Tag Taking Action

How to Be More Valuable to Your Employer

Steve Keating Leave a comment

I’m a little surprised by how often I’m asked by people how to ask for a raise. I don’t normally answer a question with a question, but in this circumstance, I do it anyway. The question I ask is, “Do you deserve a raise?”

I get a variety of answers to that question. Many people say, “well, I need one.” This is where the frustration begins to set in for them. Because my reply is that if I’m your employer, I could care less that you think you need a raise.

I then ask them to explain to me, with a pretty good level of specificity, why they deserve a raise. I want them to tell me what they have done to make themselves more valuable to their employer.

It is my belief that no one is entitled to a raise they didn’t earn just because they have been with a company for a certain period of time.

Consistently increasing the value you bring to your employer is the fastest way to earn a raise. Increasing your value helps you stand out from your colleagues and coworkers. Standing out as a valuable employee not only helps you earn a raise, it can open doors to career growth, job security, and personal fulfillment. Becoming indispensable to your employer isn’t about working harder—it’s about working smarter, aligning your efforts with the company’s goals, and consistently demonstrating your worth.

Here’s a practical guide to increasing your value at work, with actionable steps you can start implementing today.

Understand Your Company’s Goals and Priorities

To be truly valuable, you need to align your work with what matters most to your employer. Take time to understand your company’s mission, vision, and current objectives. Are they focused on increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, or streamlining operations? Knowing this helps you prioritize tasks that directly contribute to those goals.

Actionable Steps:

Ask questions: In team meetings or one-on-ones, inquire about the company’s short- and long-term priorities.

Read up: Review company reports, strategic plans, or public communications (e.g., investor updates or press releases) to grasp the bigger picture.

Align your work: Frame your contributions in terms of how they support key objectives. For example, if customer retention is a priority, focus on delivering exceptional service or suggesting process improvements.

Example: If your company is pushing for digital transformation, volunteer to learn a new tool or platform that supports that initiative, like mastering a CRM system or analyzing data to improve decision-making.

Develop In-Demand Skills

Employers value employees who bring expertise that is relevant to the company’s needs. Stay ahead by continuously developing skills that are in demand, both within your role and in the broader industry. This could mean technical skills (e.g., data analysis, coding) or soft skills (e.g., communication, leadership).

Actionable Steps:

Identify skill gaps: Look at job descriptions for roles similar to yours or ask your manager which skills would make you more effective.

Invest in learning: Take online courses (platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or Udemy are great), attend workshops, or earn certifications relevant to your field.

Apply your skills: Find opportunities to use your new skills on the job, whether through a special project or by improving an existing process.

Example: If your company uses data to drive decisions, learning basic Excel functions or a tool like Tableau can make you a go-to person for insights, increasing your value.

Take Initiative and Solve Problems

Valuable employees don’t wait for instructions—they proactively identify challenges and propose solutions. Being a problem-solver shows you are invested in the company’s success and can be trusted to handle responsibilities.

Actionable Steps:

Spot inefficiencies: Look for processes, tools, or workflows that could be improved and suggest actionable fixes.

Volunteer for challenges: Offer to lead a project, tackle a tough client issue, or streamline a task that others avoid.

Think ahead: Anticipate potential roadblocks in your team’s work and propose ways to address them before they become problems.

Example: If your team struggles with meeting deadlines due to poor task tracking, propose adopting a project management tool like Trello, or Asana and offer to set it up.

Build Strong Relationships

Your value isn’t just about what you do but how you work with others. Building strong relationships with colleagues, managers, and stakeholders fosters collaboration and makes you a trusted team member.

Actionable Steps:

Communicate effectively: Be clear, concise, and respectful in emails, meetings, and conversations.

Support your team: Offer help to colleagues, share credit for successes, and foster a positive work environment.

Network internally: Get to know people in other departments to understand their roles and how you can support cross-functional goals.

Example: If a coworker is overwhelmed, offer to take on a small task or share a resource that could help them, building goodwill and strengthening team dynamics.

Deliver Consistent, High-Quality Work

Reliability is a cornerstone of value. Employers prize employees who consistently meet or exceed expectations, deliver on time, and maintain high standards.

Actionable Steps:

Set clear goals: Break down large tasks into manageable steps and track your progress to stay on target.

