Four ways to Advance yourself at Work

In this day and age where competition to reach the top
is at a premium, you have to work very hard to stand out from the crowd and to
earn promotions. For you, advancement might be about reaching the top of the corporate
ladder, it could be about earning more, or it could be about being able to make
more of a difference and exert more influence in your role. Whatever your
motivations may be, standing out from the crowd and ensuring that you can get
to where you want to go require some hard work and focus. In order to help put
you onto the right path, here are a few things that will stand you in good
stead.

Always look to learn

You should always be taking on board new skills and knowledge. Be it learning from colleagues, attending conferences or reading important journals, you should always be looking to learn more. One of the best ways to do this is to study. Ask your bosses if they will sponsor your studies. This is useful in many ways. It will make you better at your job. It means you don’t need to pay for your studies, and you may well be given time off to learn. It means that you get a qualification which makes you more employable when you want to leave. Start with an online search for a phrase like ‘diploma project management’ and see what comes back. You don’t necessarily have to take the year off to study, you can do it online and upskill yourself very quickly.

Don’t miss deadlines

If you are assigned a task, make sure that you
complete it. It might sound like a very simple thing to say, but if the goal is
to try and stand out from the rest of the crowd, then you need to take the
simplest opportunities to do so. If you can be relied on to do what you are
asked to do, and to do it well then you will very quickly develop a solid
reputation internally.

Play for the team

The best way to achieve is as part of a winning team. In a work environment it is almost never as an individual that you will stand out. Fostering unity, showing the ability to work together and sharing the credit is the way to go. If you alienate your fellow workers then, no matter how good you are, you will quickly find that you are being excluded from important discussions, that you are fighting against internal resistance to get things done and that everything that you want to do is harder to accomplish.

Get out and about

Advancing your career is not just about your
internal connections, it is also about getting out and networking. Make sure
that you develop a good network of contacts and that you position yourself as a
leader,
as a face of your company and a person who is doing good work. That way you are
not just making yourself central to the success of your company, but you are
also creating external options for advancement in the event that you want to
leave.

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