Dear Lifehacker, I have recently moved interstate and started a new job. What’s your best tip for getting myself known to the people that matter while still maintaining a good relationship with my peers and staff? I don’t want to be a brown nose but I have come from a well-respected position – I knew the movers-and-shakers both within my organisation and without and I want to get back to that point as quickly as possible.Thanks, Office Newbie
Dear ON,
We’re going to assume that you learned a few things during your first climb up the corporate ladder. Take some time to reflect on your past experiences during those moments when you were trying to make a name for yourself. Which methods worked? Which methods had no discernible effect? And which methods caused you to crash and burn?
If you were as successful in your previous job as you say you were, there should be a back catalogue of networking hacks filed away in your brain – they simply need to be uncovered and utilised.
It’s also a good idea to liaise with superiors during business social events. The obligatory Christmas office shindig may be the only time you get to converse with the higher-ups, so use this time to your advantage. (In other words, don’t stick rigidly to your peers and try not to get too plastered.)
Barrett Brooks is the founder of Living For Monday, a community of aspiring world changers looking to make an impact with their lives. In this recent Lifehacker post Brooks offers a wealth of information on how you can build relationships with like-minded go-getters.
While his advice is primarily focused on dynamic group creation, a lot of it could also apply to the workplace. For example, here’s a tip on how intelligent conversations and brainstorming can help you get noticed:
Identify specific examples of excellent, inspiring performance within your industry or area of interest. Discuss the most compelling successes and failures of the community, pulling out the most important insights and applying them to your own businesses.
Otherwise, the key is to work hard, ask insightful questions and act as friendly and natural as possible. If the talent is there, you’ll get noticed.
We’re going to throw this one open to our readers too. If any meteorically successful executives want to share their networking secrets, do let Newbie know in the comments section below.
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
4 responses to “Ask LH: How Can I Get Noticed Quickly At My New Job?”
Step 1) Learn excel
Step 2) Tell everyone you know excel
Step 3) Profit
especially VLOOKUp. It seems to be the function I get asked most about.
Nudity. Works every time.
Don’t brown nose management right away, make friends with your peers.
If you act like you’re part of the team and not out for yourself, they will be happy to help you with getting up to speed. If they like you, they will look at your performance in a better light.
This means that they won’t throw you under the bus if you (or anyone else) makes a mistake, and the incumbent brown nose may actually say positive things about you when they are having their little chat with the boss.
Going in straight away and glad-handing anyone up the food chain is a good way to put your co-workers (and especially the chief bottom kisser) offside. You’ll earn a bad reputation pretty quickly.
It won’t matter how good you are at your job if others are bad mouthing you.