Read This Book to Learn How to be Great at Your Job

How to Be Great at Your Job

How to Be Great at Your Job: Get things done. Get the credit. Get ahead. By Justin Kerr

This book is more suitable for a millennial professional. However, there are a couple of good points that are worth the price of the book. In the age that we’re living in today, How to Be Great at Your Job reminded me that I always have to demonstrate my value. It’s not about what I did in the past. It’s about what I’m doing today.

Two Key Points in How to Be Great at Your Job

• Have a purpose for what you’re doing now.
• Think about how to lay the groundwork for your next role.

How to Be Great at Your Job is based on the author, Justin Kerr’s experience. In a tight job market, and an environment where technologies are shaping the way we work, skills can become irrelevant in no time. Therefore, professionals have to find strategies that will give them the extra visibility they need to succeed. What I liked about the book is that it offered tactics and concrete steps to take. 

Disruptions That Will Likely Impact Your Career

In a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, “The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation,” it stated that by 2030 between 40 million and 160 million women around the world may need to change occupations. With the introduction of every new technology, you’ll have winners and losers. For women to be a part of the winners circle, transitioning into more highly skilled roles, they must become ongoing learners. This means, they have to adapt to become skilled, mobile, and very tech savvy.

 Technology Review Popular Science Discover Scientific American iD (Ideas & Discoveries)

Ways How to be Great at Your Job Will Help You to Weather Disruption

Justin Kerr provides a lot of advice in his book, How to be Great at Your Job. But I’m going to focus on three key points that I think will help you the most in your career.

1. Have career conversations with your boss.
2. Learn how to get a promotion at work.
3. Work on stretch projects to give you visibility at work.

Have Career Conversations with Your Boss

When I worked for a company as a paid employee a couple of decades ago, I wished I knew how important it was to schedule frequent meetings to talk about where I wanted to go in my career. You don’t have to make the same mistake I did. 

Schedule weekly meetings with your boss to ensure that you‘re both on the same page. This one actions helps you both to manage expectations. Always send an agenda to your boss prior to the meeting. 

During these weekly meetings, don’t be shy about discussing when you’d like to get promoted. Have a concrete date in mind. Your boss needs to know what’s on your mind. Justin Kerr writes that promotions usually take place mid-year or end of the year, so ensure that your conversations happen at least two months before then.

Learn How to Get a Promotion at Work

There are key players involved that will impact you getting a promotion. Therefore you have to cultivate relationships with:

• Your boss.
• Your boss’ boss.
• Your peers.
• HR.

One potential issue with not getting a promotion is that others are unaware of your major accomplishments. Don’t be the best kept secret in the organization. Network with the key players so they get to know who you are. In conversations, let people know what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, so that you get credit for your work.

To Get Promoted

Set Your Career Goals

• Be specific about what you’d like to accomplish in your career.
• Write one month’s goal so you know where you’re going.
• Aim to Accomplish two big things.
• Pick a day for completing your two big things.

How to Accomplish Two Big Things

• Create and accomplish two high visibility projects that influencers in the organization can see you went above and beyond your day-to-day normal responsibilities.
• People don‘t want to be left in the dark. So when you’re working on your stretch project, tell key stakeholders what you‘re doing, how you‘re doing and where you are at and what’s left to do.

In the book, Promoted by Bozi Dar, he says that when you’re seeking a promotion, it’s best to target a position in a department that’s important to the organization. Two such departments are one that are in a turnaround situation that has a lot of potential, and one that’s high growth with the potential to become the star unit in the organization.

[Have you read? How to Get a Promotion Fast]

I added this piece of information here since Kerr says to complete two high visibility project in six months. Therefore, I’d like to add that the projects should be in the two aforementioned areas. Perhaps you could be seconded to another department that satisfies either of the two criteria above. Otherwise there may be ways that your department can collaborate with another. The project could cross multiple departments.

How to Be Great at Your JobPromoted

Think of projects that if successfully completed would do the following:

• Solve problems that matter to the organization.
• Save, fix, and create things.
• Make things better, cheaper and more useful. 
• Increase revenue.
• Cut costs.
• Save time.
• Make processes more efficient.
• Improve the company‘s reputation.
• Prevent liabilities.

Now, if you’ve been meeting weekly with your boss and have been upfront about your career aspirations, she’ll be able to help you secure two stretch projects that meet the above stated criteria. Your boss will likely help you because your success makes her look good. One thing to consider is that you may have to work on parts of the stretch projects on your time. This advice is coming from me.

Another point that Bozi Dar makes in his book is the importance of professional development. This is something he recommends that professionals invest in. I have created a program that will help you to digest most nonfiction book in 30 to 60 minutes.

Three Steps to Make Your Case for a Promotion

1.  Summarize your accomplishments.
2.  Schedule a meeting with your boss.
3.  Meet with your boss.

Summarize Accomplishments

• Get the credit for the work you do and have accomplished. This is your responsibility and not your boss.  
• Write a one page summary using bullet points, clear headlines, and be succinct. 

Schedule a Meeting with Your Boss

• Meet with your boss to discuss your one page summary of accomplishments. 
• Be strategic about the timing of the meeting. 
• If end-of-year reviews happen in January, conversations should take place as much as two months before. 
• Stay ahead and on top of these conversations.

 Meet with Your Boss

• If you‘ve done the previous steps correctly, doing the hard work, you set the tone for the meeting. 
• Start the conversation in the meeting.
• Get out of the way.
• Trust your boss to do the rest.

Presenting the Results of Your Stretch Project

Executive Presentations: Develop presence to speak with confidence and skill

If you chose your stretch projects carefully, they’d be projects that mattered to the organization. Upon completion, offer to present the results to key influencers in the organization.

• Practice what you’re going to say.
• Don’t ramble or sound rehearsed.
• Be clear and on point.
• Don‘t give handouts unless there's a valid reason to do so.
• Let people pay attention to what you‘re saying and take paraphrase what you're saying.
• Tell the what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them.

Final Thoughts on How to be Great at Your Job

As I mentioned before, How to be Great at Your Job is appropriate for millennials. There are some key points and ideas in it. This book complements Promoted by Bozi Dar. If you’re a millennial pick up a copy of both books to read. And you can purchase my Learning How to Learn Again program.

How to Be Great at Your JobPromoted