(This article originally appeared in Leadership Lessons ezine. To subscribe, click here.)
If you already have a job you may not be interested in any new job opportunities.
Please reconsider.
You need all six of these jobs and you don’t have to quit your current job to do them. These are jobs that will easily integrate into your existing workload, improve your performance and make you a star where you work.
I have worked with hundreds of organizations and I know first hand what managers and leaders desire from their employees. Based on this feedback, I’ve identified six ways you can become more invaluable to your employer.
Experience Manager. Every person you come in contact with has an experience of you and your work. Are you consciously designing these experiences to be positive and memorable? Enriching and rewarding?
Regrettably most people don’t tell us about their experience unless it is awful. The key is to design experiences that keep people coming back for more, and that gets them to tell others about us, our products and our service.
What experience do you create, manage and deliver? For customers? For colleagues?
How do you think others score the experience you create? How can you evaluate how you’re doing as an experience manager?
Value Creator. Pop quiz: are the products or services your company provides more valuable because of you? Are you value neutral or value positive? Can you say you honestly add value to every transaction?
Being a value creator is a form of job security. Value neutral employees are inter-changeable or worse, replaceable.
What is the biggest opportunity for value creation in your current job? What problems can you solve, what opportunities can you create and what value can you add to products and processes?
Talent scout. Are you able to identify those within and outside your organization who would be a valuable addition to your team? Talents scouts have the ability to understand the talents and abilities individuals possess and match them with organizational needs.
Finding other good people to work with not only makes your team stronger, but makes you a go-to person for resource and talent advice. Others will want to know who you know who can help.
Do you know the key resources—the best “go to” people—in your organization and the unique skills they possess?
Have you ever been responsible for finding a new employee for your company or a new member for your team?
Ambassador. How do you represent your organization to others? Do customers and vendors think more highly of your company because of how they feel about you? Do you represent your place of work in a way that would make your employer and colleagues proud?
Just as a person is known by the company he or she keeps, so is a company known by the people it keeps.
Do you know enough about the history and work of your organization to explain it to an outsider in a way that is interesting and engaging?
When people hear you talk about your company, what emotions and perceptions do you create?
Amplifier. Do you increase the good that happens around you by noticing and noting it to others? Most people can spot what’s wrong and complain about it. An amplifier spots what’s right and praises it and who is responsible.
Sometimes good news is so subtle that it needs to be amplified to be heard. Noticing good work that goes unnoticed and telling others is a positive influence on any organizational culture.
Who is doing good work right now? Have you bragged on them to others?
What’s right about your company? What customers are delighted? Have you shared this information?
Router. On the Internet data is broken down into chunks called “packets.” Routers make sure those packets go where they are supposed to go.
A good communicator acts similarly and makes sure information gets to the right people in a timely manner. Peter Drucker famously said that good communication is about who needs what information and when. Developing the judgment and discernment for routing information correctly and efficiently is a valuable skill set.
Think of a key leader. Are there any ideas or input you could provide that would benefit them in their work?
What do customers keep telling you about your company that your colleagues need to know?
These are six job opportunities that, done well, will increase your impact and improve your organization.
Whenever anyone takes a position within a company, job descriptions are necessary to define bare minimum performance. Sadly, the narrow focus on job duties reduces the opportunity to really create value within the company.
My area of expertise is most definitely not in leadership or managing people within a business… but research in the physical therapy world indicates something interesting too when it comes to value. Expert physical therapists (defined as therapists who achieve good outcomes) are different. On paper, their background and training are similar enough to mediocre physical therapists. What’s different is what has been identified as having a patient-centered approach (real collaboration and mutual problem-solving) along with being curious.
It’s interesting to see that truly bringing value means to eliminate looking in the mirror and truly focusing on others and the needs of others. Serving… it’s all about serving others, isn’t it?
~Selena