No matter what you think about your boss, as long as you are getting your salary from a corporate account, your boss is your God. Which also means that your efforts to please your boss need to get more sophisticated as you move up the corporate ladder.
What do we mean by that? Any guesses?
[I see one hand going up enthusiastically somewhere in the crowd]
Yes, you sir…with the thick glasses and the nerdy look, what do you think you need to do to impress your boss?
“Work,” he says in a feeble voice, his hand still high up in the air. And the rest of his colleagues started shaking their heads in disagreement. Nerdy boy has managed to embarrass them yet again.
Work is what you do when you join and for a few years after that. Contrary to popular belief, what work you’ve done has little bearing on the powers that be. What good are you when you are just another worker ant in a big ant-hill?
What else are we missing?
[Looking around for more raised hands, but can’t find any].
Alright, here’s the answer – Perception. Image. Aura. Halo.
That’s what it’s all about. There are too many faceless worker ants who’ll do the job, better than you. What you need is the ability to project yourself as a…er…Thought-leader.
The perception that you care not only about what you do, but also what the company do, is often the thin line that differentiates the kid who’s head gets dunked in the toilet and the dunk-er.
Achamba, the Super MBA, knows this all too well. If you thought he has managed to wedge himself so well in the chaotic and volatile corporate kingdom only because of his fancy degree, you are wrong. Over the years, he has fine-tuned many other skills. One of them is the art of saying the right things, that make the senior management go, not ‘Aha‘, but ‘What the hell!‘.
Here’s the good news. You don’t need a top MBA to learn those secrets. The kind-hearted Achamba has volunteered yet again to share his wisdom. If it elevates a few more worker ants to [whatever is the designation they get promoted to in ant-land] and he doesn’t feel threatened by you, he’d feel he’s given back to society.
According to Achamba, “In the earlier years in a company, what you do with your brain and hands counts a lot. After you’ve crossed a certain threshold, if you really want to break the glass ceiling, what you do with your mouth is also important.”
Before you start getting vague ideas, Achamba is referring to your communication skills. We wrote a whole post on how to improve communication skills.
But what if you don’t have the patience to go through the steep learning curve? There is a short-cut.
Use the following statements recommended by Achamba. They fit almost all occasions at work – interviews, employee appraisals, networking events. So sprinkle them liberally in your everyday conversations.
How to impress your boss with ‘thought-leadership’ quotes
Click below to unlock the wisdom
Every time you click on the link in the box, a new quote gets generated. Our little box stores an unlimited number. Keep clicking till you get the right quote for the occasion.
A word of caution. These statements may look simple. But saying them eloquently and naturally with a straight face can take years to master…and decades for the poor guys on the receiving side to comprehend. Till all this becomes second nature to you, don’t take any chances. Keep this page bookmarked and open during important meetings and conference calls.
If you found this interesting, read more about the adventures of Achamba – The Super MBA.
And if you are as generous as Achamba, share the knowledge. Use the social media buttons to express your gratitude to Achamba.
Hey Sameer,
The illustration is really good! The way it is structured, I will consider it as corporate-black-humor!
They don’t call it the ‘X-factor’ without any reason.
Thanks, Rohit. The credit for the illustration goes to Nagesh. He’s fantastic at what he does.