Turn support into influence by lightening your boss’s load

When Emma joined her manager’s office as a project coordinator, her boss was drowning in client updates and looming deadlines. Rather than waiting to be told what to do, Emma began each day by asking, “What’s the one thing I can handle right now?” Her boss sent her the latest slide deck with the note, “Just polish this up for me.”

By that afternoon Emma was emailing a cleaner draft, complete with highlights on key data points. Their next meeting she arrived with a suggested folder structure to store all the client files—something her boss had meant to do for months. Each time Emma volunteered for the small but nagging tasks her boss hated, her influence grew.

Within three months, Emma was invited into strategic meetings. She realized people notice leaders who help make a leader’s vision real. Psychologists call this the Law of Reciprocity: when someone provides real value to us, we feel compelled to return the favor.

And in the corporate world, “returning the favor” often looks like offering you a promotion or inviting you to shape the next big project.

Picture your boss freed from a nagging task because you volunteered. Tomorrow, ask how to help, draft a quick solution, share a useful resource, and tackle one chore no one wants. Each time you lighten their load, you earn a deposit of influence—try it at your next stand-up meeting.