How to get noticed at work for the right reasons

BOSSES aren’t silly — well, not all of them. They notice these everyday acts, and your career success depends on them.

TRYING to climb the career ladder and get recognition for your efforts at work?

If you want to fast-track your way up, here are some key ways to stand out to your employer for the right reasons:

TELL THE TRUTH

A few years ago, I read a little book by Sam Harris called Lying. Sam is a neuroscientist with the radical idea that we can simplify our lives and improve the world simply by telling the truth — yeah, I know you’ve heard that before, but get this — he means ALL THE TIME.

The book focuses on ‘white’ lies — those lies we tell thinking that we’re sparing others discomfort. I found his stance compelling and quickly adopted an honesty-at-all-times policy. Thinking myself a truthful person, I was amazed at how many times I would have told a ‘white’ lie at work: why I was running late, who I was meeting for lunch, whether or not I’d read the policy. You know the type of thing.

I sincerely believe that building a reputation as a truth-teller even about the littlest things made people up the ladder develop a deep trust in me. I became so trusted that I was given the opportunity to lead a team.

As a manager, I discovered that everyone tells little white lies. And when you’re the manager, they’re really easy to spot even if you’re not a highly suspicious person. It turns out that lies, even those ‘harmless’ little white ones, damage your personal brand.

THINK FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE BUSINESS

It’s always good practice to think about what you would do if you were running the company. If, as my friend puts it, you were the ‘boss of everything’, what would you expect from your employees? How would you help the business to grow? How would you make it better and what problems could you solve for customers? How could you make your customers loyal to your brand? And … start to do that now.

BE A PROBLEM SOLVER

It is so much easier to complain about the way things are than to come up with ways to fix them or what you would like things to look like. Go to your manager with a problem and some suggested solutions. Offer to help implement the solution. I cannot tell you how rare this is. And how popular you will be.

ASK FOR MORE

Asking for work is another rare and impressive quality. It’s easy to think that the manager has a perfect grip on everyone’s workflow, but this is often not the case. It is such a relief when an employee shows the motivation to ask for tasks if they have capacity.

ACT LIKE AN ADULT

Nagging, sulking, criticising or being reckless and irresponsible cause huge issues between staff and their managers and colleagues. Think Vulcan: stay calm, cool and collected. Be ultra-rational at work. Admit your mistakes. And finally, respect the chain of command (unless your boss is a complete psycho, but that’s another column).

LET YOUR WORK SPEAK FOR YOU

Do good work. Speak up if you need assistance and let your manager know if there is an issue. Don’t walk around like a talking brochure with you as the only product.

Oh and one more thing: you know at work when you’re on Facebook or booking your holiday or checking your Gmail account and when the boss is coming you quickly flick to another screen and pretend you were working on work stuff? That’s really obvious. Even if they don’t say anything: they know. I had no idea about this until I was that boss! I’ll leave that information in your capable hands.

Following these principles will help you to get the recognition you deserve and the opportunities you want. Go well everyone!

Dr Christine Brown is a psychologist, manager and executive coach.