There are many things we can do to contribute to our future success like continuous learning, networking and professional strategic planning. But the one that always sticks out in my mind is helping your boss and, in fact others around you, to be successful.
Helping your boss succeed will most definitely help you succeed. Most importantly, you will stand out in what is often a very crowded arena of employees. By being the one that continually contributes to others’ success you become recognized as a unique team player.
So here are 3 ideas we can use to help our boss succeed:
- Be a great communicator.
Communication goes both ways in a relationship between you and your boss. You hope he or she communicates well to you but more importantly you need to communicate well to them. This means timely information presented in the right format. This means that your reports, updates and the general information you provide to your boss gets to them at the right time without having been asked or reminded. And it means you formatted in a way that was readable by your boss without a struggle.
But this also gets to email versus voice to voice, detailed report form versus executive summary with links to the detail and face-to-face meetings versus a quick phone call. Your boss will succeed when you can communicate the right information at the right time in the right format.
- Knock your responsibilities out of the park.
A simple idea: just be great at what you do. Behind every great person there is at least one, if not many, great people and you need to be part of that team. When your boss thinks about success, he or she needs to think of you and what you did to contribute to that success. Great work creates success for everyone.
- Come with solutions.
Rather than complain or critique all the time, be the one that suggests solutions or improvements. Get the conversation going with the bright minds around you to stimulate the discussion about solutions and don’t be the one who has a reputation for complaining all the time.
Your boss is the most important person in your current work environment. Cultivate the relationship. Work hard, deliver well and help them day in and day out.
Stand out as being special and the rewards will come.
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1 thought on “3 Ways to Help Your Boss Succeed”
I like the last one, come with solution. I hate when people come to me with problems and just dump it on my desk for me to solve. You can come to me for help on solving it, but you have to have an idea of what is the problem, a possible fix but need more info to get the best fix to the problem! This is being pro-active to the fullest!