If you want to succeed at work, you not only need to get work done, you need to do the right kind of work. That work involves helping to complete projects that really matter to your organization—ones that are central to the mission.
You don’t get assigned to those key projects right away. They tend to be run by leaders with significant experience and are staffed by others who have proven their capabilities and have demonstrated how they will contribute to a positive outcome.
How do you become one of those go-to individuals?
Carry a lot of water
If you’re going to get placed on significant projects, you must be well known to be reliable. That means both doing the things you’re asked to do well and finding things that you weren’t asked to do and needed to be done. Even if you are not the most conscientious person in the world, you need to focus on the details and ensure that when you take on a task you complete it and do it right.
Rinse and repeat.
A reputation for doing excellent work emerges over time. A lot of people new to the workplace are impatient to get recognition, promotion, and opportunity. It takes time. Look around your organization. Think about how long some of your colleagues have been working and how long they have been with the team. Reset your expectations and adjust to the reality that it takes a lot of low-level work before you level up.
Show you can learn
The other key skill you want to demonstrate is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances without a lot of guidance. Don’t just do the things that need to be done. Learn why they are done. When you discover there is a skill that your colleagues have that you don’t, study it, practice it, and get more proficient.
You don’t have to shout these efforts from the rooftops. People will notice that you are taking initiative to improve your knowledge and abilities. And when your organization offers chances for professional development, seize them.
The high-value assignments have value in part because they are difficult. They require people to work at the top of their game. Those assignments are not the time to develop skills. If you’re going to play in your equivalent of the majors, you have to have your A game firmly in place.
Always be (over)prepared
Those high-value assignments are a time for having all the information needed for success at the top of your mind. When a client wants a piece of information, it doesn’t help to get back to them later. When a project needs to be finished on a deadline, that’s a bad time to start the reading.
You don’t demonstrate that level of readiness only in high-stakes assignments. No matter what you have been asked to do, be prepared for it. Read up on clients, people, and meetings. Find out what the team has done before. If you’re dealing with a new potential customer, find out as much as you can about them before the meeting. When that high level of preparation has become a habit, you’re making it that much more likely that you’ll be included on important projects.
Work on your improv skills
No matter how much you practice, learn, and prepare, though, the project will rarely go smoothly and predictably. After all, if high-value projects could be carried out by rote, we’d already have processes and machines handling them. You’re there to diagnose and fix problems as quickly as possible.
You’re engaged in an improvisation. Listen to what people are saying. Don’t just think about what people are doing; focus on why. In complex work with other people, everyone is motivated to achieve some kind of goal. If you can figure out what they are trying to accomplish and the ways you can help them succeed, you are more likely to create a positive outcome.
Your key operating assumption should be that complex jobs are going to go off script. You need to be comfortable understanding other people and suggesting new ideas as the task goes on. When you are new in your role, seek advice from more senior members about strategies they use to understand the nuances of interactions. Talk with them about what you noticed and what you were thinking of doing in that situation. That will help you feel more ready to handle the uncertainty of important projects.