the higher you are up the ladder or the longer you have been around. Positional power allows you to create value quickly if you elevate yourself to a higher position within an established structure (like getting a promotion). But your value decreases once that structure falls away.
Personal value comes from your network. This is your ability to make things happen by the way you engage with others. With personal power, you are able to leverage your networks to make things happen, and you may be able to create new networks easily. A downside to personal power is the loss of a network, or only being able to engage a network based on the way it was created.
Proficiency value comes from being highly skilled or specialised. This value is maximised when your subject is in high-demand but not many people can do it (and minimised when no-one is willing to pay for it or if everyone can do it).
Think about your career trajectory. Are you relying on one particular source? What value could you deliver if you expanded to all three sources?