My previous posts on the topic of Non-Promotable Tasks (NPTs) have focused on turning down or reducing the time you spend on this work:
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How to Improve your career prospects with one magic word
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How to make sure your time at work is well-spent
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How to say “no” without harming your career
However, there will be times when it is to your advantage to volunteer for, or accept such requests. This post explores when it may be in your interest to say “yes” rather than “no”.
Reasons for taking a more tactical approach to NPTs.
There will be some activities you’ll be only too happy to be involved in because:
- They might support a career change, or sideways move (see my post on How to change career in 3 different directions
- They will give you valuable organisational insights
- They may support your organisation’s wider strategy
- You will become the go-to person, known for your expertise in this work
Here are some examples:
Career change
Event organisation may not be a core part of your current role. However, perhaps you enjoy it and and are happy get involved when the opportunity arises. If you wanted to move into this field later on, this will enhance your application, demonstrating your motivation. You could discuss whether your employer would support you in completing a project management course since you’ve offered to do the work.
Organisational insights
Maybe you aspire to take on a more strategic role. If the opportunity arises, volunteer your time and support to a key committee. This is one way to gain insights into how your organisation operates at a higher level. You’ll learn how decisions are made and who wields the power. Meetings can be a real political eye-opener and may give you a tactical advantage when applying for promotional roles. It will also increase your organisational visibility.
Strategic contribution
Perhaps you have an idea for an activity that would directly benefit your organisation and which supports the strategic direction. It’s also something you really want to do. Use your initiative to set up or create something that adds value and which will get you noticed. Find a sponsor- someone within the organisation to support you, who will help draw attention to what you’re doing.
Expertise
A senior leader once suggested that we should all have 1 or 2 ‘kites’ we fly… things we become well- known for. Develop a niche which makes you uniquely valuable to your organisation. You will become the person people regard as the resident expert.
For example, I have a long-held interest in Strengths. A few years’ ago I secured funding for a project I was leading on Graduate Attributes. In order to test a hypothesis, I used some of the funding to train as a Strengths practitioner. The project findings illustrated the benefits to students of understanding their Strengths. I invested the remaining project funding on training my team to become Strengths practitioners. Through presenting the project findings, other staff became interested and I was then asked to deliver Strengths leadership and team training. This created an institutional USP which subsequently led to requests from external organisations as they had heard about my work from colleagues. Strengths is now one of my ‘kites.’
None of this is in my job description.
In summary
Follow your curiosity. It’s your best guide in deciding which additional work tasks to say ‘yes’ to. See where your curiosity leads. Be discerning…say “yes” to the tasks you are motivated by and happy to commit time to. Squeeze down on other NPTs to create time for those activities that energise you and which may end up shaping the direction your career takes.
Your capacity to say ‘no’ determines your capacity to say ‘yes’ to greater things.
E. Stanley Jones.