Pay attention to detail: Double-check your work to avoid errors that could cost time or resources.

Seek feedback: Regularly ask for constructive feedback from your manager or peers to improve your performance.

Example: If you’re tasked with preparing a report, ensure it’s error-free, visually clear, and submitted early, demonstrating reliability and professionalism.

Be Adaptable and Embrace Change

Workplaces evolve—new technologies, strategies, or market conditions can shift priorities overnight. Employees who adapt quickly and embrace change are invaluable because they help the company stay agile.

Actionable Steps:

Stay open-minded: Approach new processes or tools with curiosity rather than resistance.

Learn quickly: Take the lead in mastering new systems or workflows, and share your knowledge with others.

Show resilience: Handle setbacks or unexpected changes with a positive attitude and focus on solutions.

Example: If your company adopts a new software platform, take the initiative to learn it early and help train your team, positioning yourself as a resource.

Communicate Your Value

It’s not enough to do great work—you need to make sure your contributions are visible (without being boastful). Employers often notice employees who can articulate their impact.

Actionable Steps:

Track your achievements: Keep a record of your accomplishments, such as projects completed, savings generated, or positive feedback received.

Share updates: In performance reviews or check-ins, highlight specific ways you have contributed to team or company goals.

Be proactive in meetings: Share ideas, insights, or progress updates to demonstrate your engagement.

Example: During a performance review, say, “I streamlined our reporting process, which saved the team 5 hours a week and improved data accuracy by 20%,” to quantify your impact.

Stay Positive and Professional

A positive attitude and professional demeanor make you a pleasure to work with, which enhances your value. Employers appreciate employees who inspire others and maintain composure under pressure.

Actionable Steps:

Stay solution-focused: Even when challenges arise, focus on what can be done rather than dwell on problems.

Show gratitude: Acknowledge others’ contributions and express appreciation for opportunities.

Handle conflict gracefully: Address disagreements calmly and constructively to maintain a positive work environment.

Example: If a project hits a snag, instead of complaining, say, “Let’s brainstorm a few ways to get this back on track,” showing leadership and optimism.

Mentor and Support Others

Helping your colleagues grow not only strengthens the team but also positions you as a leader, even if you’re not in a formal leadership role. Employers value employees who elevate those around them.

Actionable Steps:

Share knowledge: Offer to train a new hire or share tips with a struggling colleague.

Be a team player: Celebrate others’ successes and contribute to a collaborative culture.

Lead by example: Model the behaviors and work ethic you want to see in others.

Example: If a new team member is struggling with a task, spend 15 minutes walking them through it or sharing a helpful resource, showing you’re invested in the team’s success.

Stay Committed to Growth

Valuable employees never stop growing. Commit to continuous self-improvement, both in your role and as a professional, to stay relevant and impactful.

Actionable Steps:

Set personal goals: Identify one or two areas for growth each quarter, such as improving public speaking or mastering a new tool.

Seek mentorship: Connect with a mentor or manager who can guide your career development.

Stay curious: Read industry blogs, attend webinars, or follow thought leaders on platforms like X to stay informed about trends.

Example: Follow industry leaders on X to learn about emerging trends in your field, then share a relevant insight with your team to spark discussion.

Final Thoughts

Being more valuable to your employer is about aligning your efforts with their goals, continuously improving yourself, and making a positive impact on your team and organization. By taking initiative, building skills, and developing strong relationships, you’ll not only increase your worth but also create a more rewarding work experience for yourself.

Start small—pick one or two of these steps to focus on this week. Over time, these efforts will compound, making you an indispensable asset to your employer and setting you up for long-term career success.

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What ALL Successful People Have in Common 

Steve Keating 3 Comments

There are many things successful people have in common. Most have positive attitudes. Successful people possess the perseverance to push past obstacles that less successful people see as insurmountable. Others possess uncommon skills or strengths that give them an edge over other people. 

But there are a couple of things that ALL successful people do that contribute to their success. 

First, successful people develop the habits of doing the things that less successful people simply don’t like to do. Yes, it’s that simple. And yes, it’s that hard. 

Successful people have a goal achieving process in place. They work their way through that process on an almost daily basis. That process begins with setting goals that are clearly written out. Each goal has measurable objectives. It also includes a flexible but not endless timeline along with a specific plan for how they will move closer to at least one of their goals each day. 

