Survival is not just about being the best or doing your best, its also about being good at people and relationship management. You may not be the best on the desired functional competency but if you have an excellent alignment with people around you, with people at key management positions you are sure to pull out from issues related to missing out on functional competencies etc.
I don’t mean to demean functional expertise and work place performance, they are the prime requirements for survival or success. But many amongst us – the white collared manager and supervisors etc. keep on whining about the fact that they did their best – or that they are better than others in their team – but are still neglected by their bosses etc.
Essentially, the requirements for any business is managerial excellence and leadership. This gets built primarily on the basis of understanding the drivers. motivators and the triggers for people around you – be it the customer, the bosses, the management etc. Once you know the triggers – you can find a way around them. This also includes – your team and people supporting you. You should be able to drive and motivate the people around you to get them to perform. 
As you move up the career ladder – the role of functional competency keeps on getting shadowed, its assumed that its a definite prerequisite and therefore the need to assess or evaluate it seems to end once you hit a middle management parity in your organization. Every thing thereafter is people management and relationships.
What else ?
Your own branding – keep yourself visible.
Keep your achievements in eyes of key decision makers. In certain industries and role, where new ideas and innovation is prime – people have often been seen cribbing – my boss “stole” my idea or my colleague built upon an idea and got appreciated for that. Well if you are one such cribber the fault lies entirely in yourself. You should learn – how to keep the ownership of your thoughts and ideas in “visibility”. How do you do that ? Well at the simplest end – talk to people around you – see what’s happening around .. communicate informally to your seniors and bosses. And well – document your thoughts and all communication related to work place ideas etc. Let people know that you are the guy who can generate ideas and well also highlight your accomplishments, during any interaction with people around you. Let them know that you are the performer.
Communicate.
Keep talking and communicate – listen – that is where you learn about the “confidential” internal job opening for a senior position. That is how you learn of opportunities around you.
At work place – there is a set of people who are steadfastly tied down to their seats – staring at their computer screen whole day – trying to finish up the all so important work. Well its good to be a part of that set of people – but take some time off, walk around talk to people and find out what’s happening around. You will have to maintain a good balance between your work and relationship building – else you would be construed to be a person who just likes walking around and wasting time in the cafeteria.
Cafeteria – and the “prohibited” smoking breaks, and the after office beer nights are also a great idea to indulge in once in a while. In case you are looking for the next big break – playing golf with your boss can also work well.
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.