Become an Indispensable Employee

They say nobody is indispensable. Yet, companies go to great lengths to retain workers who are seen as critical for their operations. They give huge increments, offer promotions and even stock options as inducements to keep these employees from leaving. Here’s a look at some attributes that can make you indispensable at work.

Master tasks - Having a USP can make you indispensable. This doesn’t mean you monopolize that skill and put up hurdles for others who want to learn that task. But you become so good at it that no one else is entrusted with that function. Upskilling has become easier now with the launch of massive open online courses.

Mentoring - Organizations value employees who mentor and train junior colleagues. Mentoring engenders trust among teams and inspires employees to perform to their highest ability. At a broader level, it helps develop and retain talent. The idea is to become valuable by supporting and adding value to other employees. The support can even be in the form of help in everyday functions or stepping in to firefight when a teammate is in a spot.

Volunteer to do more - Your willingness to take up new tasks and challenges will send a signal to the management that you are willing to go that extra mile to add value to the organization. If the company or your division is facing a problem and you have a solution in mind, go to your boss with a rational decision making model and a detailed action plan. First identify the cause of the problem. Then think of all the potential solutions. There could be several options, each having its pros and cons, analyze the feasibility of each solution and then select the best option.

Adaptive Learning - Individuals who embrace change and are able to quickly adapt are seen as more valuable than those who cling to outdated principles and concepts that are past their expiry date. Don’t be afraid of change but welcome it. Experiment with new ideas that are meant to improve productivity and performance.

Take responsibility - This requires a pro-active approach, especially because this work is not part of your assigned duties. Find out the tasks that irk them and then look for ways to do these tasks. If you do this regularly, your boss will start relying on you more and more. Remember, the more irksome the task, the happier he will be that someone else is doing it. Once he gets used to it, he will ensure that you are retained by the company at all costs.

Demonstrate Integrity - Treat others the way you want to be treated. This ensures that one gives due respect to colleagues and customers. Honesty also encourages healthy relationships within an organization. Teams work better if their boss is honest about the objective and outcome of the project. Honesty does not extend to compromising the confidentiality of certain information. A person of integrity will maintain confidentiality if required.

Be Reliable - Be consistently reliable in everything you do. Also, make sure you don’t make false promises. Before you make a commitment, be sure that you will be able to keep it. Instead of promising too much and delivering too little, it is better to scale down the promise and then delight the boss by doing more than you committed. This way you send out the message that you don’t want to make false promises but are willing to go that extra mile to deliver.

Build ties - It is important to build good relationships, not only within your team and with the people you report to, but also with others in the organization. Relationships with clients are also be critical. In some situations, an individual’s relations with a client can make him indispensable. A company may not want to let go of someone if knows that his exit might take away a lot of business. Invest in your relationships with clients to improve your standing within the company.

Promoting Yourself

Inherent excellence is not always enough to fetch recognition. Potential sponsors need to know about your skills, competencies, accomplishments and experiences to be encouraged to make a positive difference to your career. Being memorable equals getting picked. Self-promotion is a delicate art because if you overdo it, you come across as a braggart, and if you underplay you don’t get the accolades. There should be a line between gaining a following and becoming sickeningly self-promotional. Here are few strategies to generate more visibility -

Prepare your story – Whenever you meet any potential sponsor, seize this opportunity to promote yourself by highlighting an accomplishment or two. The trick lies in being prepared with your story and arming yourself     with data points that you can reel off at the drop of a hat.

Redefine self-promotion – Just as the objective of marketing a product is to generate awareness about its key benefits to help customers make sound decisions, think of self-promotion as a responsible communication of your talents and accomplishment to those who can leverage and benefit from this information, thus making it a win-win proposition.

Clothe it in anecdotes – Share your success story in the form of a story. Share your strategy and challenges in cracking the deal, enabling your team to learn from your experience. Engage with humility, focus on facts and ensure that those stories are relevant.

Impactful Introduction – Make your introduction audience centric and impactful by incorporating elements that differentiate and lend a recall value. For instance, something like, “I am an avid trekker, I did the Everest base camp trek last year,” is likely to stick in the minds of the audience.

Engage beyond your core work – As the organization expands, it is not easy to get noticed outside your immediate circle. Participating in forums outside core work, like knowledge sharing forums, organizational committees, corporate social responsibility initiatives, diversity etc. will help in garner visibility and connect with people beyond operational network.

Communicate with your Manager – Tracking your accomplishments and feeding your manager with regular updates is mutually beneficial – it would not only help you promote yourself, but also offer your manager data points to identify areas where you could contribute.

Engage on Social Media – Start with posting an impactful profile, portraying your expertise by engaging in discussion forums, posting articles and commenting on posts, thus creating visibility by yourself.

Reverse Promotion – When you promote others, guided by the principle of reciprocity, they promote you in return. This reverse promotion, besides enhancing your visibility and highlighting your achievements, also helps you build relationships and earn goodwill. So, be open to connecting with people, learning about and promoting, their talents and achievements.