How to Make Sure Your Boss Thinks You're Doing a Great Job

Here are some thoughts from pages 145-147 of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success (a book I liked very much) where the author lists seven ways to make sure your boss thinks you're doing a great job:

1. Know your boss's priorities. Know what she wants done and do it.
2. Say no. Say yes to things that matter most to your boss, say no to everything else.
3. Communicate the way your boss does. If he prefers email, use it. If phone, use that.
4. Toot your own horn. Each time you do something that impacts the company let your boss know.
5. Lunch with your boss. If all things are equal, your boss will promote the person she likes best.
6. Seek new responsibilities. Find important holes in your department before your boss notices them and fill them.
7. Be curious. Make yourself more interesting to be around.

Based on my experience, these are some pretty good suggestions. I'll comment a bit on each of them:

1. Yep. If you take on your boss's priorities and handle them well, you will get promoted and/or better compensation than most.

2. Really the same as #1 to me.

3. Unfortunately this one is true, and you have to adapt. I personally prefer email, but have had bosses that like to be called. So I've had to deal with it. On the opposite end, I always liked employees who would communicate they way I like to -- via email.

4. Yes, yes, yes! For more of my thoughts on this, see Grow Your Career by Promoting Your Work.

5. Yes, he will promote who he likes best, though I must admit I haven't always been a "lunch with the boss" sort of guy. With my current boss, however, it's great to go out to lunch. He's a wonderful guy, we have common interests, and it's fun to go out with him and grab a bite to eat.

6. If you can do your job well plus do more, you're making a good case for being promoted.

7. I'll say that this one is mostly true, but I really don't care for it much. Make yourself interesting? Aren't you either interesting to a person or not? Can you really "make" yourself interesting? And isn't what's interesting to one person boredom for another?

The bottom line: do these things and you'll be much better off when you ask your boss for a raise (that is, if you aren't promoted first.)

For more thoughts on managing your career, see these posts:

• A Simple Recipe for Job Interview Success

• Is Your Image at Work Killing Your Career?

• Five Reasons to Turn Down a Job Offer

Comments

[mjmcinto]

I agree, #1 and #2 are pretty much the same. At my old job I knew my boss's ultimate goal was to have the company make lots of money. I worked supporting a part of the company that did exactly that. Because I knew his priorities, I said no to many other people, and him too.

We had several arguments about what should be done when he gave me projects and taskings for my team that I didn't feel were good for my team and the company. At the end of them I'd always win b/c I knew his priorities, and I just say "billy joe bob, if we do that, we'll take away support for our clients, and they're the ones making the money...if somethings changed, and we need to sacrifice helping them to make money for this, then I can do it, but otherwise, I don't think it's the right thing to do". He had to worry about office politics on a bigger scale than I did, so sometimes he'd start to loose track of the real goal, and was paying attention to the politics. Every now and then though he'd tell me that he knew it didn't seem like the right thing to do as far as my users and helping them to make money went, but we had to do it for political reasons. They really liked my integrity, and the fact that I stood up for what we were supposed to be doing, so I got promoted, and when I decided to leave (I relocated), all of management (my boss, his boss, and the bosses of my users) all tried to get me to stay. Just goes to show you that if you know what your boss and company really wants, and you stick to that, you'll do well.

Oh, and another tip....find out what your companies goal is. Even if your boss disagrees with you, if you can show how it benefits the company, and makes him look good, then they'll think you're doing a good job too. After all, what every boss really wants is to look good to his boss.

[juliet sallette]

Brilliant.. I love this post. By far this is a must read and must keep for anyone with a boss.

Thanks for keeping your posts relevant for the everyday person. It is nice to find a financial blog that includes practical topics like this.

I look forward to reading more from you...

Juliet Sallette