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Key points
- Technical expertise is not enough to stand out in an organization.
- What unites successful go-to people is their ability to add value to their interactions.
- The more value one adds to their working relationships, the more invested others become in their success.
In a highly collaborative workplace, those who stand out the most are usually those who are relied on the most: the go-to people of their organizations.
Go-to people come in every variety and work at every level and are found in organizations of all shapes and sizes, in every industry. There are as many different styles and stories as there are go-to people. But what unites them all is that they know how to make themselves valuable to others, consistently, over time.
How do they do this? Of course, go-to people must certainly be very good at their jobs. But that’s less significant a factor than it may seem.
Not all technical experts are go-to people. Sometimes, the expert is an annoying know-it-all. They can be so convinced they’re more qualified than everyone else, they spend too much of their time complaining about everything they see wrong in the company, its management, its processes, and its personnel. Then, when they themselves fail to deliver, they can always tell you why it’s somebody else’s fault.
Nobody wants to work with that person.
Most people would much rather go to a colleague who might be less of an expert but is willing to take personal responsibility, work through obstacles, and get things done. But that doesn’t mean they are steamrollers who won’t take no for an answer. Or sly organizational politicians who grease palms or flatter to get things done. Or rule benders who are always willing to jump the chain of command or find a shortcut or a workaround.
Yes, tenacity and creativity are important. But most people prefer to steer clear of steamrollers and slick politicians, and very few want to risk getting tangled up in unnecessary trouble.
So how do you become a person with real influence in the workplace? How do you make other people want you to be more powerful and want you to succeed? How do you make others want to contribute to your success, make valuable use of your time, and work in smart ways on your behalf?
The answer for many of the most successful go-to people is simple: Serve others. Stop focusing on what other people can do for you and focus instead on what you can do for other people. Make yourself super-valuable to others. The more value you add, the more truly invested others become in your success.
This type of service mindset sets go-to people apart because it is hard to find. It requires accepting some hard truths and adopting them in a way that doesn’t result in frustration and burnout:
- Positive attitude, hard work, personal responsibility, and being great at your job are just the basics. To truly stand out, you must align your work with that of your closest collaborators.
- No matter how creative and tenacious you may be, you still must do things by the book. Inventing new methods and solutions may seem impressive, but too often results in wasted time and effort when the end result doesn’t meet the original need.
- You cannot do everything for everybody. Overpromising may please people up front, but if you fail to deliver, that’s all they will remember.
- You must make choices about what you are not going to do so you can focus on getting the right things done. Making no choice is still a choice, and no choice is almost as bad as a bad choice.
- To make good choices regarding your time, you must do your due diligence, the sooner the better, every step of the way.
- You can’t be great at everything, so you need to build a repertoire of things you are known for consistently doing very well.
- You only get credit for the results you deliver. You get a lot more credit when you deliver on time and on spec.
- People are your number-one asset, but they are also very high maintenance, so managing relationships is mission-critical. Focus your relationship building on the work, and the work will go better. When the work goes better, the relationship will go better.
The common denominator among these truths is they embrace the concept of real influence. Real influence is the power you have when other people really want to do things for you, make good use of your time, and contribute to your success. The only way to build real influence is to truly believe in the peculiar math: The more you serve others by doing the right thing in the long-term, moment by moment, adding value in every single interaction, the more others will want to do the same for you.
