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Success in your engineering career relies on your ability to leverage both technical and nontechnical

skill sets. While this sentiment is noth-ing new, there are countless articles that are big on advice but short on action-oriented steps one can take. Numerous books and talks exist in which the au-thor or speaker seems to “admire the problem” but never discusses the steps one can take to solve it. While it’s nice to appreciate the larger context, such an approach must be balanced with a fo-cus on steps to be taken right now—this very instant—to improve one’s standing in the immediate work environment. I’ll go beyond “admiring the problem” and get down to specifics with five ac-tions you can take right now that will

significantly enhance the value you pro-vide to your current employer and, as a consequence, potentially improve your prospects for promotion.

Develop meaningful documentation

In this modern age of e-mail and instant messaging, we rarely seem to write things down anymore. Research [Shaughnessy, 2008] has found that writing is part of the thinking process; committing thoughts to paper matures them more so than if they are just ver-balized or typed. Writing is an itera-tive process, meaning an initial piece will likely require several revisits be-fore properly communicating your in-tended message.

How can knowing this improve your value proposition? As we all Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2009.932231

© ARTVILLE & MASTERSERIES

FIVE WAYS TO INSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION

Reece Lumsden

CAREER BUILDING BLOCKS

© MASTERSERIES

20 IEEE POTENTIALS

attend meetings, this is a good place to start. For any meeting you attend over the next seven days, listen atten-tively and take notes. At the meeting’s conclusion, go back to your desk and assemble an overview comprised of the issues discussed, action items, and conclusions. Type this up (and proofread it at least once to ensure it’s free of spelling errors and gram-matical inconsistencies) and distrib-ute it to all who attended. Taking this action will portray an image that you are on top of the issues because you have captured all of the relevant points and actions from that meeting. Repeat this often enough and you’ll find that people will come to you for your thoughts on particular issues because you have positioned your-self as being knowledgeable.

Create a learning environmentMost of us seek engagement in an

environment of constant learning since it helps provide purpose and motivation to what may otherwise be a lackluster job. Many articles (such as those by Barker, Gail, and Gardner) list a “learn-ing environment” as a primary trait most employees seek from their workplace.

What better way of being in a learning environment than to create it yourself? There are numerous means of doing this, from helping establish workplace learning courses and invit-ing guest speakers, to bringing indus-try publications into the workplace. One of the simplest is to find an ar-ticle of relevance to your industry or workplace. After reading it, write a synopsis or summary along with the implications or relevance to your im-mediate work environment. Send your findings in an e-mail to your supervi-sor and anyone else in the group you think may be interested.

Those reading your synopsis will find you insightful and genuinely en-gaged in the industry you are in. Re-peated action may find you being referred to as somewhat of a subject matter expert or at least a group repre-sentative on the issue to external par-ties. In any case, it will serve to gener-ate discussion and interaction around the subject, which is one characteristic of a learning environment.

Focus on what makes your supervisor successful

You may have often heard the phrase “your success is my success,” but how often do we see this in the workplace? Much of what we see and hear today with respect to our career is that you have to put yourself first, no one else is going to look out for you. We live in a hyper-competitive market and while it is true that we may be “competing” horizontally against those in our peer group, that same kind of thinking need not extend vertically to how we deal with our supervisor.

Does what you deliver to your im-mediate supervisor really make a dif-ference? If you have a good rapport with them, sit down and ask politely

how it is they are judged or evaluated. You will need to be candid in explain-ing why you seek this information, so be sure to tell them that it is for your mutual benefit. Even if they are only comfortable in providing this informa-tion in general terms, begin exploring different ways you can contribute to their success. Done correctly, and in a spirit of true mutual advantage, your boss will think you are extremely per-ceptive and a highly valued commod-ity. Paradoxically, the most self-serving thing that you can do in the workplace is to be selfless because at the end of the day, if your boss looks good, you in turn will look good.

Generate action plansDealing with problems of one form

or another is the lifeblood of the work-place. Most of the time, these problems come down from above and usually with little to no warning.

It is to your benefit to develop more than one solution to emerging problems. Develop three or four al-ternatives, discuss them, and recom-mend one. This will show your su-pervisor that you have the ability to be a problem solver. Despite what we may think of those in senior posi-tions, they truly do want input from all employees. The more input you can give them, the better off they will be (and so will you). By generating an action plan, you’ll be viewed as proficient in charting a course from problem to solution.

