4 Ways to Get People’s Attention at Work

As you know if you don’t get attention at work, your success could suffer. In order to progress and move up the ladder, you need to get noticed and recognized for the good things you do in the workplace and the contributions you make. Follow these 4 tips and you’ll find more people paying attention to you whether they’re your boss, coworkers, employees, or clients.

Recognize How Other People View the World

Every person’s view of the world is influenced by their experiences and even biological makeup. Due to this, our brains find ways to accept certain ideas and ignore others completely. If you want to get more attention from people at work, you need to either find a way to adapt to their frame of mind, or develop a way to change it.

One way that is shown to work is by using repetition to drill in a message. Try to bring attention to the same thing a few times in secession. For example, communicate about how you were very detail oriented on a project a few times and it’ll be sure to sink in.

Personalize and Amplify Rewards

Every one of us has unique motivations that drive us to try harder and do a great job. Perhaps it’s recognition, a raise, or a chance to speak at the company convention. If you want a sure-fire way to get more positive attention from people at work, start to notice what’s important to those around you (your boss, employees, etc).

Then use those findings to provide valuable/relevant/personalized rewards to people and make them anticipate, visualize or experience the reward in advance.

For example, if you’re offering a luxury trip to top earners, don’t just tell them about the vacation. Send them photographs of the destination and hotel, to amplify the value.

Do Something Unexpected

We all tend to be attracted to and talk about the new and novel. Use this to your advantage as you’re trying to get more attention at work. Try thinking of some creative and positive ways you can disrupt the expectations your coworkers or clients and get them to pay attention.

This doesn’t have to be something huge. Small things can work just as well.

For example, try suggesting a meeting at a new location or while walking, instead of in a meeting room or coffee shop. Or surprise them by beating an impossible deadline.

Create Some Mystery

Do you ever find it impossible to put down a good book? Actually our brains are hardwired to want to complete a task, story, or project once we’ve started, and we’re not too fond of uncertainty either. Use these biological traits to your advantage.

If you are trying to land a new client for example, try to leave something interesting incomplete, that needs to be done next time you meet. They will feel compelled to follow up and have that next meeting.

For more tips and techniques on how to get people’s attention at work, have a look at Ben Parr’s book - Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention.