This post may meander in a few directions, but ultimately is about answering one question:
How do you know if you are relevant at work?
Let's start by breaking down relevance into two useful categories.
Self-Relevance
This category is about you, and only you.
How relevant are you because of specifically who you are and what you bring?
A way to gauge this is to take a look at what you're involved with at work, and ask, "Am I only a part of this because of who I am, rather than because of what I do?"
If you work in medium-sized or large organization, you know the people who have high self-relevance.
They are the ones who generally everybody likes and are often involved in many things outside of their specific domain.
The foundation of self-relevance is trust, which takes time to build.
Another way to think of self-relevance is reputation. If you have a positive reputation, you're likely high in self-relevance.
Role-Relevance
This category has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with what your role does.
In the context of your organization, can you see how your role specifically plays a part in some critical pieces?
A way to gauge this would be to look at what you're involved with and ask, "Is it clear that the domain expertise of my role is required here?"
Another gauge would be, if you can point to something at work and say, "In order for this thing to happen successfully, my role must be a part of it."
Some Insights About Both Kinds
Increasing role-relevance is the workplace equivalent of leaving a place better than how you found it.
Having high self-relevance but low role-relevance is beneficial for your organization in the short-term, but is a risk in the long-term.
If you're looking to graduate from your current role, focus on increasing your role-relevance, so as to make your job very appealing for the next candidate.
A key to building role-relevance is repeatability. What are the things that repeat in your organization and how can your role play a part in those repetitions each time they happen?
Self-relevance can compound, whereas role-relevance often has an upper limit.
Returning to the Question
How do you know if you are relevant at work?
Well, it depends on which lens you are looking through.
