Are you a wallflower at work? Do your contributions often go unnoticed, or does someone else get credit for them? It can be tough to make yourself stand out at work, especially if you work in a large department, or on a large team. Sometimes it seems like the only time you get noticed is when you do something wrong! There’s no doubt that making a good impression on your boss will mean good things for your career so it’s important that you get recognition for the work you do.
Feeling unrecognized or unappreciated at work is a common reason employees quit. One study even found that 79% of people who leave their jobs do so for ‘lack of appreciation.’ If you’re getting close to the point of looking for work elsewhere, try some of these tips to get your boss’s attention for positive reasons.
1 – Talk in meetings
At some point in life, you were probably told that you shouldn’t talk unless you had something interesting to say, and that can certainly be true in many settings. Your job probably isn’t one of them, however. If your bosses don’t hear from you, they’ll assume it’s because you’re not a leader or not an innovator. This may be unfair — you may well be both of those things — but if your bosses don’t see you talking and taking ownership of how group projects weigh out, they won’t know how much credit you should get.
2 – Volunteer first for tougher assignments
This one is tricky because you don’t want to work extra hard for no reward. The key is to watch for the opportunities where your boss really needs to help and step in very visibly to provide that help. You’ll look like a team player, but if you’re helping them out of a jam they’ll start to think of you as someone they can count on.
3 – Send the email
When your team brainstorms and is ready to send off conclusions, or game plans, or results to the boss, volunteer to write the email. It may be silly, but just seeing updates on the work you’re doing coming from your email address is going to help remind your boss what you’re doing and how you’re contributing. When it comes time to do performance reviews, they may even do a quick inbox search to see what communication they’ve had from you lately and if they’re able to see a lot of emails, even if they were for group work, it’s going to make you look like a mover and shaker.
4 – Pay attention to what matters to your boss
It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day of your own job, tasks, and projects. Sometimes it’s easy to lose track of the bigger picture. Your boss is someone who probably does not lose track of the overall goals and performance of your department or company. Pay attention to earnings reports and budgets, try to keep your finger on the pulse of how the things your boss has to answer for are going. You don’t necessarily need to try to help your boss, but just being able to converse with them about overall performance can tip your boss off that you’re someone to watch.
