Are you feeling like you don’t matter to your company anymore? Have you recently been passed over for a promotion or a raise? Maybe you’re even afraid your job will be phased out? If you feel that way, you are probably right. But we can help. (That’s why we wrote this book). We want you to feel like you are important to your boss, to your coworkers, and to your company. We want you to be respected and have your ideas heard. We want you to have job security! Ok, let’s start reversing the (possibly dispensable) perception your boss has about you.
Here is how to get noticed. You must be able to show management that you think beyond your own job and tasks. Prove to them that you can not only nail your job but that you can be a pipeline for an endless flow of ideas that will either
- make a lot of money for your company or
- save a lot of money.
By example, one pharmacy employee read that 60% of family members were taking the wrong prescription. (a husbands accidentally taking his wife’s meds and vice versa) So, this employee proposed that the pill bottles should be flat instead of round. That way the pill-taker could read their name clearly on a flat surface.
If you’ve ever tried to read the label on a small round pill bottle you know what I mean. That idea went on to differentiate Target Pharmacy and received an innovation award from Time Magazine in 2005. So, how do you start? You have to examine every work process. Then, find out how the end recipient of that process experiences it. Is the process unclear? Is the process cumbersome? Is the process necessary? Could the process be automated? Then, you write down how you could improve the process. Ah, you found a better way? So how do you present your BIG IDEA? Well first, don’t blast through the bosses door and announce, “I have a brilliant idea!” Be smart. Do fact-based research. Make sure your idea is a new idea. You will look dumb if your idea is too obvious and been tried.
Next, ask yourself if your idea will make money or save money? If you can pass these two tests, you might be ready to present…but don’t go in alone. Get “buy-in” from somebody in your department or your company who already has credibility. Management always has time to hear well-thought-out ideas from trusted thinkers. Now, even if your idea isn’t adopted, you’ve shown your boss that you are thinking beyond your job. Two-three weeks later, come up with another idea and repeat the process. Eventually, one of your ideas will stick. And you will be delighted to know that you are being considered as a person who could be an invaluable resource. This is what job security looks like!
Ross is absolutely correct and you have to tread lightly if you work in a large company. You have the clicks to worry about, you can be the best employee, have the best ideas and you are not in the click and it would not matter how good your idea is you don’t have a chance.
Work harder than anyone, mind your p’s and q’s and don’t give them an excuse to let you go. Transfer to another department and you will succeed.
I have experienced this for years and got to a department that valued me, my ideas and got promoted and worked internationally for 8 years in many countries and never stopped believing in myself.