STRATEGY

Asking your supervisor to help you get greater exposure in your organization carries some risks. The request sends two implicit messages: first, that you're ambitious, and second, that you feel your direct supervisor isn't promoting you as much as they should. While a supportive or neutral supervisor will, after some probing or defensiveness, be open to helping, a supervisor who's insecure or not your number one fan could respond by criticizing your performance. That's especially likely since you'll need to push a bit to get results from this dialogue. You can mitigate the potential problems by making this a specific approach, tied to an existing project, rather than a general request.

TACTICS

• Attitude: Accept that this request is as much planting a seed for involvement in future high visibility projects as it is an effort to work on the current effort. Being added to an existing endeavor is an uphill battle but it's a necessary investment of effort.
• Preparation: Know what you will bring to the project that it's currently lacking and why that's important for success. Be ready to address your relationships with others on the team.
• Timing: Approach your supervisor about joining a project as soon as you've learned you're not on the team. The more time that goes by without your participation the less likely you'll be able to take part.

  
  

• Behavior: It's a balancing act but you want to exude confidence in your unique abilities and in your being a team player. Be persistent so you can at least get a sense of what you need to do to increase your future chances.

ADAPTATIONS

This script can be modified to:

• Position yourself for future promotions and transfers to more important roles in the organization.

KEY POINTS

• Tie your request to an active project so you can point out specific and unique skills you bring to the table.
• Be ready to tout how you can add to the project team without denigrating existing members of the team.
• Offer to serve in a support role to demonstrate humility and that you're putting the organization's success before your own.
• Press to find out what you must do to get their help in increasing your profile in the organization.