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Aim for impact
When I went out there and interviewed over 500 professionals across geographies, industries, and job types, I heard a common complaint: “I’m working hard. I’m doing what I’m told. I’m doing a decent job, but no one seems to care and I’m not getting promoted. I’m not even getting acknowledged at work.”
And it turns out that these professionals all fell into a common trap, to be useful, but not to be impactful, and what these professionals were doing was doing work that, yes, may have needed to get done, but that wasn’t the top priority of their team, of their organization. And this feeds into a big topic in the world of diversity, inclusion, equity, belonging, which is the tricky topic of non-promotable tasks, or colloquially, office housework.
Studies have shown that women and people of color have a tendency to both accept, and be asked to do, more work that may be useful to others and may be helpful to others, but that don’t often get you promoted. Even though folks were working hard, they weren’t being visible, so when that promotion meeting came up, there was no one around the room, banging on the table saying, “This person needs to get promoted,” because the people who were visible in these meetings were those who were signing up for and doing a job in those high-profile assignments that people are paying attention to and ultimately rewarding.
And what gets you promoted will depend on the job that you have. So, if you are, for example, an engineer, you’re probably going to be expected to do hard engineering problems, versus organize the holiday party. If you are a lawyer, you’re probably expected to do the biggest, hardest client projects and to be a vocal voice in these client meetings, not just taking notes. The better you can get into the minds of those who matter, the more you can align yourself with work that matters, and the more that you can align yourself with work that matters, the more that you’ll matter.
Know what matters to those who matter
If you want to make an impact and take control of your career, remember this. Know what matters to those who matter. What are the goals? What are the priorities of those who are high up in the organization? What pains are they trying to alleviate? What stressors are they trying to address? Where are they trying to take the organization in the next 12 months, 18 months, five years, 10 years? And so knowing how to interpret and to pick apart the details of your environment are essential if you want to be able to get promoted or just stay sane.