How to Elevate Your Status at Work
When the boss shows up on the front-line, people notice. When a front-line worker shows up in the corporate office, people wonder how they got in.
Higher-ups have more status at work than front-line workers.
Status:
- Provides opportunity.
- Raises salary.
- Increases perks.
- Boosts authority.
- Elevates autonomy.
Downside of status:
The danger of status is arrogance. Better-than-thinking lowers empathy, blocks connection, and distorts self-perception.
Status is permission to magnify your strengths and excuse your weaknesses.
Elevate your status without trappings:
Optics display status. The way Presidents and Popes show up validates status.
You don’t need the trappings of leadership to enjoy status. Mother Teresa was a high-status individual without trappings.
How to elevate your status at work:
I asked my daughter to imagine standing before a huge crowd and shouting her ‘one sentence’. What would you say if the whole world would remember your ‘one sentence’ forever?” She said, “Get me out of here.”
She came up with her sentence after sleeping on it. “The value you bring is determined by the needs you meet.”
Elevate your status by bringing value.
#1. Value is social.
Elevate your status by bringing value to others. Hard work that isn’t valued doesn’t matter.
Your value at work is determined by something outside yourself.
#2. Value is outward facing.
Serving yourself is valuable to one person. Turn toward others if you want to bring value.
#3. Notice and meet needs.
A person of value notices pain points, gaps, and defects. But the key is meeting needs, not simply noticing. When you notice needs but don’t meet needs, you’re a complainer.
Meet needs you enjoy meeting.
#4. Value depends on ability.
What needs are you able to meet? Compassion is wonderful, but real value happens when you get your hands dirty.
Status goes up when you make meaningful contribution.
What’s uncomfortable about the topic of status?
What do you do to elevate your status at work?
Still curious:
The True Path to Greatness that Anyone Can Begin Today
Image source: Mother Teresas
To elevate my status I look for growth avenues for the organisation and share those ideas with people who can take it further and implement it to suit our situation.Facilitation and encourgaing are my status elevating actions
Thanks for jumping in today, CV…. I wonder if we might feel uncomfortable with the term “status” because it can be abused. But who wants to live a life where no one respects you….where you never earn a platform of influence.
Status = a platform for influence.
I do a lot of mentoring which is a situation where I have no authority and only as much influence as the mentee allows me. It’s a position without status but there is respect. You don’t need require authority or status to make a difference if you can be trusted.