Taking steps to turn yourself into a more valuable asset typically benefits your career. By going the extra mile, you can catch your manager’s attention. In turn, you’ll usually have greater access to career-boosting opportunities, including exciting projects, skill-building responsibilities, and promotions.
Fortunately, a few small adjustments to your approach can make a significant difference. Here’s a look at five ways to enhance your work performance to catch your boss’s eye.
1. Don’t Just Present Problems; Offer Solutions
When most professionals encounter an obstacle, have a question, or otherwise need support from a manager or colleague, they often present the situation and then put the ball in the other person’s court when it comes to the solution. While this may seem like a viable way to get answers, it isn’t ideal if you want to elevate your professional reputation.
Instead, before reaching out to someone else, identify at least one potential solution. Then, you can request the other person’s insights, not just when it comes to the challenge ahead, but a plausible way to get past it. Often, this makes you seem more competent overall and can position you as a skilled problem-solver even if your solution ultimately won’t work. Essentially, you’ll come across as more credible, and that makes a difference.
2. Avoid Shooting Down Ideas
In collaborative workplaces, you’ll commonly end up discussing someone else’s ideas for a project. If what someone presents doesn’t seem ideal, your initial instinct may be to shoot it down in its entirety. The problem is that this approach comes across as negative and judgmental, which isn’t ideal.
Instead, spend a moment discussing any merits, paraphrasing the points that you think do work. Then, pivot to discuss how to improve the parts that don’t feel like a perfect fit. That allows you to build on an idea instead of being a naysayer, and that’s more likely to garner the respect of your colleagues and your boss.
3. Learn to Adjust Your Communication Style
Everyone has their preferences when it comes to communication. However, not everyone is willing to adjust their strategy to better meet the needs of others. By remaining open and shifting your approach based on what works best for those you’re engaging with, you can have more meaningful conversations. Plus, it highlights your adaptability and lets you showcase a critical leadership trait, as communication agility is often essential when leading others.
4. Align with Your Boss’s Expectations
Every manager has unique expectations of their team. Often, those expectations are the basis of how they view your performance. Even if your work quality is generally on point, if you’re not aligned with what your boss is specifically after, they may not view as positively.
Speak with your manager regularly about their priorities and expectations, both when it comes to individual tasks and in a broad sense. Then, you can use that input to shift your work approach as needed, making it easier to impress your boss with your work.
5. Ask How You Can Help
If you’re continually exceeding expectations when it comes to your work quality, one move that can help you stand out is to speak with your boss. Ask them for insights about how you can help them excel specifically, seeing if there is anything you can take off of their plate or otherwise do to ensure they catch their boss’s eye.
Essentially, by proactively supporting your boss’s success, you can boost your own. Your boss will appreciate that you want them to thrive, too, and that can open new doors for your career.
Contact TekCom For New Opportunities
If you’d like to learn more about how you can enhance your work performance or are interested in finding new opportunities that let you take the next step in your career, the staff at TekCom wants to hear from you. Contact us today.
