Most people want to succeed at their jobs, whether they’re working retail or as a top executive at a burgeoning company.
It’s important to remember that regardless of your position, a big part of your job is how you can support your managers and higher-ups.
With this in mind, here are a few tips you can use to help your boss and succeed in any job:
1. Determine Your Boss’s Needs
One of the most fundamental ways you can support your manager is to determine how they work and what their needs are. Do they prefer to communicate via email, text, or in-person?
Schedule a meeting with your boss to determine what their long-term goals are, what they need from you, and how to best deliver your work to them. While it’s important to focus on your own goals, don’t forget that you’re there to support your boss’s goals too.
If you understand your boss’s preferences and needs, you’ll quickly become a valued employee.
2. Ask For Feedback
Try meeting with your boss regularly at least every two weeks for a fifteen-thirty-minute one-on-one conversation. Take this time to ask your boss any questions you might have and get feedback on ways you can improve your work, communication, and support.
Meeting with your boss regularly can have many positive outcomes, including getting the inside scoop on other projects and events happening within the company. You never know what doors might open just from getting to know your boss on a personal level.
3. Boost Your Productivity
Learning how to boost your productivity by becoming organized and learning time management skills is crucial to both your success as an employee and your team.
If you can consistently beat deadlines, your boss is going to love you. Not just because you’re completing work early, but because you’ll also be giving them the flexibility to adapt to an issue if a problem arises before an item needs to be delivered or presented.
A few simple adjustments to your day-to-day routine at work can help you become more productive. Here are four ways you can boost your productivity:
- Create a weekly or monthly to-do list with all of the big tasks or projects you need to complete over that period. Then every morning create a separate to-do list that breaks down those weekly or monthly tasks into smaller, achievable daily tasks. Check them off as you go about your day. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done in a single day.
- Declutter your workspace. A cluttered workspace can lead to stress and wasted time searching for important items or documents that have gone missing under a pile of papers.
- If your daily tasks require heavy concentration, consider learning the Pomodoro Technique, which trains your brain to concentrate for 25-minute intervals. There’s a lot you can get done in 25 minutes when you’re fully focused.
- Minimize distractions such as having your phone nearby. Locking your phone away or turning it off during working hours can greatly improve your productivity and ability to concentrate.
4. Over Communicate
Whether you have trouble speaking up or not, it’s important to constantly over-communicate with your colleagues and boss to minimize misunderstandings.
Whether you have a new idea of how to make something more efficient or you feel like you weren’t given credit for the work you did, you need to make sure to speak up when it’s appropriate. It’s amazing how quickly things can improve or be resolved with clear communication.
Another benefit of over-communication is it can prevent your team from being blindsided by unruly customers or unfortunate events.
If you have a frustrated customer who’s demanding to speak to your boss, make sure to brief your boss first so they can be prepared to put out the fire. If possible, inform the customer that you’ll have your boss call them back so they have time to prepare for how to approach the issue tactfully.
Being a good employee is more than just about your own work. It’s also about determining your boss’s needs, getting feedback, becoming more productive, and being an effective communicator. If you can utilize these four tips at your workplace, you’ll quickly become a valued employee at any business.
