How about some risky business?

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

In advancing your career, it’s important to be aware that the riskiest part of a manager’s job is hiring a new member into their team – hiring the wrong person can hinder the team’s progress, can slow the manager’s own work down, and can upset the existing team dynamic.

As a candidate, you need strategies to make yourself look like the least risky hire. Here are three tips to help you:

1. Step up temporarily. There are countless opportunities to take on additional responsibility and show a potential manager what you’re capable of – a kind of “try before you buy” proposition. Keep an eye out for secondments, chances to cover maternity leave or sudden departures that need filling temporarily – and show the manager what you can do.
   
   
2. Take on extra responsibility within your team. Look for opportunities to take on extra work from your manager (and do it happily and enthusiastically!). And actively look for work which no one has time to do, but which will add measurable value. These projects are a great way to prove to your manager and other managers that you’re able to deal with a bigger workload and more responsibility. We’ve seen a lot of instances where these projects grow big enough for the company to create an official new role (and guess who they are likely to appoint?).
   
   
3. Make it easy for them. Consider offering to take on a new role without the pay bump until you’ve proven yourself. Sometimes it’s easier for a manager to promote you than to pay you more, due to corporate restrictions like pay freezes and head count restrictions. If you’re looking to work your way up, this could be a route that speeds the process. You get the new role, and in time the pay follows it. If nothing else, you can claim the role as a promotion on your CV, and take advantage of the chances it offers to measure the value you’ve added.

Take Away
Take a moment and find something you can take on today which shows you are capable of a bigger role.