MAKE YOURSELF INDISPENSABLE - Safeguard your job with the right moves

If you were to resign tomorrow, would your office still be able to run effectively without you?

There are positive and constructive ways to become indispensable. The key is to ensure the right people in your company understand your value while you are still at the job rather than later, when you are gone.

Build strong business ties
Maintaining strong relationships with clients and business contacts is important regardless of the industry you are in. This is because while a client's details can be recorded in a database, it only tells a shallow story. More often than not, a deal is sealed because of your relationship with clients.
If you have strong ties with your clients and business contacts make sure your superiors know about it.
Do not be embarrassed about letting people know, as the information provides your superiors with a gauge of how the account is progressing and provides them with the peace of mind that everything is going well. They may also need to rely on your knowledge of the customer at contract negotiation time.

Acquire new skills
Identifying skill gaps in the office and taking the initiative to train yourself and be officially credited not only looks good on your curriculum vitae but on the company's credentials as well.
Being well versed on a topic will establish you as the person to go to, and ensure you have a sphere of influence on topic that relate to everyone else in the organisation.
Be vigilant of the company's direction. If it is obvious that the company is heading in a certain direction, ensure that your skill and experience are moving in the same way.

Propose new ideas
Be the innovator in the office. Companies have to consistently try new things to achieve greater efficiencies. It is better to be at the driving egde of this, rather than one of the masses who is swept along with the company's broom of change.

Be vigilant
Know who the decision-makers are and establish close ties. If they see you as a sounding board, it is more difficult for you to be dislodged. However, once in this position, do not become complacent. The king can still be overthrown and so will the empire he has built around him.
Have a good grasp of the office and the company climate. If your position is compromised, it is important to know who will obtain power, and re-established your loyalties.
Ensure that your key performance indicators and targets are measureable and obtainable, and be sure that the right people know about them when they are achieved.
Ensure that those around you acknowledge your work's importance and the best way is by showing how you can help them succeed in their job.

Extracted from an article by Christina Lee, Managing Consultant of DBM Singapore.
The Star 12 May 2006