You have just won a massive order! Great, Congratulations. You trained your entire team to perform independently...Well Done Indeed. You achieved your annual sales target in 8 months... Outstanding!.
You might have a long list of achievements, but what if you are so passionate about your job that only you know about your accomplishments and no one else knows about how much your contributions have helped your company achieve profitable results. When salary increments, promotions and bonus' are being announced, you may just be left out.
The people making the decisions need to know what you’ve done. You need to make sure your manager and the rest of your company is well aware of your contributions.
Here are five tips for getting credit for your work.
1. Keep Your Manager Informed
You should not assume that your manager knows what you’re doing, the great progress you’ve made, or the obstacles you’ve overcome to get the job done. Make it your mission to provide that information.
If you wait until your annual review, your accomplishments will be old news. You will be in line with your co-workers who are also pushing for their own accomplishments to be presented.
Your Strategy Should be
Make sure your manager knows the status of each of your major projects, at least a weekly update . Highlight how you’re leveraging relationships with other teams or colleagues and making him or her look good in the process (e.g., “Jack in marketing was confused about the pricing strategy, so I brought him up to speed based on the guidance you laid out. We’re both on track with the goals you set for margin”).
By having regular conversations, you’ll remind your manager of your value—and keep it in the front of his or her mind on an ongoing basis, instead of just once a year.
2. Focus on Results
As a manager, I found that during regular update meetings with my team, they tended to focus on sharing the activities they’d completed throughout the week, from making phone calls to holding meetings to creating power point presentations.
However, while those types of activities are certainly necessary, what I really wanted to know is the impact those activities had on the organization.
Your Strategy Should be
Instead of giving your manager a list of tasks you’ve accomplished, explain what those tasks mean in the bigger picture.
So, rather than: “Last week I met with 10 of our suppliers on rebidding the widget production, and then I had a conference call with the team to share our progress.”
Try this: “I met with 10 suppliers last week. Three are seriously hungry for the business, and I suspect we’ll be able to increase our projected savings by at least 5% based on negotiations. That’ll be worth $1.5 million in revenue. I’ll get you the final number once completed.”
3. Get Social Proof
When you do something awesome and your colleagues/clients express appreciation, ask them to speak up on you behalf. Managers especially love hearing from satisfied customers, and this is a great way to collect feedback on your performance!
A brief note to your manager or team lead outlining how you helped achieve a desired result, overcome an obstacle, or move the project forward will generate visibility.
Your Strategy Should be
When someone acknowledges your work, ask him or her to make it official: “Thanks for recognizing me in the project wrap-up meeting this morning. The results we got together were over the top. Would you be willing to send a note to my manager about my contributions to the project? She holds you in high regard, and it would be a tremendous professional validation coming from you.”
4. Get in Front of Decision Makers
The power of presenting your ideas and results well, carries just as much sway in your career as actually doing the work. When you make the right presentation to your boss, you’ll create a memorable impression. Soon, that manager will know your name, which will give you a boost when it comes to performance reviews and special projects.
Your Strategy Should be
Identify one of your strongest projects that you feel confident talking about. Get the chance to present the progress of the project to your Director. A good presentation will catch attention and present you as a confident speaker. Make your manager look great in the process.
5. Take Your Stolen Ideas Back
There will undoubtedly be a time in your career when you run an idea by someone to get some feedback, and he’ll love it! He’ll love it so much, in fact, that he’ll turn around and present it as his own idea.
This can be extremely frustrating, but you do have some options.
Your Strategy Should be
Now, you’re not going to interrupt the meeting where the topic is being discussed and say, “Hey, that was my idea!” But you can present more details, numbers, and data to support your suggestion. In other words, take control of the conversation to direct the spotlight back to you.
For example, “Yes, the numbers show that sector is projected to grow by 12% next year. Also, I talked with the logistics team a couple of weeks ago about this, and they are ready to build more capacity into the system. Competitors haven’t ventured out there yet, so we’ll be ahead of the game.”
Boom. You now own it again. —and you’ll end up with the credit.
We all need to be good team players. It is amazing what can be accomplished when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.
But remember, that teams aren’t promoted; individuals are.