When thinking of ways to positively position yourself long-term at a company, agency, or firm, it’s overwhelmingly obvious that you need to think outside the box when going about your duties. Supervisors certainly like to see fresh ideas and a streak of independence in their workers. The only thing they like to see more is validation of their own importance, especially in relation to you. Paying attention to their advice is a good way to appease this tendency, and so is simply being respectful like any good employee should.
But if you’re interested in making an impression with your supervisors, then actually incorporate what they have to say into your forward thinking decision-making. Walking that tightrope might sound intimidating, but it’s an effective way to make a good impression on those with the power to promote you.
Appreciation can be 90 percent perception
Let’s say you’re a third-year law student interning at a trial lawyer’s law firm. The lawyer is a real “Matlock” type and doesn’t trust the World Wide Web to gather correct legal research. Instead, he says you have to refer strictly to what’s published in print, which means this internship’s demands will be double in terms of hours. The problem is he’s the best attorney in town, and any other law student would lose two limbs to be where you are. The solution is that you very well know online law resources are completely legitimate so what difference does it make? Just go to the law library and bring your laptop with you. Search for relative precedent. Speed up the lookup process for the published version by using the information mined from the web source, and in the interim catch up on any other obligations you have in life while you enjoy a library devoted to legality.
Old school strategies still have their uses
Many of the supervisors you may be working underneath will be scholars of the pre-Internet era, or at least in some ways, exhibit intimidation caused by the web’s diversity in available approaches to solving problems. Your reaction shouldn’t be one of complete dismissal of their seemingly archaic solutions via maneuvers they may not understand. This may lead to your supervisor inadvertently taking up a negative stance against your approach in spite of its effectiveness. Instead, you want to find a way to improve upon their ideas via the technological resources they haven’t completely grasped. For instance, someone in marketing might think a manager’s motion to initiate a promotional gifts campaign is a waste of the division’s budget. But there’s still a place for this kind of gimmick if you utilize an online company like Inkhead which takes promotional gift ideas into the 21st century with eco-friendly water bottles, flash drives, and even phone chargers being possible choices. That way you can utilize the traditional promotional gift brand exposure technique with products that aren’t destined to be thrown away.
Learn a thing or two, too
All of this isn’t just to win over brownie points with the boss, although for the good of your personal brand, that’s the ultimate idea. You want to also seriously study the way those older than you go about their work. Much of what your overall success is based on will be the way you make the most of your generation’s latest breaking technology and achievements. But a little bit will be owed to how well you carried on the articles of your profession that have always been relevant in doing a good job. Being the one to take the torch takes more than just looking ahead; you have to look back first to be able to grab it.
Author:
Nathaniel Broughton is a veteran internet entrepreneur and investor. Dating to 2002, he has helped produce 3 Inc 500 award-winning companies. Nathaniel owns Growth Partner Capital, a venture fund that provides SEO consulting, premium link building and online reputation management services. He is also owner of SuretyBonds.com, a nationwide bonding agency. Previously he served as CMO of VAMortgageCenter.com, a $65 million nationwide mortgage bank which acquired his marketing firm Plus1 Marketing in 2008. A resident of San Diego, Nathaniel often writes from his experience as an investor, marketer, and advocate of “networking like Paris Hilton parties – Nonstop”. Follow him on Twitter – @natebro.
