Can Your Boss Answer This Question about You?
If you want to increase the upwards momentum of your career, make sure your boss knows this answer to this question about you:
What do you want?
Do you want to run a business of your own? Do you want to sell more than anyone else? Do you want to move from Customer Service to Product Development?
I'm not talking about knowing a few of your objectives for the year. I'm talking about your number one work-related goal, the one you dream about at night.
You may argue it's not your manager's job to know or care about your goal, that instead, it is your obligation to simply do whatever he or she asks.
Oops! Such an attitude is a recipe for having a boring, poorly compensated career.
A far better strategy is to openly share what you want but to do so in the context of helping your boss get what he or she wants, too.
For example, if you want to sell more than anyone else, you can enlist your boss in this goal by rewarding every supportive move on their part with results on your part.
You might also argue that your boss is a jerk and that The Jerk doesn't care what you want.
This is a valuable insight, for it means that as quickly as possible you need to start working for someone else. Seriously.
There's a side benefit to making 100% certain your boss knows what you want: it forces you to decide what you want.
Don't laugh... day after day, professionals confess to me that they haven't taken the time to figure out what they want from their career, right here and right now.
This is why so many people go year after year in the same so-so job, getting so-so raises and never getting the big, exciting jobs.
1. Figure out what you want
2. Tell your boss
3. Reward your boss for caring
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Along with Amy Blaschka, I recently founded MoreIntuitive.com. It's a free community for professionals who recognize intuition as an essential element of effective decision-making. Please join us.
Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter for thought leaders. He is the author of NEVER TELL PEOPLE WHAT YOU DO.
General Manager presso Anularis srl
7 年It's a hard to admits but is TRUE...
Business/Requirement IT Analyst partnering with stakeholders to deliver business value in agile/waterfall projects. Industries - healthcare, insurance, energy, investments, banking, legal and manufacturing.
7 年Great advice. But don't be afraid to move on to better opportunities if your manager doesn't understand your goals.
Senior Sponsorships & Events Specialist
7 年Zoe Perl
Technical Manager #MadeByDyslexia - expect big thinking and small typos
7 年For someone who has never really known what he wants but knows what he dos not want to be doing. This is the one question in a interview or meeting that strikes fear into my hart. If I don't ask for that position or post dos it show a lack of enthusiasm with my current employer and if the position is unattainable dos that put you in the category of employee most likely to leave in a managers mind. If you like were you are and the jobs right for you, every days different, the people you work with are great and the company looks after you. you are happy were you are, is it right that you have to be striving up the corporate ladder. Learning new things is one thing, diversifying is ok, move up just because you think you have too, I am not so sure. What do I want? I think I have it thank you and at the next meeting I think I will say just that. Thank you for your post it has cleared up a lot of things, for me anyway!