A Unique Role: Making Yourself Indispensable In Your Job

If you have worked hard to acquire your dream job you could feel incredibly protective over it. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people that feel pretty precarious in any role. These days there are so many cuts going around that people can worry on an almost daily basis if the job is going to be around in a year’s time.

But what is the answer to this? One of the savvier approaches is to make yourself indispensable within the business framework. But what are the ways you can do this?

Become An Expert In One Area

It’s crucial for you to identify the skills gaps within your team. If you become the go-to person for a specific task and no one else is able to take it on if you can learn the skills associated this becomes your unique selling point. Think about what can set you apart from your team. Sometimes it’s as obvious as having an extra qualification. If you have the opportunity to undertake a Master in Business Administration this could arm you with more skills than the rest of your team combined!

Every person that becomes an expert in one area needs to add value to the business. It’s not enough to be defensive and not share the information. If you can educate others this means that you will acquire the status as a training asset. If you have a unique set of skills, as tempting as it is to keep them close to your chest, this could gain you a reputation as someone who is quite covert.

Be Reliable

It sounds obvious but it’s not just about showing up on time you’ve got to think about being reliable in the round. This means focusing on being co-operative and efficient when everybody’s back is against the wall. When there are problems that require solving if you become the person that the team turns to, this will make you the go-to person for specific projects but at the same time, you need to make sure that you aren’t being taken advantage of.

This means you have got to communicate with your manager in non-boastful terms that you are helping someone with a certain project. And in doing this you can make your manager’s job easier. You might not want to take on their responsibilities but if you are looking to make yourself indispensable you’ve got to remember that having someone influential fighting your corner is crucial. It may very well be taking the opportunity to stand back and look at their skills gaps and when you start to help them or take on tasks that they struggle to do you are adding value to the team but the boss knows that you are the person taking the bullet.

Making yourself indispensable is something that everybody thinks about on occasion. But it’s not about guarding your corner. Partly it’s to do with the knowledge you have as well as the relationship you know with the senior staff but you have also got to remember that you need to offer solutions. Once you start to make yourself indispensable this is when you can look to climb up the career ladder.