Ever wondered why your boss has never told you what you needed to do to get promoted? Chances are, they have. You just were not listening!
In his foreword to Richard Templar’s Rules of Work, the late Sir Antony Jay notes Mr Templar’s observation that everyone was actually doing two jobs at work:
… the job in hand: meeting our sales targets, reducing machine downtime, speeding up monthly management accounts, whatever. The other job is both larger and vaguer: making the organization work …
He stopped short of giving these jobs a name. I think they can be summarised simply as:
- The job you do to not get fired (Job #1)
- The job you do to get ahead (Job #2)
The book proposes that we find what we have to do for #1 on the job descriptions we get when we were hired. Job #2 is more subtle, but the great thing is, we all share the exact same responsibilities for that one!
Job #2 responsibilities include:
- giving your boss information that will make them look good and/or save time,
- helping out other teams in the organization with your input, so that when the time comes, they may offer their help when your team needs it,
- researching your competitors, and
- helping your team do better with initiatives you volunteer to work on (not necessarily over your free time!)
If you are looking to get ahead, keep your ears open to what your bosses often say or remark upon. They will often try to tell you what you have to do for Job #2, but may do so only subtly for fear that you may construe it as them asking you to do ‘extra work’.
Show them that you hear them and are willing to do what you were meant to from the get-go.
