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Hi, I’m Ken Lear. Check me out on Twitter @Ken_Lear for more business, entrepreneurship, and leadership tips!
Getting your assignments completed at work requires much of your concentration and almost all of your time. When you’re not busy doing your assignments you’re troubleshooting possible problems and reviewing your schedule and status of upcoming projects to make sure that they get done on time and within budget.
Your workday is spent in meetings, at your desk, on your phone, or on the road consulting with clients. Some days are so busy you have to remind yourself to stop for lunch. So, if you’re busy all of the time when do you have time to consider your career and your status at work?
Do you have a career plan? Establishing a set of professional goals is an important part of your job. It’s important to have your daily tasks under control, but you also have to keep your eyes open for opportunities for advancement that come up everyday.
Getting noticed by your boss is an important part of career advancement. But how do you get noticed without looking like you’re trying to get noticed? Well, if you’re getting your work done and solving problems on a regular basis you can be sure that your supervisors are talking you about in a good way.
Being good at your job is a good place to start getting noticed. The next step may sound kind of reckless, or even hard to do, but you’re going to have to do it. Start talking to people at the office about the work that you do. Don’t brag. Share your successes, describe the problems you faced, and explain how you turned them around.
Go to all of your office parties and social hours. Join volunteer programs at work that benefit your local community. Attend networking events at your office and make contact to colleagues from other departments. Ask them about the work that they do and the problems that they face. Ask about their expertise and share yours.
Sounds kind of like networking doesn’t it? Well, getting noticed by your boss is a type of networking—internal networking. By interacting with colleagues in other departments you’re becoming better known throughout the company.
By asking questions about how people in other departments accomplish their tasks you’re showing your boss that you have an interest in understanding how your company works on a global scale. That sounds a bit like leadership, doesn’t it? Exhibiting the traits of a leader is a way to get noticed, valued, and possibly promoted because you’ve become an active and important member of your corporate community.
