Successful People Always Use These 9 Reliable Ways to Impress The Boss and Gain Respect
WE ALL WANT TO IMPRESS OUR BOSS.
There are some tried and true ways to succeed in this endeavor and ways to completely fail. You want to succeed, stand out, and be thought of as a trustworthy, successful professional from the very beginning. While you are building up your reputation and the trust of those you work with (and for), there are many ways you can stand out as the shining star in your workplace.
You want to show up and have everyone else thinking, “Thank goodness we hired her. She’s amazing.”
From watching many people stumble through their careers, while others soar, here are 9 reliable ways to impress your boss:
1. Be Competent (and honest)
Yep. You have to be decent at your job to impress your boss.
Competency is the baseline for earning respect and trust. People simply won’t come to you at all if you can’t demonstrate that you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about.
Reality Check: We can’t possibly know every single thing we need to know for complete and total competency, probably ever, but certainly on day one.
Embrace that reality right away with honesty and humility – people will like you better for it, I promise. AND do not let it become a thing.
Get your rear in gear and go learn what you need to know. Demonstrate a genuine and eager thirst for learning and understanding the ins and outs of your job whenever the need or opportunity arises. Ask Questions, shadow other masters, read articles, take classes, and practice. Show your boss that you take any deficiencies very seriously, you will impress her, and others, quickly.
2. Be On Time
Back to basics.
I have to admit this one is my personal nemesis at work. Either I get complacent or I’m optimistic about the amount of transition time I need.
Yet we have all seen “the latecomer” enter a meeting, and we know exactly what sort of feelings surround that person when they do. Particularly if it’s a serial latecomer.
In our culture, being on time is a sign of respect. It says, “You (and everyone else in the room) are important to me, and I want to give you the full amount of time you requested of me, at the time you requested it. And, by the way, I’m ready and engaged.” Respect.
I heard Dr. Steven Rogelberg, author of the book “The Surprising Science of Meetings,” give a great presentation at a conference I recently attended. (Check out his book here!) He specifically addressed the detrimental effect it has on a meeting’s productivity and outcomes when the meeting starts late. And this guy studied his fair number of meetings. Yikes. Don’t be that person!
3. Be Prepared
I really wanted this to be #1. But being prepared starts with competency and punctuality, so it’s #3.
Being prepared to impress your boss looks like this:
- When you’re going to a meeting, know what it’s about. Read all of the relevant materials ahead of time. Be prepared with comments, suggestions, or questions to participate. (More to come in #4) Have your own resources or reference materials ready to go to answer questions only you may know.
- If you’re running the meeting, know what it’s about. Ok, you smirk, but I know you’ve all been to that meeting. (“Remind me what we’re doing…?”) Be prepared with an agenda, in whatever format, even in your head. Know who you’ve asked to the meeting and why. Have varied and interesting strategies to spark conversation and engage all participants. Simply put, make it worth everyone’s time.
- If you’re giving or assisting with a presentation, know your materials backwards and forwards.If you are highly skilled at going off the cuff, that may be fine. If you know this is your weakness, find a quiet space and practice – several times.
4. Participate in the Conversation
This is major!
Think back to your high school days and the student who was always jumping in to the conversation. Not the annoying one. The intelligent one.
Now think back to the kids in the back of the class, with a blank face, droopy demeanor, and no interest in whatever was going on.
We’re not in high school anymore, but I see this every day.
You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. I never am. But I can be the most engaged person in the room.
That doesn’t even mean that I always have something to say, but it absolutely means that I maintain constant eye contact or focus on the speaker and their materials. I react with my face! (don’t laugh) I keep my face energized in a natural way that says, “I’m listening and following, and I’m interested.” It’s not theatrical or fake, and most importantly, it’s not RBF.
Ok, so engaged facial expressions – check!
Conversation: participate! There is a reason you are there at that meeting, training, or whatever it is. Don’t force it, but try to find at least one point in the conversation where you can insert a point of view for consideration or simply a clarifying question.
Do your best to be a part of the mix. And know that RBF + Silence = Judgmental/Rude/Egotistical (the assumptions go on and on)… Do not let others write your story! Do not let them decide who you are. Participate and show them.
5. Follow Through
Short and sweet: Do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it.
And if something changes in your work load or your time line, TELL SOMEONE! Don’t let it slide and apologize later. Or worse, say nothing at all. Be proactive and communicate. People are far more forgiving up front than on the back end.
6. Offer Help Quickly and Consistently
I call this one, “raise your hand.” Raise your hand when opportunities to help come around. You will impress your boss to no end and you will earn a reputation as someone always willing to help others. That is worth its weight in gold.
The number one place I see this attribute widely publicized by supervisors is in promotional recruitments. They’ll brag or appeal to the interview panel: “She is always volunteering to help out or work on something no one else wants to do.”
7. Always Offer Ideas or Solutions
This one can be a game-changer when you make it a habitual problem-solving technique. This can be the difference between a needy somebody and a standout employee.
Of course, know when to use independent judgement. Know when you are competent enough to make a decision and do so within your known boundaries and authority. That first.
Even more importantly, know when to ask for help because you are unsure of the answer or it is outside of your authority limits.
And (this is key), when you go to ask for help, have some answers ready to go: have some thoughts, ideas, solutions, or pathways forward and offer those up to your boss.
Don’t just show up with a problem and no idea of how to solve it. Pretend that you’re in a situation where you absolutely must make a call on your own – come to that conclusion, reason it through with your boss, and then see what he or she has to say.
They might say you’re completely off base, but at least you didn’t show up without your critical thinking cap and you showed you’re willing to put in the extra effort in uncomfortable or unfamiliar territory. And that’s impressive.
8. Pretend like you’re going to win the lottery. Tonight.
Also known as: Always make life easier for your colleagues and your boss.
What do I mean? I mean, pretend like you’re going to win the lottery tonight and you’re never going back to work. Maybe in that case you really don’t care how you’ve left your work, but let’s also pretend you’re super thoughtful and care about the work load of your colleagues and friends.
In other words, think about your habits when you know you’re going to be out of the office. What do you do? You organize your paperwork, update everyone on project statuses, and create resource documents that may help your coworkers.
You want to make it so someone can pick up where you left off without digging through every single file in your office. You let your boss know what questions or issues he might anticipate receiving in your absence. And you let him know where important resources may be in case he needs them.
We do this when we know we’re going to be out of the office, but I recommend this strategy on an ongoing basis. I am not advocating for extra work for work’s sake. I am just saying, I want to know that if my daughter is sick tomorrow and I need to stay home, my work will carry on without undue panic and stress put on my coworkers.
I also want to know that if my boss has to represent my work at a management meeting I’m not in, she has every tool at her fingertips to look good. I want to have done that for her because that is the kind of thing she will remember and appreciate.
9. Manage Up Like an Adult
Last but not least, earn the respect and trust of your boss so that you can also manage up at appropriate moments.
I could write an entire blog on this (and I probably will), but for now, know that managing up is a very powerful tool that can strengthen your relationship when done professionally and kindly.
Leadership and management is evolving and we are in an era of feedback flying in all directions (up, down, side-to-side). Most critically, managing up should be DIRECT – do not gossip with coworkers, gang up on your supervisor, or start reports outside of your workgroup before you have given your boss a fair chance to hear your feedback, request, feelings, etc.
For more tips on these kinds of difficult conversations, read my latest blog on Hacks for Hard Conversations.
Ok those are just 9 ways to impress your boss. Embrace them, live them, shine!
For more tips on crushing it at work and pursuing your goals while balancing the life you love, subscribe to my Monday Motivation below!
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