For the majority of highly successful people goals have proven to be the key that unlocked their potential. It’s a key that everyone has, the difference is, highly successful people use it. 

But the second thing ALL successful people have in common is tied directly to the first. That “thing” is that ALL successful people got up off their butts and did something. 

That “something” likely began with setting goals. It likely required that they NOT do something they would have preferred to be doing…like sitting on their butt. Lots of people are able to get off their butts but many people find it too challenging and they sit right back down. 

Highly successful people were able to “get their rear in gear” and keep it there because they had the discipline required to motivate themselves. That discipline came from periodically reviewing their goals. But…you can’t review what you don’t have so…

Everyone has the ability to be highly successful. Yes, I understand that some people have more “built in” advantages. But many highly successful people have overcome severe disadvantages. Much of that “overcoming” was accomplished by deciding their disadvantages would not be an excuse for a lack of effort.

They were honest with themselves that while likely unfair, they would need to outperform other people to reach the same level of success. So they outperformed. 

You and every other person reading this can do the same. So can the person writing this, though I need reminding of that fact like most everyone else. 

So consider this a reminder for us all. Now, get up off that cushy tush and do something. 

Consider this too, some of you know that I’ve been trying out something relatively new over on Twitter. It’s called SuperFollow. That means I post some tweets that are for subscribers only. The tweets I post for subscribers are video only. I post two each weekday, mostly on leadership but also sales and living a better life in general. I’m also way more available for questions from SuperFollowers than I can be for the million plus regular Twitter followers. The investment to see these “SuperTweets” is $4.99 a month, that’s about 17 cents a day. The videos continue to grow in popularity so clearly a lot of people think they are worthwhile. 

I don’t get to keep the entire $4.99. Twitter of course gets some, Apple, for reasons I don’t entirely understand, gets an even bigger chunk than Twitter. What’s left after that ALL goes to charity. So you can help yourself with pretty good video coaching and make a difference in the world too. This month the charity is very very close to my heart. All the proceeds are going to help kids with Down Syndrome. 

You can find more information by clicking the Super Follow button on my Twitter profile page IN THE TWITTER APP. http://twitter.com/leadtoday Give it a try if you’re so inclined, and if you are, be sure to let me know how I’m doing and how I can be of even more help.

Think About This…But NOT for Too Long

Steve Keating 5 Comments

Thinking is a very good thing to do. It seems as if a whole lot of people would be better off if they did more of it. Everyone knows that it is best to think before they speak. Clearly not everyone knows it’s best to think before they post. I am shocked by what people will tweet or post to Facebook (is that still the name?) and other social media sites. I can’t believe they thought at all before posting some of what I see and if they did we are in worse shape then I would have ever believed. 

But doing too much of a good thing can turn it into a bad thing. So it is with thinking. 

Overthinking can be as bad as not thinking at all. Sometimes it’s even worse because overthinking can create problems that were not there in the first place. It can even create problems that are nothing more than a figment of the over-thinker’s imagination. 

The most surprising thing about overthinking is that it seems the smarter you are the more prone you are to fall into the overthinking trap. All that knowledge can cause you to over prepare and over analyze. 

It’s good to be thoughtful and use your experience when making a decision. Just be mindful as well of the danger of paralysis by analysis that too often comes with overthinking. 

Overthinking is the most common way smart people sabotage their own success. 

Partly because of what I do for a living a attend a lot of conference type meetings. That’s where I see smart people endlessly toiling away in front of a screen trying to create the perfect PowerPoint slides. Thinking and rethinking and thinking some more about exactly what they want to say. Changing one slide after another to get the exact “look” that will make their message connect with their audience. 

In 1000’s of meetings like that with a countless number of attendees I have never heard “wow, that was the most awesome PowerPoint I’ve ever seen, it totally made the presentation.” 

If you think your PowerPoint is the centerpiece of your presentation your thinking has missed the mark. PowerPoint should be a bit player behind your staring role. Whenever I see people fussing with their PowerPoint right up until the second they are presenting I know they are over thinking their presentation. WAY overthinking. 

Just an aside to all the presenters reading this. If you know what you’re talking about then use your slides to merely support your presentation. If you don’t know what you’re talking about then don’t be doing a presentation. 

