Are you standing out or blending in?
A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a senior professional who approached me for career advice. She said that while she was good at work and was an expert at what she does, she was being passed over for promotions and wasn’t considered for high-profile assignments. I asked her what she was doing to stand out and she didn’t have an answer.
This got me thinking about the importance of standing out. It is easy to fit in, isn’t it? It is easy to be part of the crowd. There is safety in numbers. Whereas it takes courage to stand out. It is difficult to stand your ground when you’re standing alone. However, the ones who make an effort to stand out, are the ones who get noticed.
Like Seth Godin says, “Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run.”
In essence, there are two ways to stand out.
*One is to go the extra mile, put in extra effort, do things that others won’t do, outwork, or outrun everyone else.
*The other is to leverage your unique skills to create a niche and a competitive advantage.
It is smart to use both these aspects as you create a strategy to stand out.
Lets talk about standing out in an organizational setup. As you go up the career ladder in any organization, the competition intensifies. The roles are limited and most people around you would be accomplished too. Hence, in order to get considered for growth opportunities you need to stand out (positively) from the others.
While there are many ways to stand out and you could devise a strategy of your own here are a few pointers. Ask yourself these questions and the responses will tell you where you stand and how you can work on creating a competitive advantage for yourself.
1. Do you speak up and share your views?
2. Is your work top-notch and is it visible to decision-makers?
3. Are you involved in organization-wide, cross-functional initiatives? Do you go above and beyond the remit of your immediate role?
4. Do you have a personal brand? Is there a niche that you are created for yourself and are known for?
5. Do you have a strong network within and outside your team? Do you make time to build relationships at work? Do you attend networking events and stay connected?
6. Do the decision-makers know you, and know you well-enough to have an opinion about you?
7. Are you a team-player? Are you approachable and do you collaborate well with people within and outside your team?
8. Are you adding value to others by leveraging your unique skills or knowledge? Are you creating anything of value such as whitepapers, toolkits, reusable frameworks, etc?
9. Are you game to take on challenging roles/assignments or do you play safe?
10. Do you seek feedback proactively and work on it?
11. Are you upskilling yourself on a consistent basis?
12. Do you show drive and enthusiasm at work or are you disdainful?
13. Do you have a career plan, aspirational goals and are you optimistic about achieving them?
14. Do you show confidence, maturity and presence of mind?
15. Are you reliable? Can people count on you to deliver?
16. Do you come up with new ideas and have the courage to share them with senior leaders?
17. Do you know your distinctive strengths, and do you play to your strengths?
So, how do you stack up against these aspects? By doing all this, you make it clear that not only are you good at work, but you are innovative, collaborative, courageous, confident and reliable. Who wouldn’t want to retain and grow such a resource?
Let me end with a quote by John Bon Jovi — “Each one of you has something no one else has, or has ever had: your fingerprints, your brain, your heart. Be an individual. Be unique. Stand out. Make noise. Make someone notice. That’s the power of individuals.”
