Turn on your professional T.A.P.S

How can you become a top ranked employee in your organisation? It’s doing what it takes to avoid dead ends; thinking, doing and behaving in a way that keeps you valued. Here are some steps to head you in that direction;

Translate your contribution: Tune in to what is needed and what the decision makers care about. Learn to work outwards and make your work speak to the priority agendas, critical priorities and organisational imperatives. Know what’s grabbing the attention of your decision makers and help take those agendas forward. Pick up cues from your leaders and evolve your contribution in a way that’s meaningful to the organisation.

Advance past your job: Always do more than your job requires. Doing your job satisfactorily as defined only stops you from probably getting fired. Sticking to the letter of your job description will not put you in the top league. Add value; don’t let circumstances or potential excuses get the better of you; understand your own strengths; take chances and anticipate challenge and have a plan to mitigate them.

Produce with relevance: Don’t just do; make sure your work is highly relevant to the organisation. Connect the dots between what you do and what’s important in the outcomes your organisation wants. Have an explicit goal and plan to improve your productivity so that you become more capable and your performance uncontested. Use your time well, focus on and measure the right things and be able to demonstrate what you accomplish.

Scale up your credibility: Strong credibility gives you the advantage all the time; people want to work with and for you. You get the credit you deserve and you get frequent opportunity to participate in key interventions. Produce excellent results because credibility hardly happens without good results.

Now take action: How can you become one of the top 10 percent of highly ranked employees in your organisation?