By BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA
Hello, and welcome to the second half of this great year. As always, I remain committed to consistently adding value to you! Today, let’s talk about an important topic – Promotion or Elevation. This piece should interest you if you are a goal-getting career person with eyes on the ball. It should also interest you if you have an intentional career person within your network to share it with. I am aware that most exceptional performers in workplaces desire and expect promotion on the job each year. This is an item that is probably contained in their goals’ sheets or prayer cards. The truth is, their dreams are very valid, and they are realisable.
That is why being your trusted partner in life’s progress, I decided to share a quick secret with you around this critical time of the business year that could hasten the realisation of your promotion goals and even more. So, let’s talk about two ladders you can climb to your promotion, namely: the eye service ladder and the high service ladder. You would agree with me that many decent professionals often feel disheartened by eye service players. They see their actions as demeaning attempts to gain attention, promotion, or recognition.
To an extent, I also agree with this view. However, the unfortunate thing is that dislike it or not, eye service often delivers. Haven’t you observed that it has, and still gets eye-serving people up there? Maybe not keep them there for long, though. Nature abhors vacuum! The fact is that charlatans and eye service proponents have some wisdom to teach you – dear forthright and conscientious worker. Therefore, rather than simply sit there and bemoan the ‘underserved recognitions’ that they are gaining, it’s time to prepare to present a formidable response, which I call: ‘High Service’.
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High service option involves deliberately and strategically going beyond your regular call of duty. It could be as explicit as being visibly and noticeably loyal to ‘the powers that be’. It is being deliberate enough to deliver your work in legit ways that ‘please, impress, convince or gain the admiration’ of your assessor, supervisor, boss, lead, etc.
My dear diligent worker, do not get things twisted. Please, understand that this strategy is borne out of wisdom and maturity, which are both essential for playing at any organisation’s top level. It could seem like there’s just a thin line between acts of high and eye service. However, their major differences are in the motives and the message content.
No matter how great your work is, you have to learn to state the impact you are making as often as the opportunity to do so presents itself. Basically, human beings can only measure what they can see to draw conclusions. If mediocrity is what presents itself overtly to a leader, it will ultimately form his judgement framework.
Dear smart worker, don’t slip into the mode someone once referred to as ‘false humility’. Going forward, be vocal about your outstanding strides, if you must be. Rather than dissipate energy worrying about the wave that eye servers are making at work, use meaningful platforms to showcase the substance you have been offering. Give your hard work an opportunity to be seen, acknowledged, sponsored, and rewarded. And, No, you are not in competition with the eye servers. You are only making a decent, evidential and provable statement.
I authored this quote some years ago, “Letter ‘L’ is first in an employers’ alphabet, and it stands for Loyalty.” Did you know that loyalty remains a quality that many leaders, employers, and decision makers look out for but seldom openly say how much they value? That likely explains why eye servers leverage ‘perceived loyalty’ to get easily noticed and favoured. To an employer/superior, so many things may spell disloyalty from an employee or subordinate, thus making his rise turbulent or impossible.
Counsel:
It is not wrong to look out for your superior, by volunteering to help out with non-official support, felicitating with him on special occasions, speaking great but true words of appreciation for them to hear, verbally affirming your support towards seeing the team goals succeed, etc. Eye servers do all these and more for the wrong reasons. The difference between them and you (the high server) is that you also deliver excellently on your official tasks and pay your dues. So, here’s my honest counsel: WORK and SERVE!
Caution:
At this point, I must help my religiously-minded friends who might ask: “Bosede, isn’t all that you are asking me to do, ‘Eye Service’ or Hypocrisy?” My response is: No it’s not! It is true ‘High Service’ may share similar approaches with eye service, but it is very different.
*Adopting the high service notion is adding more value than others are willing to do while ensuring that it gets reckoned with, noticed, or recorded in your favour by those who matter.
*It is responding to extra but legitimate demands at work, even when they’re outside your current job description or pay bracket.
*It is stooping to conquer, shedding your pride, and those entitled, “I am qualified” feathers.
*It is humbly serving your way up, with POSITIVE INTENTIONS.
If what you desire this year is a defining raise, then you need a mind re-positioning on your job presentations.
Now, you will have to roll up your sleeves a bit more, rack your brain a bit harder to birth productive ideas, literally carry the job on your head, and serve your current boss, leader, manager or supervisor! It’s called High Service. It pays as handsomely as Eye Service does in a way that the gains last longer. Don’t just sit there and wait to be noticed; make yourself visible, appear in important rooms, contribute quality ideas, and show up intentionally.
NB: You shouldn’t worry about following these guides if you are fortunate to work in an environment that actively shuts out eye servers and has systems that automatically identify and reward high performers. Cheers to your higher placement.
If you loved what you read, let me know. Also, feel free to reach out to me through the telephone line attached to this column, if you would like to book a corporate training session on: building brand trust through exceptional service, workplace attitude optimisation, leadership sustainability, corporate culture creation, or personal character development coaching. Enjoy the rest of your week!
