When you’re already busy, you may be resistant to taking on still more work. Yet you’re keen to develop your career. How do you decide whether it’s a good idea?
Here are ten examples when it can be advantageous in your career to say “yes” to additional work requests.
1. Saying “yes” demonstrates initiative and leadership potential
Scenario: Your line manager asks for a volunteer to lead on a project. The project would require you to work with your colleagues to achieve the project outcomes. While you wouldn’t be managing your colleagues, you would still need to persuade them to deliver the project’s aims. It’s additional work, but an opportunity to demonstrate your potential leadership ability. In your current role, you don’t have this experience. How do you acquire leadership skills when your current job role doesn’t include this? Leading on a project can help to fill this gap in your CV when you apply for a promotional post that requires leadership experience.
2. Saying “yes” broadens your skill set and expertise
Scenario: There is an opportunity to be part of a University working group exploring the use of AI in supporting students. It’s not something you’ve used much to date but knowledge and understanding of AI is something that’s expanding. Being part of a group where you can learn a lot more about a topic which would benefit others as well as you, would enable you to develop valuable expertise.
3. Saying “yes” increases your visibility within the organisation
Scenario: There is an opportunity to be a speaker at an internal staff conference on your area of work. You have some experience of speaking at smaller-scale events, but this would be a chance to both educate others about what you do and raise your professional profile.
You’ll find that that once you begin to contribute at this level, you’ll become a more familiar face to others within your institution. More people will stop and chat to you when they’ve seen and heard you speak. You may find you’re invited to speak at other events. Once you’ve spoken at an institutional event, there may be opportunities to speak at conferences and widen your circle of influence further.
4. Saying “yes” builds stronger relationships across departments
Scenario: Your boss asks you whether you could chair a meeting with representatives from the team and staff from another team. There have been some challenges working across the two teams and your boss is keen to explore ways that staff can work more effectively and collaboratively together.
This is an opportunity to demonstrate a number of key skills. Your ability to engage a diverse group of staff with different agendas expectations will require empathy and diplomacy. You’ll need to be able to listen well and engage the different stakeholders. You may need to defuse conflict. You’ll need to be able to persuade and influence others and negotiate effectively. All great leadership skills.
5. Saying “yes” opens doors to new opportunities and promotions
Scenario: You’ve seen a really interesting opportunity for a maternity cover secondment in a different department. The opportunity would enable you to develop new knowledge and an understanding of how another department works. You therefore speak to your line manager to ask them to put you forward for it.
These opportunities can provide great insight into another part of the institution. You may or may not go back to your substantive post at the end of the cover, but you will have demonstrated your ability to work effectively across more than one department. When promotion opportunities come up, you’ll have a broader range of experience to offer, increasing your chances of promotion.
6. Saying “yes” can add value to performance reviews
Scenario: the annual review is a golden opportunity to demonstrate your skills and experiences to your line manager. Before you meet, while you’ve have standard objectives to have met, make sure you’ve captured any additional work and the impact you’ve had. This meeting is also an opportunity to explore ‘what next?’ Whether that’s additional training, applying for promotional posts, if your manager is clear about what you want, they can support you with your next steps.
7. Saying “yes” develops your problem-solving and adaptability skills
By selectively taking on additional work which will support your career development, you’ll develop the skills recruiters are looking for. You’ll become more adept at solving problems. You’ll be able to demonstrate your ability to work flexibly to accommodate additional work. The examples you draw on when applying for jobs will illustrate your abilities credibly.
8. Saying “yes” creates a track record of reliability and commitment
Line managers value trusted team members who can be relied upon to deliver and who volunteer to take on additional work. That’s not the same as putting your hand up to volunteer for everything on offer. Be discerning about what you take on. Some of your colleagues will also want development opportunities. If you’re clear about the specific skills you’re keen to develop, or the work areas that are of particular interest, you’ll find it easier to know which opportunities to volunteer for and which to hold back on.
Of course, there are additional work tasks that all staff are expected to support which are institution-wide. For example, graduation ceremonies and open days. It’s important to volunteer for these to demonstrate collegiality.
It may be that sometimes there isn’t an obvious personal benefit. It may just be the right thing to do to help your line manager or a colleague out. You’ll need their support at times. If you’ve not been there for them, then you may find it hard to gain their support when you need it. You don’t want to develop a reputation as someone who is so single-minded you don’t care about your colleagues.
Sometimes, in order to say yes, you’ll need to stop doing something else. You’ll need your line manager’s support to help reprioritise your work if that’s the case.
9. Saying “yes” helps to position you as a subject matter expert
There will be certain areas of work that are of particular interest to you. These are the kinds of thing you’ll happily undertake additional reading and research into. They are the topics you’ll become the go-to expert on.
Consider how you might share your knowledge or expertise more widely. Your professional body may require a workshop on a topic at a conference, for example. You might decide to post an article on your subject on LinkedIn. Over time, people beyond your institution will come to you as a subject matter expert. This can be very useful when applying for specific roles or promotional posts. You may be sought after for your expertise.
10. Saying “yes” enhances your professional network
Being open to virtual or in-person meetings with those in your LinkedIn network is a great way to build a community of practice and in some cases professional friendships. Why not initiate some of these meetings? Virtual connections can lead to a wealth of different opportunities…speaking invitations, collaborations and joint articles, for example.
Don’t miss out on opportunities by waiting until you’re 100% ready
There will be times when you lack confidence or feel you don’t have the necessary skills to say “yes”. Rather than waiting until you’re 100% ready, say “yes” anyway and build your knowledge and skills as you go.
Balancing the art of when to say “yes” and when to say “no” requires a combination of political nous, self-awareness and an understanding of your organisation’s strategic priorities. It helps if you have an idea of how you’d like to develop your career. However, even if you’re unsure, saying “yes” when work sounds interesting can open doors to unexpected opportunities.
Before saying yes, ask yourself ‘How will this opportunity benefit me?’ If it will help you develop skills and experiences that will further your career, then saying “yes is a no-brainer.