So you’ve been working away in your career, and have cultivated a strong reputation with your co-workers.

Want to kick it up a notch?

Be indispensable.

Here’s the trick: the most valuable employees are the ones who are the generous experts who give back.

What you learn and how you share it can make you the workplace hero.   A byproduct of being helpful and resourceful: you’ll earn respect as the company subject matter expert.

Here are some tips to make yourself shine in some of the most humble ways:

1)      Share articles of interest.  Sometimes, companies only pay for publication subscriptions for select individuals, so if you run across an article from which many people would benefit, share the wealth.  The more you can share to build everyone’s knowledge and skills up, the higher you rate in the eyes of colleagues.

2)      Connect co-workers to contacts from industry meetings.  If your path crosses with another person who might be a good contact for an office co-worker, make an introduction via email once you get back to the office.

3)      Do a write up. If you have attended any recent conference or additional professional development training, prepare a short but concise write-up about the biggest take-aways you learned from the experience.  The rewards you will reap will be countless… from colleagues appreciating the information that they did not have access to or even your boss feeling that the investment in sending you there was well worth it.

4)      Get certified. By formalizing your job knowledge, how you implement best practices will slough off on others working around you. Call it osmosis, but slowly, your knowledge and behaviors will shape that of your co-workers.  Subtly, you’ve just raised the bar!

5)      Volunteer to train others. If you have a skill set that would benefit the entire team, demonstrate your leadership by sharing what you’ve learned.  Supervisors will suddenly see you in a new light and this is a visible and tangible demonstration of your leadership skills and subject matter expertise.

What other ways can you think of that will help make you the office hero and expert? What experiences have you had with others sharing with you? I would love to hear from you!