I feel like I should take a little break from telling managers what to do and focus my attack dogs on peons trying to stop being peons.  Therefore, I decided to start a little series aimed at showing peons a way out of their plight.

The goal of this series is to give some hard-learned and taught tips about how to get out of the role of peon and get yourself [a] respected and [b] on the road to something greater.  I’ve compiled some lessons from former peons and managers alike and will share them one by one.

Here we go.

Lesson #1: Don’t [just] do what you’re told.

If you still think that buckling down, doing your work and doing it well is what’s going to get you noticed and/or promoted, you are living in the wrong century.  If you’re only doing what you’re assigned, you are only meeting expectations.  In order to stop being a peon, you have to exceed them.  Once you’ve whizzed through your work, seek out and take on more complex work.  Don’t ask permission to, just do it.  It’s always easier to ask forgiveness than permission, trust me.  If you have options, take on projects that are both difficult and visible.

Another part of ending your tenure as peon is to stop thinking and acting like one.  Say that you’re given an assignment but you’re already working double overtime.  I know you want to impress your boss and all that, but what you should really be doing is pushing back. If you allow them to treat you like a workhorse, that’s how they’ll think of you.  Obviously, there are good ways and bad ways of pushing back.  You should never sound holier-than-thou or exaggerate your workload, but you should make them understand that your time is important and valuable.

As a continuation of the concept of pushing back, it’s also important to push forward…with your own career and the track you envision as furthering it.  Make sure that you voice what you want to be doing, both short term and long term.  Don’t let your career goals get lost in the burden of your daily work.  Tell your managers what you want to be working on.  Tell them you’d like to know what it takes to get to the next level.  The reality is that some of them might not care, but either [a] you will eventually come across some that do or [b] if you annoy enough people with your career goals, some of them may help you out just to shut you up.  Supervisors I’ve talked to call this tactic “managing your own career.”