How to Succeed at Your Job

Kiplinger's calls this piece "how to hold on to your current job" but to me it's more of a list on how to succeed at any job. Their suggestions:

1. Find out if you're as good as you think -- get a 360-degree evaluation.
2. Be as much a profit source as possible.
3. Be indispensable.
4. Do things to make your boss look good.
5. Hitch yourself to a star.
6. Become beloved.
7. Don't be expensive.

In particular, I liked what they had to say on point #3:

Ways to be indispensable: become an expert at something critical to the organization. Sure it can be something obvious like being the guru on the new software your employer just bought, but it can be more subtle. One of my clients is a middle manager in a government agency in which there is ongoing racial strife. She became the bridge-builder between the feuding factions, making her indispensable.

This is a pretty good list not just to keep your job in tough times, but to get ahead and get a raise in good times. Do these seven things and it's likely you'll be able to ask for a raise and get it!

For more on making the most of your career, check out these posts:

• Six Ways to Invest in Your Career

• Five Keys to Increasing Your Pay

• How to Hunt for a Job Without Letting Your Current Employer Know You're Doing So

Comments

[ABCs of Investing]

Great list - my biggest problem at work is staying interested. I`ve been doing the same (good) job for a long time and it is really tough to differentiate myself anymore.

[Rebecca]

Excellent way to focus. These are all good points, but a couple comments anyway.
Point 2 is important, even if you do not generate revenue directly, know exactly what you contribute to sales or any revenue, whether by support, systems, etc.

And no. 3 is the underlying principle of it all. The best way to do this is identify what you are good at in relation to what you enjoy doing, the two will tend to go hand in hand. Find a gap in the current model and use your skill to fill it or to create a new practice which proves to increase the bottom line, however indirectly.

[Strick]

#2 is it for direct sales. For everybody else, its #3. I learned this from my wife. I always thought the way to do this was to work hard and become the best at what you do. She showed me there is one more step that makes you truely indispensable, jump at the opportunity to learn how to do something no one else at the company knows how to do (or wants to do), even if it seems a low level task. Even if its only 5% of your job, thats what your boss will think of when it comes time for layoffs or raises.

[Kevin]

Strick -
I'm not sure #2 is only for sales. Anybody bringing in new business could be considered a profit center. Along with anyone who charges for their time (CPA, lawyer, consultant) consistently coming in under budget on various jobs.

[Greg]

A caution on being "indispensable" (which nobody really is). If you can not be replaced, you can not be promoted.

[Artfredo C. Abella, Ph.D. - Philiipines]

If you want to succeed in your job you must be able to have the following qualities:
1. Efficient and hardworking;
2. Show integrity in all of your official dealings;
3. You must show fidelity to the institution you represent.
You must be loyal to your firm and for what it stands for.
4. You must avoid clutters in your office or business. Leave no backlogs and unanswered communications;
5. You must be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem in your company;
6. You must possess two distinct traits tolerateness of staff function and initiating structures or getting things done;
7. You must be service oriented. Serve the interest of your company and its clients wholeheartedly.
8. You must perform your job as if you are the owner of the firm you are working for.