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Opportunities
A leg-up to go up! Dressing up to go up!
EVERYBODY wants to be that whiz kid who flies high and rises faster than a rocket at escape velocity! Look at yourself! What makes you different from everyone else at your level? Do you look any different? Are you trendy like them or are you sloppy and drape yourself in grunge? To differentiate you from the hoi polloi, you need to look like you are ready for the next rung of the ladder.
So what do you do? Do you stop being trendy? Do you give in to Grunge? No! You think and work it out for yourself! Who are the people who will recommend your candidature to the next step up? Obviously, your team leader or supervisor. How do they dress? Like your peers? Unlikely. Probably a lot more sober and mature in their clothing and demeanour.
Do you think they will be happy to give a grungy or trendy junior an opportunity to join in with their group? Impossible. They will settle on the one person who behaves like one of them and one who respects their way of life.
If you are soberly dressed, tending to conventional over the flashy disco colours and designs the chances are that you will fit their bill! Try to be smart and clean at all times. When people drop in at home, don't look too dishevelled, presenting the best possible picture of yourself rather than looking as if you stepped out of the garbage dump!
Rising with the sun will help rising at work!
Getting up early is something that our mothers tell us to do all the time. When you begin to work, you might like to listen to that! Get to work before every body else and fill in the time by prioritising your plan-for-the-day. Categorise things into `important and urgent', `urgent' and `important'. These are things you need to get through the same day in the same order. Other stuff, which is easier to do, can be held over for a time when you have the leisure to do them. If you have to carry over something that's important but not urgent to the next day, remember to re-categorise it to `important and urgent'. In the evening stay after the official closing time. It's important that your supervisor begins to depend on the fact that you habitually come in early and go back late. It sends a subtle message about your commitment to the people who matter. If there are any administrative issues about your staying on after hours, tell your supervisor that you're always on call. Offer to put in some extra work should any be available, and say that you'll be happy to be that extra shoulder to the wheel. Great advice, but don't make it seem too obvious. If they say they'll let you know, don't refer to it till they get back to you! Remember that patience is another virtue they look for!
Let your `Zing' give you `Zip'
If you are competent, it is likely you'll be good at your job. But competency is what is expected from everybody. What makes for promotion is excellence! You can only be excellent if you enjoy doing what you do, not if you find it a dead bore! You have to make your job interesting and you have to let others know what it is that enthuses you about what you do so that people are encouraged to give you work that you will do better than they would. When people know you do a certain thing well, they will tend to look on you as the `expert' in that field, and, experts get promoted!
Do more to get more!
Never grudge any extra work that is given to you. Volunteer for things that you feel will have a telling effect on the company. Accept responsibility for things to do and, having understood it well, do it as best you can, checking with your supervisor if your effort is going the way he planned. Credit should devolve on him too!
Meet with your supervisor at least once a week alone to get feedback on how you are meeting his expectations. When interviewing, ask openly if you can have exclusive access to your supervisor for personal feedback for half an hour once a week. When you do ask, accept the good with the bad, making notes in the areas you feel you can improve. At the next meeting mention how far you have come!
Honing your skills
Any executive training programme in the organisation should be something to which you must aspire! Ask your supervisor and get him to agree by showing how the training will benefit the team and add to its productivity. Make a spirited attempt to get sponsored for external programmes too and if you are too junior to be nominated, try and attend workshops after office hours set up by the local management associations. Who do you think will get promotion, the one who stays at home watching Baywatch or the one who has all the training required to do the job?
Make like a delivery boy!
What's so special about deliverymen? They deliver! And that's what you need to do all the time too! Whatever you say, every boss looks at the bottom line and if you consistently add to it, you'll be among the few that's doing it right! A bit of advice. Never say you're going to get something done when you can't! Its fatal if you do that! The mantra here is under-promise; over-deliver! Negotiate to do less than you intend and then make certain you give them what they originally wanted. That way you'll be better valued! And what happens to valued employees? They get promoted!
A touch of PR
Check the past year's MIS records and if you find that your performance has made a difference to the company, create a record a balanced scorecard if you like and give it to your supervisor. Credit will be yours, but it will be his for having managed you so well, so a pat on his back or a promotion for him will become one for you too! Show how you:
Improved the bottom line by saving money
Improved income by being more effective in selling
Actually serviced more clients compared to the same period last year (provided that your present supervisor was not the last incumbent!)
The actual metrical quantum of your work compared to the corresponding period last year
Just in case
In the event that for some wheel-within-wheel reason you don't get the promotion you expect (and deserve) it may be a good idea to look elsewhere. Even your own company may have opportunities in other departments.
Explore them. Even if your own supervisor has wantonly overlooked your talents, others in authority may not have! Ask around, and who knows you may get what you want! If nothing does work out continue doing your work, give in notice and leave with dignity.
Its always nice to have friends when you leave; you never know when you'll meet them again... or where!
S.RAMANUJACHARYA
professor1@sify.com
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