Do you have a new project coming up in your company or department that you would love to work on? However, being the new person, are you worried that your boss doesn’t know you or your skills well enough to assign it to you? Here are some real-world suggestions to build your boss’s faith in you.
Get to know your boss
You spend more time with your boss and co-workers than nearly anyone else in your life, yet you might not feel like you know them very well. You might know what sort of email to write to get them to laugh, or what drives them crazy about working with a certain vendor, but do you know what sort of company they would start if they were to strike out on their own? Or do you know if they like ketchup or mustard? What would they consider the biggest success in their career? What do they do on the weekend to recharge? Ask the people you work with actual questions about their actual hopes and aspirations, not just “how was your weekend?”
Understand your boss’s goals
Because you’re the new team member, you probably have watched your other co-workers to get the feel for how they interact with each other, and your boss. You have also probably witnessed praise for a job well done, and how your boss reacts when something needs to be revised. Ideally, you’ve figured out what will score you points, and what will have you working late on a Friday. Take that one step further, and try to determine what goal your boss is trying to reach. For example, is there a financial goal that your boss is trying to meet? Is your department trying to cut spending while increasing customer engagement? If that’s the case, having to resend an email to your customers because the first one went out too early or late in the week, will not help your boss reach the financial goal. If you can ascertain what is keeping your boss up at night, and find creative solutions to help, you’ll not only get your boss’s attention, you’ll display well crafted critical thinking abilities and leadership skills.
Stay one step ahead
Along with creative thinking, learn to know what your boss will need before they do. Being able to anticipate what they need before they ask for it will allow you to focus on any last minute needs or things that come up during the week without throwing you off your game. It will also demonstrate to your boss that you understand them, and they can count on you to think about the things they might not be able to, due to lack of time or focus. You will also find this generally leads to your boss introducing you with glowing praise like, “This is Brian, he’s my right arm, I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
Show your boss what you do well
Once you’re getting glowing introductions from your boss, you should be well on your way to developing their trust in you. Another way to do this is performing your job really well, and asking what you can do to help your department. Asking for additional work, whether it’s glamorous or a grunt assignment, will register in your boss’s mind. This also likely means when there is an assignment that comes up that many people will want to work on, your name is at the top of the list. Ideally, throughout your other work, you’ve been able to demonstrate and explain to your boss what you do well. This way, your boss knows through actual work you’ve done what projects or future assignments you should handle and will excel at. This leads to your boss giving you things you want to work on, and your excellent work in-turn makes your boss look like a rockstar.
Don’t waste your boss’s time
If you have a question or need to have a conversation with your boss, schedule a time to talk. Don’t ask your boss to stop by when they’re free and face the possibility of them waiting for you to finish a phone call with a long winded vendor. When you get to the meeting, have your questions ready. Don’t make them wait for you to pull up a slow loading web page, or navigate through a never-ending spreadsheet. Lastly, if a vendor or someone from another department needs something from your boss, bring your boss the document that needs to be signed, don’t just forward an email and say “needs your attention.”
If you take these five tips and apply them whenever possible throughout your career, your boss and co-workers will see you as a valuable part of their team in no time.