Have you ever thought you are doing a GREAT job for your employer but wonder why you aren't getting ahead or appreciated more. There may be a different answer than just not being understood. Perhaps your contribution IS understood, but you are missing the broader goals.
Early in my career I had the good fortune to be recognized as someone who could trade fixed income secruities (bonds) very well. I got a job as a trader at a large NYC Bank. And I generated a lot of profit for my bank. And I was young. And I had perhaps too self-centric a world view. And it hurt my career. I want to share that so perhaps a few jobcasers might benefit form my hard-earned lesson without going through the confusion and pain. You see, I was able to make a lot of profit from my trading for the bank. And I thought something like "they are gonna LOVE me -look how much money I am able to make them". But heres the thing- the leadership of my bank was not articulating a strategy of a proprietary trading led organization. Yes, any profitable cash flow was appreciated, but not nearly as much as building client relationships, and building/selling other products that had more 'stickiness' and less risk. Punchline - I was tone deaf to where my activities fit into the overall goals of the organization. So, though successful in my narrow focus - I was actually somewhat unsuccessful in positioning me and the bank for the broader strategic focus.
Take the time to understand what matters most to your organization. If its a public company - just read the CEO's quarterly report to investors online. You can skip boring math stuff like EBITDA, etc. but focus on what he says about strategy. You can ask your boss about career paths and what gets rewarded. But to really succeed - one needs to not have the narrow self-centric view I used to have as a younger man, but a broader context.
For example: if you are a custodian at a hotel. Maybe you are the BEST at cleaning, fixing things, and every other aspect of that job. But if you are grumpy to guests in the hall that you pass in the course of your day, then I am pretty sure you are failing. The overall goal of a Hotel is to have happy customers turn into repeat customers. And seeing reps of the hotel mistreat them (even unintentionally) is counter to the organization's goal. So you could be doing GREAT in your specific duties, and fail in the overall job for the organization.
This took me a long time to figure out. Not sure why, but it did. But I am hoping that maybe this morning even a couple Jobcasers out there might benefit by thinking .. hmmm, what more should I be doing for the organziational goals of success besides my specific job-goals.
Well, thats my thought this morning. I hope its helpful for someone trying to get ahead in a current job. Its great to see the conversations on Jobcase community about getting a job - but thats just the beginning to empowering each other in our worklives. The bigger part - is how we share learning so we can all get ahead! Fred