James Jacob Freelance blogger and marketeer

10 Tips to help keep your boss happy

1. Confess your mistakes

It’s nice when things always run smoothly, clients are always happy and we all get to go home on time. More often though, it doesn’t work that way. Pointing fingers at other people or ducking responsibility for the glitches in working life is futile. Far better to put your paws in the air, confess and move on. Your boss will love you for it.

2. Don’t just describe the problem, paint the solution

If you’re articulate enough to work out what any given problem is and communicate it to your boss, you’re probably good enough to tell him or her what the answer is. Or what some different answers might be.

Not only will your boss be happier, sooner or later his boss will realise that you could do his job.

3. Be ambitious

Just not every minute of every day. Good ambition is striving to take stuff off your boss and proving you can do it. Bad ambition is bleating that you want to be better paid/rewarded/ recognised/promoted all the time.

There’s a time and a place.

4. Sound the alarmbell at the right time

Some issues you can deal with, some you can’t.

Learn to recognise the difference and learn how to let people know when there’s a big issue – in enough time that something can be done about it.

5. Be responsible

Flu, migraines and food poisoning are not an option on the day of that big presentation that you somehow never got around to finishing.

6. Be brave

Talk to the most senior client in the room, answer the difficult question.

Tackle the issue that everyone else has put off.

Pick up the project that people find too difficult. Ask to work on the account that’s perceived as the worst. The difference you make will be demonstrable. Who could fail to be happier after that?

7. Have a point of view

You’re the most junior person in the room. Do you a) take notes and pour the coffee or b) rehearse three incisive things you believe about the topic of the day and find a way to slip them into the conversation?

8. Bring your hangover to work

You’ve been out with the team on a Thursday night. You fear that you may have got on your Pinot Grigio soap box and pointed out to the assembled cast how you could run the company better.

Face the Friday music and wear your hangover with pride. Far better than hiding.

9. Make their business your business

What’s the biggest worry facing him or her? You can probably help without being asked. Making things run smoothly for your boss is likely to make you indispensable.

10. Be prepared

Erase the following phrases from your vocabulary – “I thought you were writing it”, “I should have written more notes from that meeting”, “I haven’t had time’’