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Impress Early and Often

Unless you’re a recluse or happen to be socially inept, you spend more of your life, both personally and professionally, interacting with people than doing anything else. It’s the social animal in you at work.

The family and friends side of socializing is more natural and carefree than the routine or irregular interaction you have with people at work. Those workplace folks come in an assortment of categories: superiors, subordinates, peers, customers, clients, and a wide variety of stakeholders with whom you typically interface.

For most people, socializing comes with the territory; it’s a routine part of a day at the office. Others have to work at it either because they don’t consider it important or because they can’t be bothered with expending the effort.

The person with whom it matters most is the boss. It’s worth putting forth the effort to impress, which by definition is “to affect deeply or strongly in mind.” That is particularly relevant when either the boss or you are new. If that is the case, it pays to impress early and often to influence the boss’s opinion of you.

It’s a natural challenge to be successful when the relationship is fresh. A helpful start is to do your homework to determine not only what the new boss is like but what his or her priorities are. Make them yours as well.

Show the boss you are an absolute professional in each and every way. Part of that is letting the boss know and see that you’re committed to achieving the goals and expectations he or she has established.

Be genuine about it but learn how to think and act like the boss. The boss will recognize the results of your efforts as being a vital asset to the company’s mission.

Make your boss’s job easy. Whether it’s an assigned task or one that you do because it needs to be done and can make a measureable difference, do it with enthusiasm and commitment. You need not brag about mission accomplished; the boss will see and appreciate what you’ve done on his or her own.

Ensure that the boss has to tell you only once what to do or what he or she wants. Take whatever it is off the boss’s plate of things to accomplish. Be a load lightener, and it will be appreciated.

At a midpoint in my military career as a major, I needed a particular infantry assignment to remain competitive. Being sent to Fort Carson, Colorado, was a great first step. I fully expected to be assigned as an executive officer (XO) of one of the several infantry battalions in the 4th Infantry Division.

For some reason, a member of Congress froze the U.S. Army’s lieutenant colonel promotion list just as I arrived in Colorado Springs. That meant the majors in those executive officer billets in the division remained in their jobs, precluding majors like me from moving into those choice assignments.

Needing a job and after a bit of pleading, I was assigned to the next higher level, an infantry brigade, as a staff officer. The good news was that it was with the best brigade in the division; the bad news was that it was as a personnel officer or adjutant, as it is known. Not my cup of tea.

My new boss, the brigade commander, was a colonel whose reputation was golden. My duties basically involved sitting outside his office doing the administrative chores he directed or needed.

Like anything I did, it was done to the best of my ability, serving every professional need the boss had and every personnel need the brigade had. That required countless trips into the colonel’s office each day to discuss requisite actions.

Occasionally, I’d mention to or remind my boss that my ultimate goal was to be one level closer to the troops as a battalion executive officer. His response was always the same. “You’re doing a great job where you are, and I need your services here,” he’d say. Not exactly what I hoped to hear.

Barely two months had passed when the promotion list was finally approved by Congress and reassignments were possible. One opening was in the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, one of the most highly regarded battalions on post.

Fortunately, I didn’t have far to go to speak to the person controlling who went where. My boss was the decider of such fiercely competitive matters.

Hat in hand, I walked into his office the next day and told him, “Sir, it’s a privilege working for you, but being with soldiers at the unit level is what I want and, more importantly, need from a professional development standpoint.” After what seemed like hours after my passionate plea, he conceded by saying, “Reluctantly I’ll let you go, but only because you have earned it with your commitment to this job and to me.”

Whew! Free at last to get my boots muddy again and to be down with soldiers at the battalion level, the best job of all.

After an exciting and fulfilling year as a battalion XO, I was reassigned as the chief of plans and operations for the division, a plum but exceptionally demanding job. For 22 months, a division record at the time, I was operationally tested and survived the long hours and demanding days.

Three jobs in three years. All different, all special in their own ways. A lot of luck no doubt, but indicative that someone was always watching and must have been impressed with what they saw.

For each job you have or get, come prepared each day to do the best you know how. It also helps to come early and stay late, within reason; it will set you apart in all probability. In the same vein, pack your lunch. It helps control the intake, and because it takes less time than going out to lunch, it controls the output. Minimum downtime is a good goal.

Take pride in taking the initiative without being asked. Come prepared each day to accomplish more than expected. It will draw the right attention.

Not everything will go perfectly, but try not to complain; it’ll always get better. Maintaining a positive attitude will help contribute to that cause. That attitude can be infectious and will move the ball down the field to the delight of the boss.

Positive first impressions count for a lot. A firm handshake, a bright smile. It’s good for business. Lasting impressions of the right kind have long-term value. They build and maintain relationships whether with the boss or with the many stakeholders who are of great importance to the boss and to the company. Keep planting those seeds of friendship, for they will bear a harvest of goodwill.