How to Never Get Fired
Peter Uher, PhD, Traversa Consulting, Inc.
Do your job well, and your employer will consider you a valuable member of the team, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Employees who want to earn stellar performance reviews, promotions and raises—or just hang on to their jobs during periods of layoffs—must do more than fulfill their job objectives. They must take extra steps to be seen as especially valuable…
GET CLOSER TO THE MONEY
To increase your value, decrease the distance between you and your employer’s major sources of revenue. If you’re in sales or account management, you probably are close to your company’s revenue. But if you’re in the legal department…or human resources…or technical support, you might not have anything to do with corporate revenue directly. If so, you’re missing an opportunity to become more valued. See if you can…
Provide support to your company’s salespeople in the field. If the top salespeople consider you indispensable, then you are indispensable.
Join a team that works directly with a big client. Go out of your way to assist this client in any way possible, even if it goes beyond the official limits of your job description. If a big client loves you, your employer will, too.
Example: If you’re in the information technology (IT) department, solve your largest client’s IT problems, even if those problems have nothing directly to do with your company. Keep your work team and your boss informed about what you’re doing so that you don’t blindside them or create unpleasant surprises. Test out riskier ideas or approaches with a trusted coworker before trying new approaches with a real customer.
Find ways to help your employer cut costs if you can’t get close to your company’s revenue. This, too, directly improves the bottom line and your value to the company.
HELP THE BOSS
Find out how your boss’s job performance is evaluated, then help him/her achieve his goals. Your value to your company is determined not so much by your job performance as by your boss’s perception of your job performance. A great way to improve that perception is to accept your boss’s career goals and job objectives as your own. Assist your boss even in areas that are not your direct responsibility, and you will be considered a valuable asset.
Ask your boss if there’s any goal or objective that is of particular concern to him, then find ways to help him in this area.
If your relationship with your boss is not close enough to ask this, strive to make it that close—having a tight personal relationship with your boss will help your perceived value. If your boss isn’t the chummy sort, at least have a quick “clarification discussion” about how your goals mesh with the company’s goals. That should help you better understand the big picture.
Example: A junior lawyer with a large corporation learned that her boss’s job evaluation hinged on the success of upcoming meetings with tough government regulators. The junior lawyer had dealt with the same regulators in a previous job and was able to give her boss useful details about each regulator’s personality and style.
SHOW A WILLINGNESS
TO LEARN
Employees who are eager to learn new things tend to be valued beyond their current contributions to their companies. Such employees are labeled “high potential” and frequently land on the fast-track for promotion. Employers see their ability to absorb new skills as a sign that their job performance will continue to improve…that they could become future company leaders…and that they are adaptable enough to remain useful even if the marketplace or the company changes.
To show a willingness to learn, enroll in night classes that are relevant to your career. Read trade journal articles about new techniques in your field, and discuss them with your boss. Volunteer for cross-departmental teams, and take an interest in the workings of the company outside your area.
Example: A salesman might spend time talking with his company’s engineers so that he understands the product line better than anyone else in the sales department.
BE A FIXER
Something always goes wrong in business, throwing budgets and schedules into jeopardy. Many employees try to dodge the job of fixing such mini disasters, but that’s a mistake. An employee who earns a reputation as a fixer of blowups will be among the most valued. A fixer takes problems off of his boss’s desk and is loved for it. His job usually is safe even when the company hits a rough stretch, because he’s seen as someone skilled at steering through rough stretches.
Example: A large corporation new to the cosmetics business learns that the antiaging claims it is making about a soon-to-be-released product could run afoul of the Food and Drug Administration. Though it isn’t in his job description, a midlevel executive who has dealt with the FDA in the past volunteers to help with the problem.
SPEAK UP WITHOUT HOGGING
THE SPOTLIGHT
Overlooked often means undervalued in the workplace. Employees who keep their heads down and quietly do their jobs rarely get as much recognition as those who toot their own horns. Inform your boss in person or via E-mail whenever you accomplish one of your job objectives or reach a milestone on a long-term project. Contribute during meetings in ways that show you are prepared and add value. It’s not enough just to agree with what other people say.
The trick is to speak up and get noticed without going too far and coming off as overbearing. Ask a trusted colleague to let you know how you’re perceived and to cut you off when you’re talking too much. Offer to do the same for him.
STAY ONE STEP AHEAD
OF YOUR COMPANY
Is your employer about to launch a new product line? Expand into a new country? As soon as you hear rumors about a new corporate direction or major project, position yourself to be an asset in that area. Read up on business practices in the country that your company will be entering, or start learning the language. Research the new product area by reading articles in business publications or by networking with those in the sector. You’ll always be valued if you’re always where your company is heading.
Helpful: Try to get assigned to the core team evaluating a major acquisition or high-value product launch. Even if you are just a small part of this team, you’ll be perfectly placed to play a role in your company’s future. You’ll also have a chance to interact with some of your company’s most trusted people.
If the project fails, the risk of “going down with the ship” in this kind of circumstance is pretty minimal because in new product innovation, “failure” is expected more often than major success. For every iPod-like hit, Apple has a bunch of products that are barely noticed by the consumer. Most companies realize that innovation is a game of averages, much like baseball. You strike out more often than you get a hit. To succeed in the long run, you need to keep swinging the bat and keep innovating.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Peter Uher, PhD, partner in the Atlanta office of Traversa Consulting, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in leadership development. www.traversaconsulting.com
(Article originally published July 15, 2007)
Reprinted with the permission of:
Boardroom Inc. and Bottom Line Publications, Inc.
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