5 Ways To Make a Great Impression On Your Boss Without Being Overly Eager

Making a great impression on your boss has advantages beyond what meets the eye. While there are no set rules to impress your boss or any rulebook that says it is essential to do so, there are various advantages to it. More often than not, building a solid working relationship with your manager and making a great impression is as cliche and simple as doing your job with utter dedication and honesty.

While there are many types of employees within a group, regardless of the size and stature of the company, bosses love the type who focuses on results, somehow drives the whole project, and aligns the rest of the team to those results. This is especially true for situations where there are problems, and you become the person driving the team toward a solution.

Of all the qualities an employer looks for in their team, reliability in various situations is the most important. Getting the job done efficiently and on time is at a premium. In the business world, the premium is creating an environment that is conducive and facilitates open communication and collaboration. 

There is no doubt that you and your colleagues are technically sound. You have all been hired because the company and your boss believe you have the technical foundation to execute tasks. To ensure that you stand out from the crowd, there is only so much as effective as developing emotional intelligence. It massively helps with understanding consumer, team, and organizational psychology.

It is right from the time of the interview that you start getting opportunities to impress your boss. So, start from there and continue to show them how you could be the best professional ever for the company to have, be it as a team member or a lead and beyond.

✅ Focus on Results, Not on Seeking Validation

"Focus on planting trees, not on enjoying fruits" is a quote that is a modern-day mantra for all professionals. Seeking validation without results may not only tarnish your image but also make you look less reliable. Therefore, focusing on results and delivering them automatically facilitates the acknowledgment and validation an employee needs to continue thriving in an organization. 

The key to delivering results is slightly different from other functions. For results to be delivered, you must focus on the process, which will eventually transport you toward the results.

✅ Be a Solution-Driven Team Player

Professional endeavors are often filled with challenges and roadblocks. Friction is the nature of business and work in general because multiple factors are beyond human control. In such situations, whether you wait for someone to find solutions or come up with a solution for your team yourself, and that’s what differentiates between an average and an all-time reliable employee. 

Bosses prefer solution-driven employees because they always keep the morale of the team up during challenging times. They help the entire team focus on a collective goal because they treat challenges as temporary detours instead of looking at them as annoying roadblocks. Bosses also prefer these employees over others because they keep the whole team motivated by being the vehicle that drives toward solutions collectively.      

✅ Respect Boundaries While Keeping Communication Open

Communication is the binding element that brings teams and individuals across hierarchies together to work towards a common goal. Imagine a team where nobody talks to each other but have a common goal. It does not sound like they will all reach the same goal, right? Therefore, it is essential to be an effective communicator within the team and organization in general.

However, just because a few articles on the internet or a few colleagues say that it is vital to be open with communication with your boss does not mean that you should get carried away and cross professional boundaries. Communication regarding tasks, challenges, and approaches is mostly welcome. However, pushing it to ask personal questions or touching topics that might make other people uncomfortable might not be the best idea. 

✅ Showcase Your Reliability by Following Through

The most evident way to understand if your boss is impressed by your work is when they trust you enough to rely on you for critical tasks or new projects. The key to being worthy of a senior’s trust is being reliable. Many team members are bestowed with the opportunity to execute pivotal tasks. However, halfway through the task, they tend to get complacent. 

The mark of a trustworthy employee is their ability to follow through to the end of the task and execute it flawlessly. Your boss is surely impressed by you and your work if they trust and find you highly reliable with important tasks.

✅ Demonstrate Emotional Intelligence and Professionalism

As mentioned earlier, there might be multiple instances where a professional's patience and caliber are tested. During those times, being solution-driven is essential. Equally important is exhibiting an exemplary temperament. 

Emotional intelligence is like the suspension in a car. It is less for a smooth road than it is for bumpy roads. Similarly, being emotionally intelligent while still exhibiting professionalism comes in more than handy during times of crisis and makes a team work toward collective growth.

While technical knowledge and professionalism keep developing on the job, cracking the job is another ball game altogether. There are multiple resources on the internet for interview preparations. However, most of them are either outdated, irrelevant, or incomplete. InterviewPal is one of the best resources on the internet for interview prep. They provide you with the opportunity to practice interviews using their signature AI-powered practice platform.