Do you think of your boss as your customer? Try it, because like a conventional customer, she has choices. For example, if the quality of your work delights her, she can choose to brag on you to other people who can impact your career. She can choose to give you meatier assignments, nice perks, and worthwhile benefits worthy of keeping top talent like yourself from going over to the competition.
I always recommend that in order to get important people to take your ideas seriously, you want to build a reputation for under-committing and over-performing. You want to be known as someone who delights his customers by doing more than expected. It doesn’t have to be dramatic, either. For example, if your reports are due on Friday afternoon, turn them in on Friday morning – or better, Thursday afternoon.
I suspect some of you might be thinking that doing more than boss expects is, to phrase it in that tired old American expression, “sucking up.” In high school, that’s what the slower boys and girls called it. But you know, if your career is important to you and you are responsible for providing for your family, you’re not playing with the kids anymore. You are in the majors now. And when the stakes are high, it’s smart to provide quality customer service to your boss. High quality is always viewed as more valuable than low quality.