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How To Impress Your Boss Without Sucking Upby Ben on December 21, 2011 edit

Learning to impress your boss is a good way to improve your career. Doing that,without sucking up or being obvious, is an even better way to improve yourcareer!

Everyone can spot someone who sucks up to their boss. It stands out like a sorethumb. They compliment them all the time, talk to them a lot about work andpersonal things in a manner that makes them seem like they’re only doing it toget noticed, as well as many other things that make them seem like they’resucking up to them.

The key to impressing your boss is to be able to do it without sucking up. I’ve listed eleven tips that will helpyou to impress your boss without sucking up! That’s right, eleven!

Arrive On Time (Or Early) Every Day

Employers always set standard or expected working hours. These are usually 9 AM until 5 PM, or slightvariations of that. I’ve mentioned this in the Five Prof essional Tips post, but arriving on time is a great wayto impress your boss. Arriving earlier is even better. You don’t need to make a big deal out of it – arriving ontime, consistently, will get noticed by your boss. All you’ll need to do is walk in, maybe say good morning,and get to work. Your manager will notice that you’re one of the workers that consistently arrives on time.

Stay Late

Staying back and putting in extra hours is a good way to impress your boss as well. Your manager expectsresults f rom you, and staying back will not only help you achieve those results, but will hopef ully get ahigher quality because you’ve had more time to work on them.

This is a point open to discussion, as on one side of the argument is the work/lif e balance and the abilityto juggle your workload. The other side is the notion of going above and beyond and getting results. Thismay depend on your personal circumstances or f amily. Personally, I don’t have a problem with staying backto get work done, and I know my boss both realises it and appreciates it.

Take Initiative

Your manager is there to manage the team’s workload and direction set by their manager. They are notthere to babysit you and tell you what to do every minute of the day. You should be able to make your owndecisions and take init iative where it ’s needed. This can involve identif ying problems in current processes orsystems and suggesting solutions. It can also involve putting your hand up f or work or ideas without yourboss’ involvement. This means there’s less f or them to do and to worry about, and they think that you’reable to handle yourself at work and improve the team.

Find Solutions To Problems

This point is related to taking init iative, but it ’s a bit more than that. If you f ind a problem – either with asystem, a team member, a current process, a project that’s being undertaken, or anything else, you shouldhave a solution or a suggestion bef ore you mention it to your boss.

Have you noticed one of your co-workers is overworked and seems to be very stressed? Suggest to your

manager that you take some of their work of f them or help them out where you can. Notice a problem witha system? Come up with a solution that both f ixes the immediate need and the long-term prevention of theissue.

Your manager will notice your problem solving skills and appreciate that you’re doing work to help the team.

Let Your Actions Speak

You can say all you want about how good you are, or what you can do (I hope you’re not – nobody likes abragger!). Other people can say that you’re a smart person. The best way to make this known is to let youractions speak f or yourself , rather than words. This means that the work you produce and what you doshould send the message that you’re ef f icient, ef f ective, and overall excellent at your job. People willrealise this – your manager, your co-workers, other teams and even managers higher up. There’s no needto point this out to other people – your work will speak f or itself .

Obviously, you’ll need to be good at your job to be able to pull this one of f , but I assume you are alreadygood at what you do!

Use Your Computer Very Well

As you work in the IT industry, I can saf ely assume that you know how to use a computer better than theaverage of f ice worker. You probably know shortcuts and ways of doing things easier than most.

Knowing how to use a computer very well not only improves your ef f iciency at your job, but it makes youlook like you know what you’re doing. You seem like someone in control and without a worry.

It also has the added benef it of being another thing you can help your manager with. I’ve had managers inthe past who have asked me many times how to do certain things on their computer. Each time I’ve beenable to show them how it ’s done, and they’ve been gratef ul. This hasn’t been part of my role, but lit t lethings like this can help to impress your boss.

Leave Your Problems At Home

Everyone has a personal lif e outside of the of f ice. And with that personal lif e comes its own set ofproblems! You may have just split up with your partner, you may be having f amily issues, your car may havejust been stolen, or any number of other non-work-related issues. It ’s understandable that these may makeyou f eel angry, stressed or to lose f ocus at work.

However, it ’s important to try to leave these problems at home. Deal with them and think about themoutside of the of f ice. It can be hard, sometimes, especially if they’re new. But, if you deal with them at work,your manager will notice. They may be sympathetic towards you, but overall it ’s not a good way to impressthem. To keep up the appearance of conf idence and to set a good impression, it ’s a good idea to leavethem at home.

At a later date, your boss may f ind out that you were going through something in the past, and think tothemselves that they never noticed your change in att itude or work output. Now, THIS will impress them!

Stay Positive

This is related to the above point, but is a broader concept. Staying posit ive and in a good mood is a greatway to impress your boss. It exudes conf idence and it ’s also contagious – your posit ivity and good moodwill spread to others. Your productivity will improve and you might even f ind yourself enjoying your day!

Nobody likes a whinger. If you have the need to complain or be negative, do it in a constructive way and in aprivate situation with a co-worker or manager if needed. Don’t grumble and swear and be negative aboutthe environment you’re in or work you’re doing. It ’s not a good look.

Be Very Honest

Honesty is one of the best traits or qualit ies a person can have. This applies both in the of f ice and in lif e ingeneral. Be honest with your boss about your workload and whether or not you have enough time to getyour work done. Be honest when owning up to mistakes that you’ve done. Be honest when asked f or anopinion on something or with your progress on a task. If you don’t, people will make decisions based onf alse inf ormation and you will usually get f ound out in the end. It works best f or everyone if you’re honestabout everything. Nobody likes a liar!

Walk Quickly Around The Off ice

Get into the habit of moving around the of f ice at a brisk pace. Walk as though you have a purpose andconf idence in yourself . There is a whole f ield of study related to body language and conf idence, that Iwon’t go into, but the reason that walking quickly is good is that it makes you look like you’re committedand busy and have somewhere to be, and not lazy or without purpose.

The trick is to walk quickly without looking stressed or rushed. I believe if you walk without looking lazy orcasual then it should send the good impression you need.

Meet And Even Exceed Deadlines

One of the best t ips I’ve received is “under promise, over deliver”. I even wrote an entire post about it!This point essentially means that if you have deadlines – either set by yourself or your manager – makesure you meet them. Even better, exceed them. Exceed them either in t ime (getting it done bef ore the settime), in quality (make sure the result is better than you committed to), or in output (giving them more thanwhat they asked f or, as long as it ’s relevant).

If you commit to something being done on Wednesday af ternoon, have it done by Wednesday morning, f orexample. If you need to produce a spreadsheet with a table of inf ormation f rom a system, provide thissheet to them, but have it well f ormatted and with no errors. Adding graphs, analysis, or f urther inf ormationthat may be usef ul will also impress the person you’re delivering it to.

Well, there are my eleven t ips on how to impress your boss without sucking up. Didn’t think I’d be able tocome up with so many? Well, there’s the example of meeting expectations – I created a commitment andmet it!

Do you have any other t ips? Let us know in the area below!

For more IT career t ips and inf ormation on how YOU can improve YOUR IT career, visit Complete ITProf essional!

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