Are you a star performer? Do you know any star performer in your organization? How they look like? How they get thing done? Do you know why they become star performer? Do you know you can be a star performer as well? Star performer is the greatest human capital of a company, if you are one of it, your company will like to keep you forever. In order to be a star performer, the best way is to ask them how they become one. If you don’t know anyone of them, let me share some tips here.
Get Thing Done
No matter how good is your academic results, how well you will in the past, to be a star performer, you need to get thing done properly. A lot of people think they have good academic results, they win a lot of completion, automatically they deserve to be pay more and earn more. Proof yourself first, money will come later. For the tasks that had been assigned to you, you need to re-arrange it and see which one is more important to your company and do it first. Re-organize your table for better efficiency so you can get thing done faster and properly.
Team Player
Are you a team player? Most of the star performer is team player. Listen carefully. Star performer is team player, but most of them can get thing done very fast by themselves and they are still the shining star in the team. Why? Most of the people like to be part of the winning team and this will motivate everyone toward a bigger goal when there is a star performer in the team. If you are the football fans, you will know what I mean.
Understand the Company Priority
All star performers know the company priority very well. They able to shift gear base on company objectives and focus. The company focus will may change dramatically due to lost of a key customer or economic situation. For most of us, when the company cutting down expenses, stop the project, freeze recruiting, we will complain why the company is doing this. But for star performer, they will re-align themselves and think about new way on how to help company to survive in the difficult situation. Are you able to do that? Or you think it is not your business? If you can shift gear or not willing to help the company to survive, then don’t complain about why you company don’t give you pay raise and promotion via the star performer getting 50% increase in the annual salary.
In order to success in your career, it is not what you know that make you success, it is what you do and contribute to the company that make you shine. Next time, when the company need some extra help or ideas, take the lead, share your ideas and execute the project.
I know you are thinking what is the meaning of jump ship? Jump ship means you get a better offer and are thinking want to move on or not. The world is full of opportunities; it is depend on you want to grab it or not. But let be more cautious when new opportunities drop by. I like to discuss some important aspect when we evaluating new job offers.
Career Plan
You need to know will the new job give you better prospect in the future or just a financial reward. Your company competitor may want to get you in by paying you 50% above market value. But you need to think again about this offer. What happen if you don’t like the job and want to move on? Are you willing to take a pay cut of 40% as most of the company may not able to pay that high price. It happen to my friends and she is more happy now as lower stress and she is really enjoying her life and work. Secondly, you may have opportunities to promote to higher position in current company and just a lateral move in new company.
Financial Plan
Beside career perspective, you may want to take the risk for short term financial gain. What you can do is join the company and earn the extra income for your financial planning like wedding, investment, first house. Then adjust your career plan again. This is a path taken by most consultants especially for SAP or Oracle. The company pays you well, you work hard, you keep your money and you can use your saving for future investment.
Economy Situation
How is the economy situation going on in the world? Will there be a chance for retrenchment in your industry? Will you be the first one to be fire according last-in-first-out rule. Think about this carefully. If you are not sure, consult your friend or your senior, they will provide some advice from different perspective. And you will able to make a better judgment on should you leave now or stay on.
How is The New Company Doing?
This is very important and don’t believe the past achievement 100%. It is just a guideline. Why? You may hear a lot of good news from the new company when the economy is good. How about when the economy is going downturn? Last year, the company may be employer of the year. This year, due to economic crisis, they may have cut down many employee benefits.
I hope the above sharing will help you make a better decisions before you move from current job to the new job.
No matter how best are you in the industry, if you cannot demonstrate your real value to the company, it is meaningless. Secondly, if you really add value to the company and no one knows about it, you will forever struggle to get your promotion and pay raise. Why? Beside your boss, no one knows how good you are in your job. When performance review comes, only your boss will able to defend you. (I assume you have a very nice boss who will really want you to success. If not, you will work hard for the company forever and nobody notice it.) Now let see where you really can demonstrate your real value to the company.
Be Your Best and Do The Best
This is simple to say but not easy to get done if you are not passionate enough in your job. You need to show your best to proof yourself in your organization. Do you really helping your company solving their business problem or just waiting for the salary to be credit to your bank account. For many people, they just ‘try’ to get all the assigned tasks completed on time, they hardly committed to do the job properly. You just need to be 10% better among your peer, you already able to proof yourself to your boss. Get thing done faster, make client happier, and bring more business to the company, your boss will like you very much.
Participate in Cross Department Assignment
You need to get visibility outside your own department. You need to let your company know you are multi-talent. You not only can be your best in your roles, you also add significant value by able to work across different department and deliver the results. By doing this, when there is promotion available in other department and no candidate available, you will be the chosen one.
Share Your Insights with Your Company Top Management.
Many of us don’t like to share our opinions with top management. We worry that the top management will dislike us when they heard our thought and affect our career path. Let me tell you, if you provide good and constructive feedback to your management, the chance of you getting promote and get notice will be higher compare to just getting your job done properly.
Now you had learn about 3 techniques where you can demonstrate your value to the company, it is time to think how can you really demonstrate your value to the company so you can be more successful in your career.
