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Whether you want a raise, a promotion, more vacation time, more exciting projects or more flexible work hours, you need to ask yourself one fundamental question: What makes me Uniquely Valuable to the person who decides whether or not I get those rewards?

The people who get to call their own career shots are those who bring some valuable asset to the table that few other people bring.  Follow the 4 Commandments below to find out what makes you Uniquely Valuable.

1. Know thy customer.

In the simplest terms, your customer is the person who buys your products.  If you own a business that sells products to consumers, then those consumers are your customers. In the corporate world, however, your boss or the budget-maker for your department is most likely “buying” what you’re producing — using the currencies of salary, vacation time and positive performance reviews.

A friend of mine became vice president for a major health insurer at the ripe old age of 28, bypassing a thicket of bureaucracy and leaping a few steps on the company’s “official” career ladder. According to my friend, the key was recognizing early on that his customer was not the person who purchased his company’s products.  His customer was his manager and his manager’s manager.

I realize this sounds like politicking at its slimiest, but it’s not as Machiavellian as it sounds. To become more valuable to your manager, you have to understand the big picture, see what needs to be done, and do it with efficiency and creativity. In a well-run organization, this should help meet the objectives of your whole team and not just advance your own career. If it doesn’t, the problem is much bigger than you.  Either way, you’ll be better off always remembering the needs of your customer.

2. Know thyself.

When it comes to improving yourself, you have two choices: You can either a) work on developing the skills and acquiring the knowledge that others on your team already possess, or b) work on further developing valuable skills and building on the valuable knowledge that you already have.

Of these two choices, guess which one will make you stand out to your customer? Developing the skills that everyone else already has is like wearing camouflage when you should be wearing an orange hunting vest.

So make a list of the skill sets or knowledge bases that you already have that could make you exceptional with just a few months of focused effort.  Then you should also make a list of the things that aren’t making you stand out, and stop doing them.

3. Know thy peers.

What are the people on your team good at?  Great, now stop wasting your time trying to improve yourself on those things.

Here’s the reality: People judge the value of things (you) relative to the value of similar things (your peers). Behavioral economist Dan Ariely calls this relativity, and it affects your boss just as much as it affects you and me.  For example, you might be a good team player. Outstanding! But if your department held a “team player” championships, would you be the odds-on favorite to win the gold? If not, then being a team player can only make you average.

Or let’s say you’re a great trainer.  If you work in a department full of great trainers, being a great trainer won’t make you stand out. Instead, become the “resident expert” in a narrower niche.  Zero in on e-learning, group facilitation or curriculum design. So that when this need arises, everyone on your team (especially your boss) immediately looks to you.

Think about your favorite restaurant. The food tastes good, right? But that’s true of everyone’s favorite restaurant. Good-tasting food is simply table stakes. This is why restaurants tend to focus on excellence within a particular cuisine or food (best roast beef sandwich in the Tri-State Area!), or service, or price, or some other quality that other restaurants can’t match so easily.

4. Know the reason for the reward.

Before you embark on a sprint toward career advancement, get clear on why you want to advance your career.  Your career is nothing more than a vehicle for moving your life in the right direction. If you’re on the wrong road, it doesn’t matter whether you’re behind the wheel of a purring Porsche or an asthmatic Pinto, you’re not going to reach your destination. On the other hand, if you are on the right road, a high-performance vehicle will help your reach your destination faster, safer and more comfortably.

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