One of the cool things about my work through Millionaire Manners Academy and my background in management, is that I get asked all the time for somewhat general advice about navigating the mine field that is the work environment. When people ask me questions they want to know how to come out on top or sometimes jumpstart what may be a stagnant situation. While I, of course, refer everyone to reading my book, Millionaire Manners, which goes deep into many of the things that trouble most of us daily in doing our best to be impactful in our respective careers, I still thought that today I’d offer some additional practical advice around what else you can do to not only get ahead, but stay ahead and keep going.

 

I always start with the most basic of questions back the individual who engages me. That question is: What is your main job on the job? I get all sorts of responses to this question, 99% of which are absolutely correct, but they all stop short to the main point, in my opinion. Those responses range from providing great customer service, to doing great work, to serving humanity and a whole host of not ill-conceived thoughts. But there’s a deeper, yet much simpler answer to the question, and one that most people have completely either not thought of, or have forgotten about as soon as they received the position they are currently in. The answer to the riddle is this: Your main job on the job, is to make your boss’s job easier. A little counterintuitive right? I know you’re thinking, “No way it’s that easy.” Yes way. It is. I will tell you that after conducting hundreds of interviews myself, and sitting in on hundreds others, what I was listening for, primarily, is the same thing countless other recruiters, hiring managers and supervisors are listening for as well: how will you make my job easier? What will you do to take things off my plate and not add to it? What are you going to do to add value to me?

 

The truth of the matter is that most supervisors are swamped and that there always is and will always be more work than available resources to complete it. Do you know of anyone whose job actually ends when they leave the office? (I don’t). Therefore, your most important thought and the yellow-brick paved road to the upper echelons of your company lies in your ability to take care of things for your boss before they even realize there was a problem. You want to be the person your supervisor comes to rely on as a go to person. The one person they and others can’t live without. In doing this, you are not only becoming a resource for those around you, and most importantly your boss, but you are also slowly growing into the role of becoming indispensable, or as Seth Godin refers to it, a linchpin. By using your unique gift to make the jobs of all those around you easier, starting with your boss, you have cemented your position as the last person to go if ever that faithful day comes when the individual outputs of the group are pit against one another to make that tough call. Those who just “did their job” and nothing more, never fare as well as those who put a little something extra on it, then followed back up to see if that extra bit was effective in alleviating stress or pressure from the next person. When you use that unique thing, or gift or talent, you are inevitably going to fulfill most of the basic tenets and requirements of your job anyway. But when we seek to simply take the path of least resistance we often don’t get to exercise that thing that would make us special and exceptional and stand out in every situation.

 

Not sure of how to be this person, this linchpin, for your boss? Here’s what you do: ask them. “What is important to you that I should be focused on daily?” You’d be astonished at how many people don’t know what’s important to their bosses, and therefore have no chance of becoming their go to guy or gal. It’s like playing a game of basketball or football or round of golf and not knowing what quarter or hole you’re on. If you want to know, ask. Then do exactly what they say. The answers we’re looking for are usually just a question away. Albeit a courageous question or potentially scary question to ask, but one that when you get the answer, everything can be different. How can you be better today?