Make Yourself Invaluable to Your Company and Reap the Monetary Rewards

One key to success in business is to make yourself not just valuable but invaluable (see "Word to the Wise," below) to your boss and your company. To do that, you have to understand the fundamental needs of the business. Leadership consultant Brian Tracy offers a few good tips:

Make a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not merely activities. Examine the list and prioritize each one based on its value to your company.

Make a list of all your regular daily tasks. Take this list to your boss and ask him to rank each one in terms of how valuable he considers it to be.

Resolve to focus on the responsibilities and tasks that are most important to your boss and your company. Maximize the usefulness of every second of your time, and you'll get more done. It won't go unnoticed.

Word to the Wise: Valuable vs. Invaluable

Something that is "valuable" has significant worth. Something that is "invaluable" has incalculable worth and is therefore priceless -- at least, that's what the dictionary says.

However, we seldom use "invaluable" in exactly that sense. Most often, we use it to mean "so valuable that you cannot do without it."

Today's "Make Yourself Invaluable" brief, above, provides an example: "One key to success in business is to make yourself not just valuable but invaluable to your boss and your company."

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2004