Napoleon Hill wrote one of the all time greatest books titled “Think and Grow Rich.” He lived long ago but his principles still perfectly apply today. Obviously I never met him but I’ll bet if he would have written a sequel to that book it would have been titled “Over Think and Lose The Riches You Earned by Thinking. (Okay, I know his editor would have made him shorten the title but you get the point)

Do not limit your success by overthinking. Once your knowledge, your experience and your instincts tell you to act then act. Don’t let the same brain that informed you of what to do take that decision away from you by thinking and rethinking. Act!

Are you an “over-thinker?” Think about it…but not for too long.

Weak Leaders – Part Two

Steve Keating 3 Comments

Strong Authentic Leaders make decisions. Perhaps surprisingly, so do weak leaders. What separates the two is that strong leaders act an those decisions almost immediately while weaker leaders hesitate…if they act at all.

There are lots of reason they hesitate. The biggest is fear of failure. They somehow get it in their heads that trying and failing is worse than not trying at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. All successful people fail, at least temporarily. The fact that they tried allows them to try again. Again and again, until the failure is behind them.

Not trying at all means that failure, and make no mistake, not trying is a HUGE failure, it means that the failure will always be with you. Never to be left behind. 

The first step in an action plan is often the hardest. Strong Authentic Leaders know that heavy trains often require an extra engine to get started. That’s why they aren’t afraid to ask for a little help to get going. It’s amazing the momentum that can be created with a single step. Unfortunately, weak leaders too often don’t take that step.

Weak leaders often use patience as an excuse for not starting. They are waiting for “just the right time” to begin, perhaps not realizing what they are doing is actually procrastinating. Patience is the acceptance that things can happen in a different order than you had imagined. Procrastination is waiting for the sake of waiting. Patience can provide benefits, procrastination simply kills opportunities for success. Strong Authentic Leaders know the difference. 

Strong Authentic Leaders do the hard jobs first. They know that there are only three options available when facing any challenge, they can delay, dodge or do. Strong leaders do. Weak Leaders do too but they do the easy things first hoping somehow that the hard things will either go away, be handled miraculously by someone else or that no one will notice they were never done at all. 

Weak Leaders are slow to start because they see risk in every opportunity. Strong Authentic Leaders are always moving forward because they see opportunity in every risk. Risk is a requirement for progress. Risk is a part of success. Strong Authentic Leaders are willing to take a risk, a well calculated, considered risk, in order to have a chance to lead. 

If you’re in a leadership position and find yourself hesitating then you need to ask yourself why. Are you risk adverse? Fearing failure? A wee bit too lazy to tackle the challenges of leadership? Or afraid of appearing weak by asking for help?

Well none of those are valid reasons for hesitating, they are excuses. The kind of excuses Strong Authentic Leaders do not make. So instead of making excuses start making decisions and taking action to make things happen. It won’t take long before you wonder why you weren’t doing that all along.

Back to Basics

Steve Keating 4 Comments

As the story goes, the legendary former coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, would start every training camp the same way. He would hold up a football and announce with great gusto, “This is a football.” 

Keep in mind he was speaking to a room full of professional football players. I think I’m safe in assuming that they all had at least a passing familiarity (pun intended) with what a football looked like. 

But Coach Lombardi was making a point. His point was we are going to begin with the basics because it’s the basics that will make us champions. 

You may not be a professional football player but that point is as applicable to you as it was to those Green Bay Packers. 

Skipping the basics, or believing your skills are so advanced that the basics no longer apply to you is one sure way to fall short of your potential. 

As the year ahead comes into focus it’s a great time to review your own “basics.” What have you skipped, or simply forgotten, that used to bring you great results? Maybe you used to send thank you notes…remember those, the kind you wrote out by hand, put in an envelope and dropped in a blue box on the corner? That practice remains to this day a solid basic skill when building and nurturing relationships. Perhaps more than ever considering how rare thank you notes have become. 

Maybe you skip making yourself a prioritized task list each morning. Using a prioritized task list is key to strong time management. For most people it’s not that they don’t have enough time, it’s that they lack a clear sense of priorities. 

People who prioritize what they want and need to accomplish will in fact accomplish much more than the people who don’t. Even if you’ve never applied that basic skill to your life before, now would be a great time to start. 

