Fifteen Tips for Being the Indispensable Employee
Robert A. Hall
Some
employees are more valuable than others. Sorry if I’ve hurt your self-esteem
and bruised your feelings. It hurts my feelings that the New England Patriots
pay Tom Brady millions and won’t even give me a try-out. Okay, so I’m a LOT
older than Brady, in lousy shape compared to him, and lettered in chess in
college. Every human being is unique and equally valuable, right?
No. Tom
Brady fills the stands and puts millions of fans in front of the TV on Sunday,
providing an excellent return on investment for his large salary. The only
entertainment value I’d provide would be for the lynch mob of fans hunting me
after my first appearance on the field.
However
valuable you may be to your family and friends, that doesn’t make you valuable
to an employer.
All
employers are looking for employees who provide value. Those who provide the
most value are the least likely to be cut in a downsizing, and the most likely
to receive raises and promotions, because the powers-that-be want to keep them
around.
That’s
obvious, right? Then how come so many employees act like their job is a right,
and that they must be catered to?
The really
successful and valuable employees are always trying to make themselves
indispensable. Here are fifteen tips on becoming the indispensable employee.
1. Commit
yourself to constant improvement. Perfection doesn’t exist, but all
organizations and individuals can be better tomorrow then they are today. Look
at your job every Friday and ask yourself, “How can I do a better job next
week?” Then do it.
2. Commit
yourself to life-long learning. Takes courses and read books and journals
that will help you do better in your area of specialty. But, equally important,
expand your horizon. Read widely in other areas as well. Study the field that
your organization operates in, so you understand the customers and their
problems. Study the jobs of your colleagues, so you understand—and perhaps can
help with—their problems. And study trends outside your industry that may
impact the organization and customers. Yes, you can’t read or know everything.
But you can always read and know more.
3. Banish,
“That’s not my job” from your vocabulary. Everything that helps advance the
organization is your job. The more you contribute in other areas, the move
valuable you will be.
4. Banish,
“We’ve always done it that way” from your vocabulary. Nothing is more
constant that change. I was ten years into my professional career before I had
a computer, fifteen for a fax, over twenty for e-mail and the Internet. If I
was still doing things the way I’d done them then, I’d be unemployable.
5. Avoid
gossip, drama and back-biting with your colleagues. It seems like every
office has a Drama Queen or King, who is constantly involved in small feuds,
has problems with colleagues, and is generally high maintenance. You-know-who
has to be tiptoed around. And the boss is dreaming about how nice life would be
if only that person could be moved on. Don’t let it be you.
6. Pitch
in. Look for areas where you can help your colleagues with their
challenges. Do more than your share, especially of the unpleasant takes, the
“dirty jobs,” that are present in every employment situation. Don’t work in a
silo.
7. Banish
Busy Work. Look for ways to be more efficient, so that time-consuming,
repetitive work can be eliminated from your schedule. Can data-entry be
computerized directly from the Web, or out-sourced overseas? Having lots of
busy work to do doesn’t make you valuable; it makes your job fungible. There is
always more valuable work available to fulfill the organization’s mission.
Getting rid of busy work will allow the boss to assign you more valuable work.
8. Make
the boss’s life easier. What skills can you apply, what can you learn, what
can you take on that will solve a problem for your supervisor? Solving a couple
of the boss’s problems every year will make you pretty indispensable.
9. Be
the “Go To” employee. If there’s a problem, and they think first of getting
you to work on it, they won’t think first of you if staff census needs to be
cut.
10. Keep
a cheerful attitude. Sure, we all have problems. But people don’t like to
work with those whose hobby seems to be whining and complaining. Your boss
doesn’t either.
11. Go
the extra mile for the customers. Don’t have to be pushed to do what needs
to be done to keep the customer happy. When you provide out-standing customer
service, the customers will mention it to your boss, who will appreciate you
all the more.
12. Share
the credit. When your supervisor says you did a great job on a project,
saying, “Well, I couldn’t have done it without Mary’s research” reflects well
on you, and makes you a star for Mary. Sincere compliments cost you nothing and
mean a lot to your colleagues.
13. Don’t
try to outshine your colleagues. Say you have a great idea as to how the
marketing department could increase sales. At a staff meeting, in front of
everyone, you could pipe up and say, “Well, I think marketing could have increased
sales by….” Or you can go to the Director of Marketing privately and say, “I
have an idea I was wondering if you’d thought about, that might help our sales….”
Which will serve you better in the long run?
14. It’s
your organization, too. Yes, we are fond of saying, “it’s the customers’ organization.”
But it’s also yours. And not just your little piece. Take ownership. If your
area is doing well, but your organization is floundering…your area is NOT doing
well. It’s like folks on the Titanic saying, “Well, the BOW may have hit an
iceberg, but we’re nice and dry here in the STERN!”
15. Be
the most dependable person around. Under-promise and over-perform. If you
say you will do something, your supervisor should be comfortable forgetting
about it, because she knows it will be done well, on time.
If you
noticed, there is nothing on this list that you and I cannot do as well as Tom
Brady. And following these rules can make you an indispensable employee.
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