It may not occur to you, if you haven’t been a manager or a leader, that the carpet outside the door isn’t usually worn out from people coming in and thanking that manager or leader for what they do and for having the backs of the people that report to them.

Here’s an opportunity.

What if you make a regular pattern of thanking your team lead for what they do, having your back, teaching you things, and being there for you? Because they’re working hard to make sure every team member wins—they’d like to hear that too.

Decide today to stop on by! Thank your team lead, and maybe create a regular pattern of doing it as well.

Does your direct supervisor know exactly what you’re working on this week and what kind of results that you’re committed to making happen? And also, what kind of exceptions are happening and what you’re doing about those? If not, you might call your manager a micromanager, but let me assure you, they may not be a micromanager. You have made them into a micromanager.

You see managers are responsible for the outcomes of the job for all their direct reports. And if a manager does not have great visibility in the status of every project, who’s being called, what kind of things are you talking to them about? Where are the exceptions? What kind of results are you getting? Where are you having problems getting the results? What are you doing about that? Without complete communication and the status of every project, and what’s being done about it, that manager is put in a very uncomfortable spot called my manager or my board, if it’s a CEO, fully expects me to deliver on the outcomes, and I can’t see the inputs being managed properly, so guess what? I now am a micromanager.

When that happens, that doesn’t look good for you because that basically has said you’re letting them down. Step in and be an authentic communicator, that creates great visibility. And if you have an oopsy and a problem, bring it up and talk about what you’re doing about it, because there is no manager who will be surprised that something broke down or some number didn’t get hit. What they don’t want to hear about is that you’re covering it up and not making it completely visible, as well as your plan to get around it.

Build some great visibility in everything you do and make sure that you give your manager a phenomenal daily or weekly report, at a minimum, a monthly report as well, about exactly the status of everything, so they don’t have to ask. And think of the time you’ll save for them and for you.

Can you be counted on for clean communication? What does that mean? It means, instead of complaining, that you make a request to people about what’s necessary. It means, when you see something in breakdown, that you point it out and bring a solution to what it could be. It means that if your nose goes sideways because you’re not getting along with somebody, that you go immediately to them and talk to them about what’s going on and say, “Hey, there’s something in breakdown here. I’m calling to have a cleanup conversation to see how we can get back on the rails, in terms of our relationship being connected, because right now I’m a little bit angry about what’s going on.” It means you’re taking responsibility to keep the communication clean, advancing it in powerful ways and making sure that you don’t become a part of the problem, but that you’re always, instead, a part of the solution.

The magical system behind all of that is buried in a powerful rule called “the request.” In other words, there are many people who can point out what’s wrong, but that doesn’t move anything along. It’s not advancing language. A request that asks for a specific behavior, alternatively, is a powerful thing that gets you what you want most of the time. Or it gets you into the negotiation, where you can understand the other side of the story.

Please stand up to be the kind of person that can be counted on for clean communication, so that nobody goes sideways in conversations with you, and so that that there is no worry about passive-aggressive behavior and all those kinds of things that can sneak in during challenging times, where sometimes the highest and best self doesn’t show up. Choose to be the person of character that makes sure that you stay in the request.

Character is revealed during challenging times.  So, what does your character look like right now—because these are challenging times.  For instance, are you the kind of person who is exploring to find what’s necessary right now and stepping ahead to make sure that your executive team has great visibility on the status of every project, on the status of every customer, on the status of every prospect that is in line to become one of your customers?  If not, that’s a sign of not having the character to anticipate what is necessary and important at a time like this and having that available.  Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers, and the world has a perfect accounting system. This is the time for you to be thinking about how to give more value than you ever have before.  How do you give at least 30% minimum more productivity, as a result of the work that you create than what you’ve ever created before by sharpening your saw, getting more brilliant in what you do, bringing more character to what you do, and having the strength to make sure that you’re adding massive value right now.  Listen, your teammates’ salaries and their bonuses depend on you figuring it out and adding more value.  Be that person of character, who absolutely is the one that everyone points to as the one who helped us emerge stronger from what we’re going through.

This is a time of opportunity for you to show what you’re capable of doing. Listen, no one ever outperforms their expectations of themselves. They will tell you the story of why they can’t get something done when in reality, we’re all capable of so much more. We just didn’t know we had it in us. So how do you have that breakthrough performance for yourself so that you have a career opportunity as a result of these challenging times? By setting the bar really high and going for it. So if you had been creating a certain amount of results with five inputs, maybe tomorrow you need to bring 50 inputs to make that happen.

If you were someone who had some abilities that you did not have in the past, go figure out the abilities. Now is the time for massive action in the right direction, to make sure customers are feeling the love, future customers are seeing that you’re creating opportunities because you can hear them and listen and you care, and you’re showing more care than anybody else does. And lastly, this is a time for you to take care of yourself in a way you’ve never taken care of yourself before. Give yourself the self-love and self-care during difficult times, but also make sure that you get massively about making a difference in the world. That’s why we’re here on planet Earth anyway.