Go beyond what is asked to understanding what is needed

Many of the issues in today’s work-place are not what they seem at face value. They require vision beyond the immediate, consideration from multiple vantage points, and information acquired from multiple sources.

When we are asked to accomplish a task, the request is usually just the tip of the iceberg. There’s usually a mountain of information and further understanding associated with the task that goes sight unseen. Possess-ing an inquisitive mindset, being cu-rious, and asking questions are the keys to discovering a task’s true com-plexity. When asked to accomplish a task, go beyond what is requested and discover the intent behind it. In doing this, you will be viewed as so-lutions focused rather than outcomes

1 Attend a meeting and take notes. Put together two to three pages summarizing the issues discussed, action items, conclusions, a list of attendees, and distribute it to all who attended.

2 Find an article relevant to your work/industry. E-mail it to your boss and/or others in the group, making sure to highlight the relevance and implications.

3 Sit down with your boss/supervisor and discuss the criteria on which they are evaluated. Discuss how your work can contribute to their success.

4 For a problem or issue your boss asks you to deal with, generate a list of possible alternatives and recommendations for action they can take.

5 For any problem you’re assigned, try and discover the intent behind what you’re being asked to do rather than just acting literally on the request.

Table 1. Methods to increase your value proposition.

Number Action

WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT WE MAY WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT WE MAY BE “COMPETING” HORIZONTALLY BE “COMPETING” HORIZONTALLY AGAINST THOSE IN OUR PEER AGAINST THOSE IN OUR PEER GROUP, THAT SAME KIND OF GROUP, THAT SAME KIND OF THINKING NEED NOT EXTEND THINKING NEED NOT EXTEND VERTICALLY TO HOW WE DEAL VERTICALLY TO HOW WE DEAL WITH OUR SUPERVISOR. WITH OUR SUPERVISOR.

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focused which may or may not be the real end result desired from the initial request.

Take actionThe various methods explained in

this article have been included in Table 1. Attempt to complete one of these ac-tions over the next seven days to begin improving your value proposition (the order is not important).

ConclusionFive different actions have been de-

scribed that can be used to improve your value proposition. I have implemented every one of these actions and can definitively say that they have helped position me uniquely within whatever local work environment I found myself. Ultimately, their effectiveness is yours to determine, but if a colleague were to describe someone on their team as being “on top of the issues,” “insightful,” “perceptive,” “action oriented,” and “so-lutions focused,” wouldn’t you conclude they were capable of providing consider-able value?

Read more about it • M. Shaughnessy. (2008, May 11). An interview with Liam Julian: Are we becoming a “nation of uninspired writ-ers?” [Online]. Available: http://ednews.org/articles/25552/1/An-Interview-with- Liam-Julian-Are-We-Becoming-a-quotNation-of-Uninspired-Writersquot/Page1.html • J. Barker. (2007, Oct. 1). Want yester-day’s learning or tomorrow’s? [Online]. Available: http://www.managesmarter.

com/msg/content_display/training/ e3i65850c12aa16859622a443329f61d94c • S. Gail. (2001, Nov./Dec.). Creat-ing a learning environment: A win-win approach. [Online]. Available: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/96010418.html • M. Gardner. (2008, Jan. 28). Seven things employees want most to be happy at work. [Online]. Available: http://www.cs-monitor.com/2008/0128/p13s03-wmgn.htm

About the authorReece Lumsden is a project manager

for an aerospace company in Everett, Washington. He holds an undergradu-ate degree in electrical and electronic engineering, a master’s in space studies, an M.B.A. with a focus on technology management, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in systems engineering. He is a Se-nior Member of the IEEE, the Puget Sound Chair for the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS), a lifetime member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts (AIAA), and was elected to the AIAA’s Systems Engineering Technical Committee (SETC) in 2006.

I HAVE IMPLEMENTED EVERY ONE I HAVE IMPLEMENTED EVERY ONE OF THESE ACTIONS AND CAN OF THESE ACTIONS AND CAN DEFINITIVELY SAY THAT THEY DEFINITIVELY SAY THAT THEY HAVE HELPED POSITION ME HAVE HELPED POSITION ME UNIQUELY WITHIN WHATEVER UNIQUELY WITHIN WHATEVER LOCAL WORK ENVIRONMENT I LOCAL WORK ENVIRONMENT I FOUND MYSELF.FOUND MYSELF.

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