It seems like every job or promotion nowadays is more about who you know than the work you actually do. So how are you supposed to break through the nepotism and cronyism that is so rampant within the world today? While a lot will depend on your management and company, hopefully employing some of these tricks will help give you that edge.
Anticipating your manager’s needs
Before you click away from this post, let me explain. To anticipate your manager’s needs, it means to understand how they communicate and what they are expecting from you. This does not mean you need to be catering to you manager’s every whim as though you are a meager servant. Let’s break down what this looks like.
Understanding how your manager communicates allows you to limit the amount that you are micromanaged. If you manager is more hands on and constantly asks for updates on your deliverables, getting ahead of them and providing those updates before they ask can have huge positive impacts. These can be hourly updates or end of day updates, which helps build trust between you and your manager. And while this can be a double-edged sword in the sense that you might be assigned more work, it can also mean that your manager will have your back during promotions, since they can have faith you will complete the work. And hopefully if you are assigned more work, the work will be good exposure within the organization and for higher management to see you.
Knowing your manager’s expectations has many layers, and while I don’t think this is as important as communication, I think it is an understated way giving you an edge. Understanding what your manager wants in terms of how your tasks are completed (coding standards, document formatting, following up with colleagues, etc.) means that they won’t have to spend as much time correcting your work, which allows them to continue to have trust in your abilities to get the job done.
Communicating effectively
Communicating effectively is not just about how you word your updates to you manager or provide information to your team. This is also how you craft your answers when asked questions in forums that have higher leadership or are cross departments, where what you say can be heavily scrutinized.
You should not speak the same to other teams or upper management as you do within your team or to your direct manager. This may seem obvious, but there are some small caveats that you might overlook or not think about. I have always been under the impression that if you are being assigned work, that it would have to be approved from the top. But just because its approved, does not mean they know the specifics, and so you need to be much more broad when providing information about the work being done.
When giving an update to your manager, or providing information to your team, you can be as specific as needed. Providing longer write-ups or deeper explanations can help them understand the work that has been done and allow them to summarize what you are saying if they are asked by others.
However, when you are giving information to other teams or upper management, the explanations you provide need to be adjusted. In nine out of ten cases, your manager’s manager does not care about the specifics. They just need the keywords, such as the project is progressing smoothly, or if there is a specific blocker, outline the steps you have taken to remediate the issue and include the people or teams you have reached out to for assistance. When providing information to other teams, you do not want to bog them down in the specifics, for even if they are working on a task similar to yours, they might have different prerequisites or implementations. Giving them the broad strokes for your approach is going to be much more helpful, and if they need a specific example, they can always ask.
Prioritizing your workload effectively
We all have way to much work on our plates, and there will always be more to do and more ad-hoc crap that is assigned at the last minute. This means that you will need to make sure the work you are completing each day are the tasks that are the most important. And if you are assigned two or more items that are of the same priority, then you will need to check with your manager and have them provide which item is the first one you should work on. Make sure to get the response in writing if you can (so you can reference that if anyone asks why you are progressing on one task and not another), since that is your manager’s job. To assist you with your tasks.
In some cases, you may be lucky enough to be given the organizations goals for each year, quarter, or month, which makes it a lot easier to categorize your tasks, especially if your boss is not as helpful as they should be. If you have the ability to compare your work against the company as a whole, then as long as you have a deep understanding of how your tasks relate to the company’s expectations, you can refer to those documents when your manager is inquiring why you are focusing on item one instead of item three.
In short, having knowledge about how to effectively communicate with your boss and colleagues, as well as understanding the current climate of goals within your company, are the best ways for you to set yourself apart from your coworkers when it comes time for promotions. But remember, it isn’t about doing everything right, but doing the right thing at the right time. You will hopefully have multiple opportunities, and with enough practice and effort, you will definitely be on the short list the next time raises and career advancement are being discussed.
Leave a Reply