It is one thing to come to work and complete your daily tasks. It is another to show up and win at work. There are plenty of ways to be a great employee, such as showing up on time and producing great results but winning is so much more. Winning sets future leaders up for promotions, raises, and praise. Here’s the first set of tips in our How to Win at Work Series to help you succeed in your career.
1. Manage Your Manager
You may be wondering, how can I manage my manager? Managing your manager has little to do with assigning tasks and telling your manager what to do. In reality, managing your manager means understanding your manager so that you can know exactly how to make a great impression on them when performing on the job. A great way to learn more about your manager is during your one-on-one meetings. Find out their likes, needs, wants, and preferences so that you can drive conversations.
Why is driving the conversation important? Let’s say your manager is a “numbers person” and your goal is to persuade them to accept your proposal for a new project. Knowing how your manager thinks and makes decisions will allow you to create a proposal with the analytics needed for your manager to review. You are directing them to the, “yes,” instead of hoping they say yes. Therefore, you win strategically!
2. Seek a Mentor
Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The keyword here is “guide.” Having a mentor at your job can be beneficial in the first 6 months as you are learning your role in the beginning stages. Once you have identified and built a relationship with a mentor this is your opportunity to have someone to run ideas by, check your work, and help you to meet others within the company that may help you move into future leadership roles.
3. Get Acclimated
Learn the company culture and get acclimated. According to The Balance Careers, company employees whose values align with the company culture perform better and enjoy working. Also, understanding the organization as a whole will help you to know just how important your role is and how your success relates to the company’s goals. This level of understanding is what an employer wants for rising leaders in their staff.
If you want to learn more about the company culture you should join the employee clubs, committees or think tanks to learn more about the company’s needs and who you are working for. Research and ask your coworkers about company culture as well.
4. Offer Help to “Learn”
here are many reasons for offering to help. One is to become more knowledgeable and learn new skills, procedures, etc. Knowledge of company policies, tasks, projects, and programs makes you an asset and valuable to an employer. It also labels you as an easy fit when leadership positions become available because training will be much easier and quicker than if a new or inexperienced employee takes the role.
You can also offer to help teams and coworkers in other departments at your job. This will allow you to add new skills and experiences to your resume as well as build new relationships with others that you may not have otherwise met or interacted with outside of your department. Networking and relationship building with your coworkers helps you to build a name for yourself and stand out to senior leaders.
5. Ask for Feedback
Improvement and growth happen when you know which areas you need to work on in your career. Know how you can do better and succeed by asking your manager for feedback. Moving along in your day-to-day without finding room for improvement or playing the guessing game around if you are doing well at work is not going to cut it. Be proactive instead of reactive and ask for feedback. You will learn more about asking for feedback as during the #HowtoWinatWork series. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on how and when to ask for feedback from your manager.
Winning is a marathon and not a sprint. You can complete these 5 things over time and become the office superstar that you are destined to be. In fact, take the next step and share this with your boss and human resources. Tell them you are ready to win!
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