ALT-2 Advance your Career Tips to help you Stand out at Work
Whenever I think about what it takes to advance a career, I can't help but remember lessons learned from a book I read several times. Of the lessons that were learned from that book, sincerity and service are touted frequently. Along the way, I also learned from real life that diligence, patience, and perseverance do pay off as well.
No one likes a brown nose and that includes your boss. If you are making an effort to get noticed, remember things like birthdays the names (and ages) of kids or grandkids. Avoid agreeing with everything just because it's the boss saying it. A boss who is a strong leader will value sincere input from someone who actually knows how a widget is manufactured or used, what its limitations are, and can offer ideas to improve it. Be helpful to others around the office. When you have a lull in your own workload, see if anyone else could use an assist. You will be noticed and valued for being a team player by doing so. You'll also experience the added benefit of being genuine instead of a brown nose.
In terms of service, customers come in many forms. Whomever receives your widget to do their part of the production is receiving the fruits of your labor. How you treat them and the effort that you put into your widget will be noted. The downstream customers are usually the easiest to spot, but what about your upstream customer? Who hired you to do your job? Are you not providing a service to this person as well? If you have a printed copy of your job description, review it on occasion. Examine it for what is expected of your current position and the opportunities to prepare for the promotion that you would like to see in a few years. Periodically, it can be very beneficial to evaluate the processes that you use to accomplish your daily assignments. If you can identify possible methods to improve those tasks, write them down and categorize them into two categories - those that require approval and those that do not. Try out the ones that do not require approval for at least a week and evaluate the difference. How much more work were you able to accomplish during that week? Armed with these results and your list of items that need approval, make an appointment with your supervisor. Go over what you've accomplished independently and ask about the list items. Identify one or two of the ideas that could be tried out. As your ideas begin to improve processes, you will begin to be sought for advice in your area. The boss now knows that you are thinking about the company and providing more service than you were hired for. If a raise doesn't follow within the next year, it will be time to ask for one.
The name of that book was, 'Making Friends and Influencing People' by Dale Carnegie. It has helped in many ways since the first two readings. I still carry a copy of it with me for reference.
