Career Tips and Advice

Success File - Fast Track To Promotion & Recognition

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.