Being successful in your career involves adding value to your organization by helping it, and your supervisor, reach their goals. Success also involves effectively competing for promotion opportunities. Note: These keys to success are excerpted from the 38 page e-book Career Success Guide: Techniques to Increase Your Ability to Advance which also includes examples, tips, techniques and secrets on the items below and more.
1. Adding Value
Adding value is being helpful to your organization by contributing something of value (work products, ideas, leadership) to the organization's success. By adding value to your organization you will be seen as a contributing, successful employee who is a key part of the organization's success formula. How do you add value?
2. Work Hard
You must work hard to be successful and valuable to your organization. But what does this mean, exactly? "Working hard" can be defined as producing a high quantity of work that is of high quality, at levels equal to or higher than the norm in your organization.
3. Accumulate Knowledge
Some of your education will be gained by studying your organization's strategies, plans, etc. and by increasing your formal education. This will benefit you in two ways: the knowledge you gain will allow you to stand out from your peers; and it will help you to recognize improvements, and ways to contribute to your organization's goals, which is a value generator for you.
4. Form Relationships
Your ability to build and sustain relationships with your supervisor, peers and customers is one of the most important factors in your ability to succeed. Relationships will help you in many ways:
a. Your supervisor will get to know you better and may want to help you meet your goals and objectives.
b. You’ll feel more comfortable with assignments and will know your supervisor’s preferences when you get to know him/her.
c. Your peers will become trusting of you and will help you with advice and pitch in when you need it.
d. Your customers will promote you to their peers and possibly to your supervisor when you do a good job for them.
5. Communicate
Your communication skills are very important to your success. Even as important as your technical skills, because you must be able to communicate your ideas and issues to your coworkers and your supervisor in a way that’s effective. You must be proficient in oral, and written forms of communication, and also how to give presentations.
6. Collaborate
A mainstay—or should be--in most organizations and a way to exhibit “maturity” in your job. Project level collaboration includes working with your peers and stakeholders to develop a better outcome. Collaboration is a great team builder and it allows stakeholders to feel some ownership in the solution.
7. Lead
You can add value to your organization by exhibiting leadership in your performance of your job. I know, you say you aren’t in a leadership position, but there are ways you can still lead even though you’re not a “titled” leader.
8. Generate Ideas
All organizations need fresh, good, workable ideas that are relevant to meeting and exceeding their goals. Good ideas that innovate a process or function to save time or money are “point” (value) generators extraordinaire for you. Your leadership yearns for good ideas that they can implement and brag upon.
9. Stewardship
Every organization and project has a budget it needs to work within. Your supervisor is responsible for his/her portion of the organization’s budget and is probably evaluated on how well the budget is managed. You can help stay within the budget by being reasonable, perhaps even frugal in how you spend and consume. Even if you aren’t at a level that makes buying decisions, you can make suggestions to those that do. Your supervisor will appreciate your efforts and will applaud your initiative.
10. Competing
Whether you realize it or not, you’re in competition with your peers for promotions, pay increases, and sometimes the right to continue working. Consequently you must quickly find out how to add value to your job and your organization. Then you must contribute more value than your coworkers, so much more that it’s obvious to everyone, including your supervisor.
11. Create Visibility of Your Value
Don’t cheat, lie, or cast dispersions on your coworkers to make yourself look better. That approach will only get you in trouble. Do it the hard way: by working harder, smarter, longer, and with higher quality. Volunteer for special assignments and additional tasks that come up, to help a coworker who’s behind schedule (make sure your assignments don’t suffer), etc. You will be rewarded for your hard work because your supervisor will recognize your contribution is helping her/him and the organization to reach their goals.
12. Dress for Success
Look and act like the position you want to obtain. If you are in a “line” position such as an accountant, analyst, engineer, etc. and want to be in a lead or coordinator role, notice how the people in those positions dress and emulate them. You must give the perception that you’re “promotion material” in how you dress and act. If you're seen as being promotable, you'll have a greater chance of being considered for the next opportunity to advance.
13. Use Your Age and Experience to Your Advantage
There are stereotypes attached to age that are both positive and negative. For example, people who are young are looked upon in two ways; from a positive point of view, they are seen as bright and energetic; but are also assumed to be inexperienced and mistake-prone from a negative point of view. People who are older are labeled as having lots of experience and make less mistakes, but on the down side are thought to be less energetic, ready to retire, and not as smart. Whichever category you fall in, you should accentuate the positive aspects and work toward dispelling the negative stereotypes in your case. If successful, this will show your supervisor that you're valuable in even more ways.
14. Make a Plan
You must make a plan for what you want to accomplish in your time with the company. This plan should contain goals and objectives in the form of the position or series of positions you want to hold to be successful in your organization and the steps you’ll need to take to qualify for them. You'll stay focused on your goals and have a greater probability of being successful by having a plan and working to it.
Being successful in your career is possible if you add value to your organization and are recognized for it. The items listed here, if practiced properly, will increase your chances of success.
Paul E. Lubic, Jr., MBA is an executive with 40 years working experience. He has learned and applied the tips and techniques in this article and his e-book Career Success Guide: Techniques to Increase Your Ability to Advance, in his career to advance from a very low job in a shipyard to being an experienced executive. He has gained insight at the worker, supervisor and executive levels that he shares in an easy to read manner. His ebook is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in their job and would like some tips, techniques and secrets of how to do so.