5 Steps to Standing Out Above the Crowd at Work
by Joan Schramm
Do you feel like one in a million at work – and not in a good
way? When you run into your boss in the hallway, do you get
the impression she isn’t sure who you are? Are the juicy projects
always going to someone else?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you need to
raise your work profile. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Listen more than you talk. If you offer
an opinion, suggestion, comment or question at every opportunity,
soon people will run away when they see you coming. Remember
when you were in college and there was always one smart-aleck
who, when the class was asked, “Are there any more questions?”
would shoot his hand in the air and hold the class up? Don’t
be that student in the boardroom. If you listen carefully and
confine yourself to intelligent and to the-point remarks, you’ll
end up looking smarter than most of the people in the room.
And when you do have something to say, everyone will listen.
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2. Meetings aren’t
for airing dirty laundry. If you have a problem
or gripe with someone, bring it to his or her attention
privately. When you point fingers or air departmental
problems in a group setting, you (a) blindside the person
you’re complaining about, and (b) have just about ruined
your chances for a peaceful resolution. Besides, the next
time you make a mistake, that person will fall all over
himself to make sure to bring it up in a large meeting
just to watch you squirm. |
3. Try to catch people doing something right.
Whether boss, co-worker or subordinate, people love to be told
they’re doing a good job. You don’t have to turn into Eddie
Haskell to be aware of opportunities to compliment someone.
Keep it short, low-key and honest. It’s even better if you can
pass the compliment to someone else. “Hey, boss, Jim was a huge
help to us on the Acme project – he made some suggestions that
should save us $20,000.” What are the chances that the boss
is going to mention it to Jim the next time he sees him? Pretty
good.
| 4. Know when to hold
‘em and know when to fold ‘em. Pick your battles.
If you’ve made the best case you can for doing something
a certain way and the boss decides to do it Sally’s way,
smile and go along (unless doing it Sally’s way is going
to send you to jail). If your way really is better, people
will remember that when Sally folds like a cheap card
table. When you do decide to keep fighting to do it your
way, make sure it’s something worth fighting for and not
just because you can’t stand to lose. If you only start
a war when the stakes are high you have a better chance
of coming out on top than if you try to fight every low-level
skirmish like Sherman going through Atlanta. |
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5. Don’t hide your mistakes. As soon as it
becomes apparent that something has gone wrong, take it to your
boss and be upfront about what happened. Have a plan laid out
to correct the problem and limit the fallout. You should be
able to tell the boss that you’ve already put the recovery in
motion and exactly what the final outcome will be. The key here
is to accept the blame without hand wringing or whining and
pointing fingers at your subordinates or other departments.
You take the responsibility, and then you take the lead in fixing
it.
Looking for more career advice? Joan Schramm is a career,
executive and personal coach with twenty years experience
in management, training and coaching. For more information
about Joan, or to talk about what’s going on in your career,
e-mail coach@achieve-momentum.com, or go to www.achieve-momentum.com.
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