Standing out at work is the goal of many employees as it reinforces their value and acknowledges their effort. It is part of our nature to seek validation and appreciation from our supervisors, especially when we put blood, sweat and tears into the work. However, —if you play it smart— it takes less than blood, sweat and tears to impress your boss.
What distinguishes a mediocre employee from an impressive employee is not the amount of hard work nor the long hours they spend, but the strategies and attitudes they adopt to deal with work problems, expectations and goals as well as their coworkers and bosses. Therefore, if you want to impress your boss you need to open your mind and read the following strategies.
4 Ways to Impress Your Boss
- Less complaining, more improvement.
It is absolutely inevitable to find imperfect areas and issues in the workplace, it can be errors in the system or communication problems or inflexible schedules and so forth. These issues would slow down the work process and be a source of frustration for many employees. But instead of complaining about them to your boss, you should have a positive and solution oriented attitude where you can actually be helpful and a part of improvement. Hence, you should write down questions to help make the workplace more efficient. For instance:
- Do I have the right team?
- Is there an effective way to bring coworkers to communicate better?
- Is there a new technology we should have to save time?
- What is lacking in my department?
When you communicate suggested improvement ideas to your boss, they will recognize that you are a solver not a complainer. Moreover, you will contribute to the company by helping to improve the work environment and reach new accomplishments and you will be on top of your game.
- Know the industry.
The key to the success of any company is the excessive attention to the “big picture thinking“, the focus on the entire perspective allows people to envision their company and think of ways to expand it internationally. A pivotal element in this strategy is understanding the industry. For example, if you work in the healthcare industry, enriching your knowledge through books, articles, or even utilizing writemypapers service for well-researched papers on industry trends can be beneficial. And the main element that appears in this mental strategy is the industry. For instance, if you work in the healthcare industry you can enrich your knowledge of the industry by reading books or articles and sharing them with your boss. This will lead to important discussions about the company and its place in the healthcare industry around the world, and might lead to setting up new goals for the company.
- Get to know your coworkers and what they do.
In order to work smoothly and confidently you need to have a good understanding of the roles of the people you work with to establish the link between your position and theirs. Instead of asking your boss questions about your coworkers, save his time and do it yourself. This will get you a reputation of being self reliant and your boss will thank you for it.
- Take initiative.
Since bosses are busy people, they like to react not create. They don’t have the time to give everyone specific instructions that can be figured out independently, and they would love to see employees start working and researching instead of waiting for their boss to be free to explain to them exactly what they should do. Therefore, you should develop an attitude of being initiative, that can be represented in:
- Doing things without being told
- Taking advantage of opportunities that others pass by
- Thinking as a team member, not an employee
- Being enthusiastic to speak up and share ideas
- Building strong working relationships with coworkers
- Volunteering to work with different teams and departments
- Anticipating and preventing problems
When you develop a habit of taking initiative your boss will trust you and rely on you all the time and you will become a role model to other employees.
These strategies will reshape your professional character and your relationship with your boss and make you an outstanding example of the excellent employee. By searching for improvement, studying the industry, knowing your coworkers and taking initiative, your boss will be able to see your dedication, determination and intelligence and they will not help being impressed!
Written by: Jenan Sarhan
Marketing Executive