What job duties you need to focus on to become promotable and increase your value for the team.
Hopefully, you are following my recommendations on how to quickly report on your accomplishments to help your boss recognize your talents and contributions. But it’s also important to share just enough information – not too much or too little – to get your point across while not overwhelming your busy supervisor. So, what exactly should be included in your report? The short answer is only the most important stuff.
Career reality check: not all job duties are born equal
Of course, your job description consists of multiple functions and tasks, and each of them (ideally) is meaningful and relevant. However, from the 10,000-foot view – and your long-term career perspective – each task has a different value in the eyes of your management. The more valuable a task is, the more valuable you become to the company or department if you can perform it successfully.
For example, compare these 2 job duties:
1) Processing weekly staff pay
and
2) Purchasing office supplies
In most cases, the first function will be more important – and valuable – than the second. What can happen if a mistake or delay occurs in just one weekly payroll calculation? Well, you can expect all sorts of workplace drama, including written complaints or even resignations. But if just one order for office supplies is placed incorrectly, chances are, no one will even notice. In other words, as the cost of a mistake for specific job duties varies, so will their value.
Your job is no different, and some of the duties you perform are more important than others. In order to raise your authority and credibility, try to always focus on the most valuable functions (and perform them well!) and highlight them in your reports and performance evaluations.
What job functions are the most valuable? Those that allow you to affect money (company’s income streams), power (authority), and influence (visibility and access to key decision-makers). Based on my experience, here are the Top 5 most important job duties:
1. Duties prioritized by your immediate manager that he reports on to his manager. Treating your boss as your key customer, you should always prioritize what matters to him most – namely, those functions that he will be held accountable for by his superiors. Make sure you perform those duties well and quickly, otherwise your boss won’t forgive you: his authority, influence, and power will be tainted if you fail.
2. Duties related to financing and budgeting. Money is power, so anybody who can change (increase, reduce, or keep) the company’s or department’s funding, is a highly valuable employee. That’s why you want to jump at every opportunity to participate in financial planning or budget management.
3. Duties related to (external) customer services. Please note that here I only mean back-office employees; if customer service is your primary function, then this point will be your number 1 priority (see above). But even if you just provide support to other customer-facing departments or coworkers, any delays or errors on your end will impact customer satisfaction and might result in conflicts or complaints eventually escalating to your management – thus ruining your professional standing in their eyes. Performing customer-related functions offers high visibility and directly affects income streams, that’s why they are important.
4. Duties related to regulatory compliance and (internal and external) audits. Even if you are not directly working with federal agencies, your mistakes can affect the audits’ findings and cost the company its rating or result in huge, huge fines. Keep in mind that your name will make it directly to the public records. Besides, any unsuccessful audit will negatively impact your boss’s authority – and ruin your career along the way.
5. Duties related to new projects, market niches, office openings, and overall business expansion. These projects are usually of high importance as the most strategic and expensive initiatives that are closely monitored by senior management. If you are engaged in any of them, do your best to master new skills and scale up key processes to increase your value within the company. If you succeed, you may be offered a promotion to a higher position not available for external candidates. Make sure you impress your team enough to facilitate the transition.
Though this list is not comprehensive (there are 5 more points, btw), I hope it gives you an idea of what you need to prioritize in your job – and your reports. Use this rating when you have too much work on your plate to ensure you perform well in what matters most – and then enjoy your increased value, authority, and influence.