Knowing your value on the job is critical personal career success secret. What special skills do you bring on the table? It is integrity? Are you a trusted person that even if you are a not so good performer, you are so handy that top executives trust you even for their personal errands?
Ask yourself why would it be hard for you to be fired? That is your bargaining chip. Remember, it takes time for you to discover your value to the business.
No executive wants any one put them at a ransom. But every executives wants to deal with professionals who give in their whole and ask for a fair compensation for their effort.
Don’t over ask for money. Focus on your supervisors and peers discovering and recognizing the value you bring on the table. To know your value:
- Understand the company’s major areas of focus, and be the champion. Contrary to strategies by people who tend to stagnate in their careers, make it an effort to train your new colleagues about the areas they need to know. Inform HR that in case they have a new staff that need induction and training about the organization’s culture and where to find what, you are free to give a hand.
- Read the organization’s strategy and understand where future growth will come from. Try to master all the process skills needed to set you apart of the pack.
Take each job at a time. Do your best. Give yourself an opportunity to learn. Involve yourself in face time activities of the organisation that give you access to key professionals in the organisation across board like organizing the company’s end of year parties, internal staff training events, etc.
Try to master a cross cutting skill that you can easily champion. For example, most countries use Microsoft office applications. Unfortunately, most users are not deep. They don’t well understand the applications. In fact, research shows that most staff in companies use just 30% of the capabilities of the MS Excel, Word, PPT and just under 0% for MS Access. Yet these are some of the most critical and powerful applications which if used at 100%, Organisational profitability could triple. Many companies spend a fortunate buying big data analysis tools which MS Access and MS Excel could do effortlessly. And where these are inadequate, an open source tool for big data analysis suffices.
Add value to the organisation by championing a specific skills e.g. MS Access. Show the CEO how they could put all their contacts easily in Access and manage their office from their better than any other application. Have a one on one chat with the company secretaries and show them the magic Access could bring to their jobs and how they would free a lot of their time to go and enjoy with their families instead of working late to manage appointments
Remember, you don’t have to stand on mountain tops to shout how valuable you are.
Your works will stand on the mountain tops and shout how great you are. Once the people in the corridors start referring to how helpful you are. How great your mastery of certain tools are. Then you are getting there. Remember, don’t learn skills most staff are already happy with. Be a pioneer. Go for scarce skills and quickly market yourself as the best resource available.
Your works will say it all and speak for you. Success.
