Let Your Accomplishments Stand Out
I got this lesson from my cousin who is an electrician. He was called one day urgently to repair a fault in an electric connection. I was with him at that time and tagged along with him. He went in, took one look at the fuse box and smiled. Then, went through every single wire in the household. Borrowed a ladder and went up and checked the cabling there. After about an hour and a half of checking and tightening some nuts and bolts here and there, he got down, went back to the fuse box, did something and called on the head of the household and told him it is corrected. The head of the hosehold thanked my cousin profusely and asked him what the bill amount is. My cousin named a jaw dropping amount, collected it coolly since he had spent close to two hours checking and repairing the fault. We came out. I asked him why he grinned looking at the fuse box. He said, ‘there was a simple problem in the fuse box. Not many people would even know to look for it’. I asked him why he spent close to two hours doing basically nothing. He told me, “If I had corrected it, he would have paid me just one fifth of what he actually paid me. He does not understand the value of time. He does not understand the expertise required to look where I actually looked for. I had spent the time to come there. I might as well check the entire elelctic layout and ensure everything else is also ok and get paid”.
That was a great lesson in show casing to the world that you are actually working.
Many people don’t do this.
The saddest part in any workplace is a guy who does fantastic things but doesnot show case it and his boss never comes to know of the initiative and the execution involved in this so the guy goes without getting the just reward.
So, how can you prevent this from happening in your case?
Here are some pointers:
One, ensure your boss is updated on all the initiatives that you take in the company. Send him a one pager on all the key tasks and actions that you took that week, at least that month.
Two, ensure that in that report, your boss gets to know about the key problems that you faced while doing those tasks. Make it fact based otherwise you would be seen as a whiner.
Three, ensure that the report showcases your efforts to institutionalise and systematise the initiatives and efforts. No boss likes a one off success which cannot be repeated. All the bosses appreciate if somebody is putting in a system which will bring in reward time after time.
Four, talk in a language whenever you talk about your achievement, about how “your team did it” rather than how “You did it”. This will showcase you as a team builder
Five, ensure that you don’t take undue credit. This can actually harm you
Six, let people know your achievements but let them also know that you are open for improvements and feedback.
