Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

“All successful employers are stalking people who will do the unusual, people who think, people who attract attention by performing more than is expected of them.” — Charles M. Schwab

You can get better career advancement opportunities from your current employer, and simultaneously attract better employers to come knocking on your door. 

Simply implement the following simple 2 step strategy diligently, on a daily basis:

1. Master Your Job

Only when you’re competent at yours, will it make sense to try helping others master their jobs.

This is the first rule for success in any area of endeavor. You must develop reliable job-based competence that your employer recognizes, to be taken seriously.

You must also constantly challenge yourself to actively explore new and improved ways to get your job done with less effort, in less time, and at less cost.

Never shy away from going the extra mile as needed, to ensure you deliver results the boss is most interested in.

It is important to note that there is great power in knowing what your boss and/or decision maker(s) consider most important for achieving the company’s goals.

That knowledge helps you avoid wasting time and scarce resources on trivial issues, to focus on what really matters. It can also help you identify aspects that matter but which are being missed out by the management.

You can draw attention to such aspects, and proactively offer ideas about what to do. The best part is that once you succeed in connecting with your boss or decision makers at this level, you are likely to be seen as a “potential leader”.

Your age, or years on the job at this point may actually not bother them. It’s the potential you demonstrate that will convince them you have what it takes. Sooner than later, the secondments, special projects, and promotions will start coming your way (see item A, under “Specific Benefits You Can Reap” below).

When they do, don’t lean back and enjoy the ride. Don’t conclude you’re made. Take those opportunities you get as signals to step up your game. Then develop even greater competence to deliver superior workplace performances on a daily basis.

2. Next, Form the Habit of Helping Others Master Their Jobs

Once you’ve achieved job-based mastery, and established your reputation, it becomes easier to get other employees to listen to you.

They will either have seen you deliver superlative performances on your job, or heard through the grapevine.

Note aspects of their jobs they have difficulty with. It’s usually best not to let them know your intention upfront. Just try to spend time with them (when you’re free from your own work related obligations) getting the information and insights you need.

Then think up ways to help them improve how they work, or solve problems they have. If you come up with a potentially useful idea, offer to help them implement it.

Get it as close to being ready-to-use as possible, so they don’t see “trying it out” as being extra work.

Make doing this a habit, but do it only when you believe tangible value can be had.

Specific Benefits You Can Reap

A. Rapid Career Advancement Opportunities

When you apply this 2-step strategy as prescribed, smart employers will notice your activities. That could make them assign you leadership positions, even if “older” hands with better credentials exist.  Why? Among other reasons, it would be to get others influenced by you, resulting in overall improved workplace productivity.

True Story: A newly recruited junior level manager/brewer in a large multinational, repeatedly used his spreadsheet programming skills (in his spare time) to help senior colleagues develop automated spreadsheet based data recording and report generation applications. He also readily provided spreadsheet coaching to colleagues who asked.

Over 80% savings in time and effort for report preparation were recorded as a result.

At a point he was nominated into a companywide reports computerization project team. That gave him invaluable exposure to key decision makers. He used what he learnt to develop new solutions. This included conceiving – and proposing – a new spreadsheet based formula as an improved alternative to that being used to measure brewery efficiency. The formula was discussed for 6 months at the company’s technical review meetings – and even tested in the breweries.

Within 5 years, he rose to a position in which he supervised a team that included colleagues who were 7 to 15 years older in the company.

 By way of interest, that manager was this writer 

B. Unsolicited Job Offers

This strategy will make co-workers and bosses find you a delight to work with. Some may even look for ways to reward you, after you’ve parted ways.

For example, a chartered accountant got short listed for interview (and eventually hired) by a larger company he never applied to. He later discovered that it was a former boss who joined them, that requested to have him on her team, because of his “versatility and resourcefulness”!

If you do this right, even the employer you’re currently with is likely to give you a glowing reference to help you win a better paying job you’ve been interviewed for.

That’s how powerful this strategy is: You can actually end up having the best of both worlds!

NB: This article was originally submitted – by me (Tayo K. Solagbade) – as a guest post to a career development/HR website over 4 months ago. However, it never got used by the site owner. So I decided to post it on here, on my blog.