Don’t be afraid of the “non-value added work”

Don’t be afraid of the “non-value added work” - A lot of books and articles will tell you that the way to move up in the organization is to make sure you are constantly providing value and that you are being strategic with your time. And to be quite honest my advice is no different, but what is different is what I consider value. Most of those other books and articles would have you walk away from tasks that may actually provide an interesting strategic advantage for you.

Just because the value is not readily apparent to everyone else, does not mean that it is not valuable to you. Before you say no, I suggest you stop to think about if it could provide you a new skill, access to key people, exposure to new situations, or a variety of other “valuable” things.