Ever wonder why some people get promotions
and recognition and some don't? Or, have you
considered how you might increase your
chances for promotion and recognition as an
excellent performer? Of course, there's no
simple answer to these questions. People are
promoted for a number of reasons, some fair
and reasonable, and some not - that's life.
Still, if you want to enhance your
opportunities in your organization and want
to move up the ladder and have increased
responsibilities, there's one important
strategy I can share with you. It's simple
on the surface, but not quite as simple in
practice. Here's the strategy:
Start Doing
Your Boss's Job
Here's how it works. The
person most helpful or harmful in terms of
getting a promotion is your immediate
supervisor. He or she is the person who can
help or hinder. What determines which it
will be? Well, certainly your performance is
important. But it's all about perceptions.
You can create positive and powerful
perceptions on the part of your boss by
making his or her life easier. It's that
simple. If you can:
-
reduce your boss's
workload
-
eliminate hassles
the boss is concerned about
-
prevent problems
the boss is normally responsible for
You become more useful to
the boss. That's a good thing and tends to
get noticed.
Of course it isn't quite
so simple. While you want to be useful to
the boss, you don't want to usurp the boss's
responsibilities. A great way to dead-end
yourself is to take on some of the boss's
job when your boss doesn't want that to
happen. So, you have to know your particular
boss well enough to know what you can do and
what your boss doesn't want you to do. We
call that knowing the limits to your
authority and your action.
Here as some tips to help
you out:
-
Get to know your boss
well enough to understand what drives
him or her nuts about the "boss job". A
good way of thinking about it is to ask
yourself: "What kinds of problems nag at
the boss?
-
Examine whether you
can do anything from your position in
the organization to help address the
boss's "drive me crazy" problem (often
there will be).
-
Decide whether you
should do something to help or not. If
you know the boss well enough, you will
probably also know what the limits on
your authority and actions might be.
Still, it's always good to check it out,
and offer the solution to the boss
beforehand, and if necessary, request
permission to get it done. That makes it
less likely the boss will feel you are
encroaching on his or her territory.
-
Don't do any of this
so that it appears you are trying to
"score points", or manipulate the boss.
Do it because you want to contribute to
the best of your ability and with the
attitude that if nobody notices, that's
fine, provided it makes people's jobs
easier. (This is a mindset to prevent
your being seen as a selfish,
manipulative employee).
There's never any
guarantees in life, so I can't provide a
guarantee here. But I will say that almost
ALL of the people I have seen fast-tracked
in organizations exhibit the ability to make
their boss look good and make the boss's
life easier.
And the great thing about
this? Everybody wins. The organization
becomes more effective. You do a good job.
And your boss's life is just a wee bit
easier.
Post your comments at
amin@aiminlines.co.th
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