Tony (name changed for retaining confidentiality) an ambitious senior professional who I coached wanted to progress at a fast pace in his career. While Tony is good at his work he did not know what exact steps he needs to take to be recognised by his company as an outstanding employee.
There are many professionals who perform their work well however are not in a position of being categorised as excellent – someone who wows his/her bosses with their performance.
When you start approaching your work with an objective of genuinely adding great value, your behaviour starts changing for the better. And once you start doing the things that really matter, you are noticed within the company and you increase your worth. The advantage is that you get rewarded with additional responsibility, better pay hikes and great support to keep learning and evolving. So your career starts progressing at a fast pace.
So here are 7 TIPS that help you become an outstanding employee:
1] Have an entrepreneurial mindset:
Few key traits of an entrepreneur are taking the complete onus of the outcomes, showing up everyday in spite of challenging situations, going the extra mile every time, no excuses, looking at failures as opportunities to evolve and delighting customers by constantly increasing the value one delivers. Once you adopt this kind of a mindset, you will get a kick-start to becoming an outstanding employee because as an entrepreneur one does not have any boss to report into; the only answerability is towards the hundreds of customers (boss in the true sense) and you will become highly focused on delivering value.
2] Define your area of expertise:
What is it for which you are the ‘Go-To’ person? Avoid coming across as a jack of all trades and master of none. Your leadership team needs to know what you will deliver seamlessly. That kind of a positioning helps you attract relevant responsibilities and you stand out as someone who delivers great results in a specific niche. You can have multiple areas that you excel in however there needs to be specific aspects which gel with your personal brand. Then as you grow in your career you can keep adding relevant areas.
3] Create impact:
Focus on delivering outcomes not on the activities. You may be performing multiple tasks however you need to ask yourself – does it create the desired impact for the company? For example – does it increase the revenue, save money, improve TAT (turn around time), improve productivity, improve a process? If it does not demonstrate impact, it will not be noticed and valued.
4] Being proactive:
Do you take the self initiative to solve problems. It is not necessary that you need to do something humongous; it is about going the extra mile on important tasks. For example, if you notice a gap in the current work system, do you on your own initiative propose how to fill in the gap, go ahead and do it? Have you improved processes which has smoothened the workflow? These are acts that impress your leadership team. Or do you have the popular habit of continuing to focus on the regular job responsibility that is assigned to you and nothing more?
5] Being able to articulate and effectively communicate:
This is an important skill. One needs to articulate what you have in mind so that the person on the opposite side clearly understands your message. Practise, upgrade and improve this critical aspect.
6] Being a people’s person:
Someone who has a pleasing personality and is easy to get along with, is always a person who develops better relationships. While you may be great with your domain knowledge and skill, your leadership team will value you more when they notice that people are attracted towards you for the help they seek or for any kind of initiatives that need to be taken. You will be seen as someone who can collaboratively get things done through teams.
7] Be appreciative of other people:
This is a quality which will help you in bonding with teams. When you genuinely feel a team member or your senior has done great work, openly appreciate in public. By doing so you are respected by people who receive the compliment and the leadership team sees you as a team member who keeps the team together. And when the opportunity comes where you have done some great work, the favour will be returned by the individuals who you would have appreciated and they will compliment you openly. That is how you stand out from the crowd. Please note, this activity needs to have genuine intent while implementing it.
Try these out and see the kind of difference it makes to developing you into an outstanding employee.
P.S : In case you are interested in a 1:1 personalised career coaching with me, please send me a DM (direct message on LinkedIn) or let’s chat here: https://aspirationjobs.com/contact/
To know about our 1:1 Career Coaching programs, please click links below:
Career Development Coaching
Leadership Development Coaching
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Job Search Coaching
Interview Coaching
Navigating The First 90 Days In A New Company
Best Wishes for a flourishing career!
Sarabjeet Sachar
Seasoned Career Development & Leadership Coach
Founder & CEO, Aspiration