How to make yourself more important.
How do you make yourself more important? It’s a simple but valuable question to ask. While there may be a million ways to become more important, there is one proven approach that anyone can use, regardless of your current skills and resources. It even works if you are not really, really good-looking, like Zoolander.
Here it is in two simple steps.
- In every situation you are in determine who is the most important person.
- Make yourself useful to that person.
Some examples:
In school, become useful to your teacher, professor, principal or Dean. Volunteer. Ask questions or provide answers. Make them look good during their annual evaluations. (Definitely do that last one.)
On a team, make yourself useful to your coach. This could be through actions or attitude. Set a great example. Help set up for practice or clean up after. You could also show up every day really tall, fast, strong, or coordinated. Coaches love that.
As an employee, make yourself useful to your boss, Hugo. Get your work done on time, every time. Help improve processes, efficiencies and effectiveness. Help improve revenue or profitability. If your boss is a bumbling idiot, help them hide it. (I always appreciate it when my team does that for me.)
At a party, make yourself useful to the host. Be a quick set of helping hands. Smile and have a good time. Introduce people. Play the games the host wants played. Unless the host is P-Diddy.
At home, there are always opportunities to be useful to your spouse or your parents. And making yourself more useful at home is one of the most important things you can do.
Try It Yourself
Start by evaluating who is the most important person in every room or situation you are in. Most of the time, this is easier than it sounds.
Then look for opportunities to provide value.
It’s a great habit to develop. And you’ll get better at it the more you practice. Soon you’ll recognize how valuable this approach is when you are the most important person in the room and others are going out of their way to be useful to you.
Key Takeaway
People are deemed important because they add value in some way. It may be through their intelligence, leadership, experience, responsibility, or a range of other skills and attributes. When you make yourself valuable to those people, you are adding to the value they bring. Which in turn increases your usefulness. As a result, you stand out from the crowd in the eyes of the person who already stands out from the crowd. Remember, your value is directly related to your contribution. Contribute to the most important person in the room’s success and you will contribute to everyone in the room’s success. That is how you make yourself important.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.