How To Get Yourself Noticed At Work

Have your talent, potential and resourcefulness on the job gone unnoticed while those of other have been rewarded? Have others of equal experience risen on the corporate ladder much faster than you? You have probably not mastered the fine art of increasing your visibility at the workplace. Adeptness at getting noticed at work in a positive way is a major professional resource.

Increasing Visibility Vs. Self-Promotion

This does not mean that you should get busy advertising yourself, which would only make you unpopular. That said, you still need to become more prominent – albeit diplomatically – with the authorities. You do this by indicating that you are ready to contribute to the business in more responsible ways.

Obviously, a great deal of tact is involved in this. The last thing you want is to find yourself labelled as over-ambitious. Getting noticed at work begins with learning more about:

• The business
• The organization’s objectives
• How the organization functions administratively

After familiarizing yourself with these aspects, your credibility quotient when approaching the managerial echelons increased multifold.

Experience Speaks Loudest

However, just knowing how a business works is often not enough – you need hands-on experience, too. Lack of this will show up, especially if an opportunity is given to you to prove yourself on the job. However, it may not be the best idea to experiment with untested management theories in a ‘live’ work situation.

The best way to gain experience is by:

• Volunteering for charity work
• Participating in a family business
• Involvement in local charity or social/environmental improvement work.

Such work gives you a chance to acquire managerial and general people-related skills under non-threatening circumstances.

Effective Communication Skills

The degree of your communication skills has a direct bearing on the image and potential you project. Any business will value the presence of an employee who has good communication skills. These are most evident in one-on-one interactions and written communiqués (such as emails or even memos). The art of effective communication does not depend on getting noticed with the use of impressive words. Rather, it is reflected in your ability to get a point across as concisely, politely and clearly as possible.

Trying to get noticed at work by razzle-dazzling others with impressive terminology doesn’t work. That, and the use of complicated sentences, will only mark you as a snob. That’s not what you need to get noticed at work for.

Improved communication skills are useful while outlining your career objectives to your superiors, too. If you feel that your verbal technique needs working on, find some useful reference material to study and also observe how effective communicators around you handle themselves.

Creative Input – A Sure Attention Grabber

A tactical suggestion at the right time and under the right circumstances can work wonders. To get noticed at work, such a suggestion should not be trite or superficial. It should have a genuine bearing on a situation. If your input is valid in the context of overall business goals, you will get noticed.

A suggestion should not be centered only what you could do to resolve a given situation. A potential manager, team leader or supervisor can never be a one-man/woman show. The ideal suggestion involves team work.

Teamwork And The ‘Common Touch’

Have you taken steps to get noticed as potential managerial material? Well, now your interactions with colleagues will be evaluated by your superiors. You will be judged on:

• Your willingness to occasionally get your hands dirty
• You ability to take suggestions positively
• Your resourcefulness in motivating people in the workforce

These are the traits that you get noticed at work for. The canvas on which you paint your new job profile is the shop-floor, not the director’s cabin.

Keeping Track Of The Highlights

Finally, keep a log of your work – especially the kind performed over and above the call of duty. This is both for your own reference as well as a record on which to make a pitch for promotion. You the right of getting noticed at work by your superiors for your noteworthy achievements. However, make sure that this is done discreetly. Most managers would be more than willing to give you a monthly appointment to review your performance. This is the best time to outline your professional goals, too.

Your objective in getting noticed for possible managerial post in an organization also matters. If the idea is plain one-upmanship, it will show up as a black mark on your record. The idea should always be to be an asset to the company and be justly rewarded for being a valuable resource.

Jappreet Sethi