There are so many “basics” to success that I could go on forever. But instead I’ll encourage you to invest some time to think back to some of your greatest successes. What were some of the basics that helped you achieve that success? Are you still using them? If not can you say with specificity why you’re not? Or have they somehow faded away with not much thought as to why?

Consider the basics you need to be consistently successful and then go back to them. This is a great example of when “going back” is the fastest path forward to future success. 

So, what are you going back to?

Your Best Coach

Steve Keating 2 Comments

I write from time to time on the importance of having a coach or a mentor. The best mentors show you what to do and how to do it. They don’t do it for you.

At some point all successful people did something to make themselves a success. They likely had a coach or mentor but they had to make the effort to act on the advice they received. THEY HAD TO ACT THEMSELVES!

Taking action to accomplish something requires a whole different kind of coach. It requires a “self-coach.” That would be you!

At some point you must push yourself. You must accept responsibility for your actions and decisions. What you’re taught can’t help you if you don’t apply it. The best advice in the world falls flat if you don’t use it.

If you do nothing then nothing is exactly what you should expect in return.

If you’re a good self-coach then you’re setting goals for yourself. Long-term, medium-term goals and short-term goals. Those short-term goals can be daily or even hourly. As an excellent self-coach you turn large, seemingly insurmountable tasks into a series of smaller tasks that you can accomplish on a daily or weekly basis.

That old city in Italy wasn’t built in a day and neither is long-term success. Doing a little each day will most definitely help you achieve a lot over time.

That’s the best thing about being/having a great self-coach…they are with you every day, all day.

The challenge with your self-coach, or your inner-coach, or whatever you want to call it, is the same as it is with a mentor or outside coach. You MUST listen to their advice and then act on it.

A single pound of action is worth more than a ton of good intentions. One thing highly successful people have in common with less successful people is that they both have good intentions. What most often separates the highly successful people from the less successful is that the most successful people act on those intentions.

So follow this coaches advice and ACT!

Fear Isn’t Real

Steve Keating Leave a comment

There seems to be a lot of fear going around these days. Fear of getting sick, fear of going broke, fear of going broke because you got sick, fear of the unknown and apparently even fear of running out of toilet paper.

All this fear going around is kinda weird since fear isn’t actually real. You can see someone who appears to be scared but you can’t see the fear. You can hear someone scream but you’ve never heard fear make a sound. Fear has no odor, no color and no taste. Show me what fear looks like and I’ll hold up a mirror and show you someone with a vivid imagination.

You’ve never seen fear because fear doesn’t exist.

Dale Carnegie once said the “the only place fear exists is in our minds.” If that were all there was to it then no one would ever be afraid. Unfortunately the mind is very powerful and it frequently convinces us that the unreal is indeed very real.

When your mind convinces you that your fear is real the effects can be devastating. Fear can be and often is fatal to dreams. It paralyzes our thinking and it spreads quickly. Allowed to exist long enough fear will consume all rational thinking. When relational thinking is gone fear can play all kinds of tricks on us. It’s favorite trick seems to be making us believe the possible is actually impossible.

The good news is that there is an antidote for fear. It’s called action. Almost any action will do but nothing beats carefully considered, planned out action.

That is one reason I have so many plans. Plans in case I lose my income. Plans in case I get sick and can’t work. Plans for things out of my control. Yes, I understand that I can’t control things out of my control but I can certainly have a plan for how I will respond to them. So can you!

I have plans so when fear attempts to overtake me I don’t have to think…I just have to take whatever actions my plan says to take. That fake sensation of fear gets swamped by action.

Having a plan before fear attempts it’s takeover is best but it’s not essential. But when fear begins to creep in you must act quickly. Just do something. Do one thing that you know is right. Then do another, a couple of quick actions will buy you a bit of time to do some planning. Be sure that your plan includes lots of action steps because every action you take will weaken fear’s ability to hold you back.

As powerful as fear can feel at times the reality is that fear has only the power that you allow it to have. The secret to eliminating fear in your life is to believe in yourself more than you believe in fear.

Fear is an illusion that is easily exposed by logical thoughts and actions. YOU CAN beat it. You can outthink it. You can out hustle it. You can overpower it with a belief in yourself.

The only question is whether or not you believe you can.

So, do you believe?