Of course, it’s worth pointing out that not everyone seeks advancement. If your aim is to do a solid job of your work, but your focus is really on activities outside of your work life, then you probably want to fly under the radar. You might actually want to avoid some of the strategies discussed here. But if you’re looking to be memorable at work, here’s what to do.

BECOME A CONCEPT

The first step in staying in other people’s minds is actually the hardest. You have to get in there in the first place. Leaders in organizations—particularly large organizations—have a problem that they meet a lot of people. That means that more people know who they are than they can keep track of.

Early on, your immediate supervisor is going to know you (hopefully), but anyone above that in the food chain may not really have a sense of who you are. Just getting introduced to those leaders at meetings is not going to make you an independent concept in their minds.

Instead, you need to use a few core principles of memory to get in their heads. You want to be visible early and often. The more projects you can get involved in (and do good work), the more times that your name is likely to come up. If those projects are important and leaders need to think about them deeply, that increases the chances that you will become embedded in their memories. You also don’t want to be a flash in the pan. Doing a single project isn’t going to make you memorable. Consistency of engagement over time will help.

SHOW DON’T TELL

A lot of people (particularly early in their careers) think that the best way to become memorable at work is to find ways to tell leaders things that they have done. Being memorable, though, requires that you be connected to lots of things that someone knows about. When you tell people your accomplishments, then all of the information they hear is connected only to their experiences with you. When you act in ways that embody what they want them to know about you, then you are connecting your accomplishments to many aspects of their work experience.

That doesn’t mean that you should toil invisibly. You should find ways to work with the people that you want to impress. Volunteer to be part of teams that involve key leaders. Give presentations about the work you have done as often as possible. Take opportunities to engage with leaders as part of the work you do. But engage with leaders in the process of working rather than looking for reasons to talk to them about what you do.

SOLVE OTHER PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS

Another way to be memorable is to connect your work to something that is important to what leaders care about. People remember others who have been helpful to them.

In order to be of service, you have to learn about the problems that other people in the organization are trying to solve. Then, find ways that that work you’re doing can address problems that others face. When you help other people to achieve their goals, they will be much more likely to pay attention to what you have accomplished than when you focus only on achieving things you care about.

A positive outgrowth of the focus on helping others to achieve their goals is that as you advance, you’re likely to maintain the focus on providing assistance to others. This can lead you to a servant-leader orientation, which can often create an atmosphere of trust in the teams you work with.

ASK FOR ADVICE

There is an old Silicon Valley adage that if you want advice ask for money, but if you want money, ask for advice. The idea is that people with resources to give are constantly being asked for those resources. So, they expect people to approach them with requests. Consequently, their guard is up. When you ask for advice, though, you are tapping someone’s experience. As a result, they listen to your ideas and provide feedback.

This strategy also works when you are engaging with leaders. They expect people to ask for things. Indeed, one reason why it can backfire to tout your accomplishments to a leader is that they are likely to view this as a way of trying to get something from them. Indeed, you may trigger leaders’ defenses when you start to talk about yourself.

When you ask a leader for advice you are honoring their expertise. It demonstrates your willingness to learn. Because they’re engaging with you while giving advice, they’re forming their own representation of you and what you care about. That effort will make you more memorable to them. As a result, they’re more likely to think about you later when putting together teams to work on important projects or drawing up lists of people to consider for new assignments or promotions.