Photo by Shashwat_Nagpal

When is the last time you knocked their socks off at work?

It’s ok if you haven’t recently, I understand. You showed up to work all bright eyed and bushy tailed at first. Then the grey cube walls and flickering rectangle lights started dulling your creativity and enthusiasm factors. That’s how we got here, but you also want to move up or get out (and onto something better), right?

Or maybe you’re just bored out of your mind and you need to shake it up a little and also not get fired. Fair enough. You’re right not to just jump ship as soon as we get bored, especially without something that would be very not-boring lined up. You know how they say, ‘even if you don’t do what you love, love what you do’? If you become the rockstar at your work, you just might love it.

I could tell you to work really hard and that would be correct, but boring and quite probably, not enough. I could also tell you to show up before everyone or kiss ass or dress for success or something, but that’s stupid. It’s stupid because you probably already know those things and either tried them or refuse to because, well, they’re stupid. So since you’re here and you want to be rock-it-out, let me share with you some unconventional ideas to stand out in the corporate landscape.

1. Take over your boss’ job and have them love you for it

Have lunch with the boss. Ask boss ‘What are the top 3 problems you’re facing right now?’. Already, rocking. Boss is thinking how cool it is that you care about them or the company and gets to vent.

Then, go solve one of the problems. You could do more, but start with one. Depending on the type of problem, you can offer to take it off of their hands immediately, or solve it first and let them know.For example, if they need a new hire with skills x, y and z. Go find the perfect candidate (from your network or your alma mater or whatever), prescreen them and present to boss. OR if they are struggling with fielding requests from a certain unruly customer, offer to be the point man on that account to take it off of their hands.

Regardless, making your boss’ life easier is the number one way to get in with them. Plus you get to prove that you could handle the increased responsibilities in their job, slam dunk.

2. Build your own fan club

Start a group in your company of which you are the leader and is totally unrelated to the work you do.

For example: a running club, a public speaking club, a breastfeeding support club, a volunteer club, etc. Ask around and make sure you’ve got a decent group to pull from and then start it. Put posters up, have meetings, do stuff. Even get the company to sponsor your stuff. They love that shit.

You don’t have to go all control-freak, but since you started it and you run it, you are the leader. So, you get noticed by management, like, hey look, this guy has initiative AND leadership skills AND has a non-work interest, cool. You also get recognition from your co-workers for starting something they love to have.

3. Share your expertise

Almost no one feels like an expert, and if someone does feel like an expert, they’re probably a cocky bastard anyways. Instead, everyone waits for someone else to appoint them as experts. Except that rarely ever happens or at least not for a long long time. Unless you are very very new (like you’re first-day new), then you are an expert at something at your work.

Like if you have been working on a marketing account for a local TV repair business for a year, then you are the expert on small business marketing. Or if you manage the email accounts and passwords then you are the expert on web security. Or if you have been there for a week and all you’ve done so far is training, then you are the expert on how to train new hires.

Now take your expertise and teach it to other people at the company. You get to pick the medium. Build an online knowledge base/blog/wiki with this info (attributed to you, of course). By the way, our ‘web security’ experts will know that you should probably check with IT to make sure you keep this for company eyes only. Or write an easy to read report or presentation and share it around.

4. Find a mentor

Find someone in your organization who is where you want to go. Ideally this person is not directly above you in your management chain, more like caddy-corner. Like someone on the same level as your manager, but in a different department.

Then, ask this person to be your mentor. Seriously. Don’t just ask some questions or strike up a conversation. Go all the way and convince them to mentor you. For very helpful people it might just take asking. For the more busy/skeptical, you might have to throw in a good argument.

Having a mentor means having a go-to person to give you tailored advice about how to achieve your goals in your workplace. Furthermore, it means having someone higher up in your corner who knows what you’re working towards. They can point you in the right direction AND they can point other managers in the right direction if they’re looking for someone like you.

5. Become a mentor

This can be someone under you if you’ve already attained some sort of lead status. Ideally you will strike up some sort of relationship with this person before you delve directly into mentorship. The benefits here would be to increase your clout in the organization and be known as a helper, teacher and leader.

However, in the right circumstances you can also mentor someone who is actually above you in the management tree. For example, let’s say VP of Marketing (who has been in the industry 25+ years) decides that he really needs to figure out this Twitter thing. In fact, he’s considering purchasing an $800 course on Twitter marketing and asks your opinion. This is where you jump in.

Sure he could spend that money to find out what accomplished Twitter users already know. Except he already has an accomplished Twitter user at his fingertips. So, you will help him get setup and then you will mentor him. You can connect with him online, help him establish his network and use it to market the company. Benefits? You’ll be networked with the big dogs. Enough said.

6. Become a transient worker

This works best if you have a laptop AND if your work environment has places available to work outside your cubicle. The thing is that people working in cubicles are boring. Take a look around. Does anyone in the cube farm particularly stand out to you right now? Possibly some slackers might who are chatting or playing games or something, but usually the good, hard-working folks don’t.

So if you have a sitting area with chairs or a desk or something that is NOT a cubicle, go work there. Or you could use a conference room and leave the doors open, while it’s not being used for meetings. Or whatever you have available. The point is to be seen working in a place that will get you noticed.

There are other benefits, like getting out of your cube can actually get your inspiration going and you can work better anyways. You are more accessible to passers-by for comments about your work and such. Like they can take a look at your screen and go ‘Oh you’re working on so-and-so’. You’ll network and stay in the loop better.

Also, this is not a one time thing, you should do this a lot. Like every day or every couple of days, not just once or twice.

7. Facilitate a Knowledge-Share Workshop

This can come in the form of a brown bag luncheon, round table, an after work workshop, online webinar or even an all day mini conference. This is a forum for people in your [team|department|whatever] to connect and share their knowledge. It is designed only to be presented by and seen by people in your company and in your area of work.

Come up with some sort of theme that is relevant now.For example, a ‘How to Cut Costs and Deliver Exception Customer Service’ workshop could highlight how people in your organization are dealing with changes due to economic cutbacks, but increasing their value to the customer at the same time. Or you could have a ‘Amazing Products of 2008′ roundtable to highlight the creators of really cool projects created in your company last year.

You should present but you should also get other people on board to present too. You should probably get permission first to use the rooms or resources or peoples’ times or whatever. But then you publish flyers, ‘advertise’ on the company intranet, mass email people, whatever, to get the word out.

8. Create Your Own Job in Which You Excel

This works best if you are bored with with the job that you are doing and need more challenges. First, consider all of the skills you have that you are not using in your current position. Particularly ones you want to highlight or develop further. Then you consider ways you could apply that to your work area and branch out in your career.

For example, managers are always struggling with how to train new hires properly. They spend a lot of time on it and end up duplicating work. What if you became the “[IT|Accounting|whatever] Training Specialist” whose job it is to get every new hire up to speed on the team they’re joining. While some amount of work will still be required to completely meld with the team, you can do the bulk of the work. Like be a mentor, show them around, give them the tools, teach them the basics, etc.

Or you could be a Social Media Specialist, Corporate Blogger, Mobile Developer, Media Product Manager, whatever. Anything that melds your unique skills with your current role and adds value to the company. Then pitch it to management. If they’re totally cool with it, you could jump in. If they’re unsure, you can still move over slowly and do 80% of your current job and 20% that job. If it goes well, you can gradually do more and more.

The point of all these is to get noticed for the awesome things you’re doing and do more awesome things based on your unique talents. Combined you will totally stand out is a superstar and reap the rewards in terms of recognition, promotions or whatever it is you’re working towards.

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What are some unconventional ways you became a superstar at work?