Full Transcription for the video lesson below:
Hi there! I’m Farnoosh Brock and I created “Crack the Code to Get Promoted,” which is the world’s leading training program to help corporate careerists, like you, get ahead at your job and get promoted.
In these videos, I give you power tips that you can use right now to get ahead and get noticed at your job and today I talk to you about something that should be corporate 101, but something that most employees forget to do. If you learn to do just this one thing well at your job, you’re going to be ahead of more than 50% of your peers, and that’s this:
How NOT to Bring a Problem to Your Boss
How do you bring problems the right way to the attention of your boss, your supervisor, your management or your leadership teams? – Because, there’s a right way of doing it and a wrong way of doing it.
So, the wrong way of doing it is when a problem arises and you become all stressed out and overwhelmed, which is something you shouldn’t be doing at the workplace anyway. In fact, I did a video for you on that and I will put the link below so be sure to watch that, but remove the emotion and the drama from the problem.
So, take a few minutes to figure out what is happening and how is the best way to deal with it. After you have calmed down, then assess the problem and come up with two or three solutions to the problem.
What you don’t want to do is run to your boss when you are emotional and the problem has just come up, and be all stressed out and tell your boss, “Oh my God, something just happened and I don’t know what to do. What do you think?” That is not the way to bring any problem to any boss’ attention because what you are supposed to do is be the problem solver at work- that’s why they hired you.
Problems and Solutions Always Go Together
So the right way to bring a problem to your boss is first understand what’s going on, understand the problem clearly, and come up with two or three solutions. Then go to your boss’ office, speak to him, present the problem, talk to him about your ideas for a solution and eventually, turn it over to him and say, “What do you think? How do you propose we approach this problem?”
And I’ll give you an example.
Let’s say your IT budget has been cut and your problem is due in three weeks or four weeks, and you really needed all of the budget to get that project done as you had promised. So, the first thing you need to do is look at where you can cut costs effectively. Come up with two or three suggestions for your boss such as, you could cut features that nobody is interested in, you could cut testing to a shorter cycle, you could do without such and such.
Put them down, have a plan of action and present that to your boss in a calm and professional manner. This sends the message that you are a professional; that you are a problem solver; that you can handle these things as they come up. That’s where your boss will really be interested in helping you; not to mention, see you as a leader.
So that’s my tip for you today.
Remember: don’t go to your boss’ office ever with just a problem. Problems and solutions always go together.
If you do this alone, you will be ahead of more than 50% of your peers and your boss will start taking more notice of you.
If you enjoyed this video, check out the rest of my videos- I have a link below.
And if you want to get more tips and strategies on how to get ahead at your job, check out fasttrackpromotion.com.
I’ll talk to you in the next video. Bye!
Just One Piece of the Puzzle
Knowing how to position yourself in front of your company as someone who takes ownership of problems instead of someone who stands around waiting for others to solve them is huge. But it is just one piece of a much larger mosaic that you create over years. Many mistakes and many successes in my own corporate job helped me create Crack the Code to Get Promoted, my online course that examines all of pieces to the “get promoted” puzzle, and shows you how to best position yourself to get recognized.
If you have been finding these videos helpful, and want to move into more detail than the free strategies email series (sign up below!) then I encourage you to explore Crack the Code to Get Promoted.
