Stand Up. Step Up. Play to Win. 10 Steps to Advance Your Career Pt. 2

6. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOURSELF. If you are not being offered assignments that stretch you or allow you to demonstrate your skills, propose one. There are problems waiting for solutions around every corner everyday. I often tell people to find the gap and fill it. Find the gap between what is and what should be. If you know that the supplier that you’re using is continually raising prices, take it upon yourself to investigate the alternatives. Identify the other providers give the pro’s and con’s for each and link your proposal to the overall goals of the department. If you know that your workgroup will be facing cutbacks (and who isn’t) talk to your manager about researching ways to do more with less. What good manager would deny you the opportunity? If you are denied prepare the reports anyway. Make sure that you document compelling evidence to support your position.

7. FOCUS ON RESULTS. The goals are what you are shooting for but the results are what you get. Don’t focus on the list of tasks that you have to complete. You could finish your entire checklist and accomplish little. Not only that you could waste precious time, money, and energy and get nothing in return. Get clear on the end result. What will success look like, how will it be measured? Track and report your accomplishments in terms of the results that matter to the organization. Speak to the results, quantify them whenever you can, make sure that you can justify your decisions. Use the terms, "increase," "improve," "reduce" to describe your efforts. Consider The Business 6™: revenue, productivity, quality, costs, cycle-time, and customer satisfaction.

8. MASTER THE UNWRITTEN RULES. Sometimes at work we find ourselves talking about decisions that were made and how something different should have been done. Jack Welch of GE fame once wrote, “Live life as it is not as it was or as you wish it were.” Those who succeed where others do not typically have an in spite of mentality”. Rather than spend time spinning their wheels about what may have been they begin with right here and right now. It’s difficult for others to do that because there is a sense of security in believing that work is guided by an unalterable script that should be followed. Those scripts, that playbook hold only the written rules of work. The written rules are the ideals the unwritten rules represent reality. Identify the five most important unwritten rules in your company. Do the examples listed sound familiar?

9. MANAGE PERCEPTION. There is truth, there is reality and then there is perception. You have to assess yourself through the eyes of others including peers, direct reports, managers and other departments. You don’t have to change who you are but you do have to manage the way that others see you. Think about the reputation that you want to have. What are the three words that you want people to think of when your name is mentioned? Continually check to make sure that you are being perceived that way. Make sure that those characteristics are valued in the organization. When you complete an assignment ask what others thought of your work. Ask what you might have done better. Be open to feedback. Don’t just ask for it, listen and make the necessary adjustments.

10. STUDY THE WINNERS. Look at the people who stand out in the organization. Whose opinions and suggestions are always acknowledged? Who has risen to the position you hope to have? This is your benchmark or standard bearer. You don’t want to mimic this person but you do need to watch how they do what they do. Observe their actions. How do they present themselves in meetings? When presented the opportunity find out just how this, “stand out” moved to the head of the class. Find out their secret to success. What did it take for them to get there? What paths did they take to get where they are? While you are watching also watch how others respond to them. Measure yourself against that success. Adopt the winning characteristics and fit them into your own style.

While others are simply taking on more and more work hoping to get recognized, you should be working at incorporating these rules into your day to day activities. It’s time to get off the bench. Hard work is important. Doing work that matters is necessary. Being recognized as someone who makes a difference and influences results is the key. Don’t wait for permission to advance your career. Stand up and be counted. Step up the challenge. Get in the game and play to win. (see steps 1-5 in part 1)