Boost your career by adding value
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Excellent performance ratings, great careers and enviable reputations rarely come to people just doing their day job. Your manager is looking for ways in which you go above and beyond what is expected.
Here are six quick tips to start to add value:
“It’s the few pence of taxes spent on planting daffodils on the roundabouts that people notice.” In the same way, it is the small investments of time in adding real value beyond the everyday demands of your job, that raise your profile. What daffodils will you plant this month? Will others connect you with a range of improvements?
- You can add value through little actions. While notable achievements do a lot for your reputation, they’re not always needed – the little things matter too. For example, if you’ve been working on a new approach to something take the time to document that and share it with others. Or perhaps you can sit down for a couple of hours and find a better or quicker way of doing something. Are there things that take time or cause bottlenecks in your team’s work? Could you invest time in finding a way to remove these? Small wins that improve processes will do wonders for your career.
- Do the things that don’t get done. There is always a bucket list of things that are seen by the team as important, but also as too difficult or too time consuming to do right now. Can you take one of these things and deliver on it?
- Think before you do. In organisational life people rush from A to B to C with little time to stop and think. Instead sit back and spend 5-10 minutes thinking about the meeting you’re about to join or the document you are about to send. Often you’ll spot something you haven’t seen before or find an angle you hadn’t noticed which has a big impact on the end result. Adding value doesn’t happen by rushing – you have to put some strategic reflection into it.
- Do what you say you’re going to do. In a somewhat unreliable world, you can be seen as adding value simply by doing what you say you’re going to do, every time. And don’t just deliver – keep people in the loop so that they know that you are on the case and making progress. When things go silent, people start to worry! Become a ‘safe pair of hands.’
- Measure the value that you’ve added. Ask yourself the question – did I do a good job? If so, how do I know that I did? You need hard measures you can point to. Calculate the saving of time/money; the impact on customer service or risk or accuracy or backlog. Quantifying your achievements will ramp up your reputation for being focused on the value you add to a team or business…
- Communicate the value that you add. If you’ve achieved something, make sure you let people know about it. It is entirely possible to share your pleasure in new figures that show improvement, or talk enthusiastically about progress you are making for the business without ‘boasting.’ Think of it as sharing good news, and getting everyone focused on continuous improvement and feeling part of a successful organisation. Put this in a context of also sharing other people’s successes, and team progress and achievements. Mention positive results in meetings, in conversations with colleagues, do a status update in LinkedIn or add results to your profile. Make sure that it’s easy for people to see what you are proud of and excited by.
“It’s the few pence of taxes spent on planting daffodils on the roundabouts that people notice.” In the same way, it is the small investments of time in adding real value beyond the everyday demands of your job, that raise your profile. What daffodils will you plant this month? Will others connect you with a range of improvements?