Unless you have an unimpeachable reputation at the top of your field forever and always, you’ll need to do things other people want you to do. So, when you take on a position, try and figure out what’s bothering the person who’s employing you. Sometimes it’s not what you’re hired to do, but if you can figure out how to solve it, people will sing your praise.
People aren’t just going to tell you their gripes, so you’ll need to build some rapport with the people you are working with. Master the art of small talk by finding comfortable topics to engage with, and be mindful that you’re listening intently to what the other person has to say. After some time, you’ll learn how the person likes to be communicated with. Once you’ve built up trust and confidence in your competence, you want to start transitioning into a problem solver.
The way you become a problem solver is you start to gradually take on the responsibilities that are most unpleasant of the person ahead of you. Now, when you are trying to get a raise, another contract, or a promotion, you can point out how you’re doing something that it would be unpleasant to either restart doing, or hire someone to do for them.
Gradually, this builds your power in an organization since you become increasingly valuable, and the more valuable you are, the better leverage you have moving forward.
There’s a bit of a conflict of interest in documenting the processes you use, because if the processes exist clearly, it’s easy to delegate your work elsewhere. On the other hand, creating processes regularly shows that you’re useful and able to help. Generally, I think it’s somewhat unethical not to keep the information you have up to date, but other people may have different views.
Finally, you want to learn to be discreet. Not every problem is something that should be an executive’s attention. Ride the right people’s coat-tails, and you’ll have no problem getting to the top.
Isadore Johnson's Website 