Promotion Success: Steps to take to get a Promotion
If your goal is to get promoted at work, there are actions you can take to increase your chances of getting that promotion. The majority of people who get ahead in their careers are proactive about their career paths and make decisions that align with their goals. They also do a good job selling themselves as the right person for the next role. Most importantly, they work with their boss and other leaders to get to where they want to go.
Here are steps you can take to increase your chances for promotion success:
Have a Conversation with your Boss
Do the Work
Share your Success
Celebrate and Acknowledge
Have a Conversation with your Boss
The first step to getting ahead in your career is making your goals clear to your boss. A lot of people are afraid to have this conversation because they fear what their boss might say. The reality is that without this conversation, you won’t get anywhere. If you see this conversation as a way to gather information about your situation rather than a reflection of your self-worth, you can approach the conversation with curiosity and learn as much as you can from it.
Even if your boss doesn’t support you in moving up and is unwilling to work with you on a promotion, you will have valuable information about your career path at your current company. It’s better to know sooner rather than later that you have limited growth opportunities in your current role so you can plan for it.
More likely, your boss will support your goals and will be willing to work with you on a path to promotion. This could entail simply sharing all the successes you have already had in order to give you the visibility you need to get promoted or might include sharing the skills you need to develop or a project you should complete to get to the next level.
Sometimes, your boss will recommend working on a high visibility project that is important to the company. If that is your boss’s advice, ask to be put on this type of project.
Most companies have promotion cycles at specific times so it’s a good idea to set an ideal date by which your boss can put you up for promotion. You should allow for flexibility with that date, but setting a timeframe will give you a date by which you can review progress with your boss on your path to promotion.
Do the Work
Once you have a plan with your boss about what needs to be done to get you promoted, do it. There is no substitute for getting results so deliver on your goals, develop the skill set you need and continue working towards what you said you would do.
If you are working on a high profile project, focus on getting it done and making sure your leadership team has visibility into how your work positively impacted the project’s completion.
To develop your skills, it’s not enough to take a training class, make sure you demonstrate your ability and improved skill set through actions. For example, if you want to be a people manager and currently have no direct reports, find ways to mentor and coach people at the organization informally to show that you have what it takes to be a leader. If your next promotion would require you to speak in front of people more often, find opportunities to do presentations inside or outside of work so people can see that you have the presentation skills needed for the role. If you do presentations outside of work, make sure to post them somewhere where people at work can see them too.
If you don’t complete what you said you would get done by the date you set with your boss, be realistic and think about moving your promotion request to later. There is no rush to get to the next level and waiting until you are sufficiently ready for the next level will help your career because you are more likely to be successful in a new higher level position, if you have developed the skills you need beforehand.
Share your Success
Doing great work is important, but if the right people don’t know about it, it's unlikely you will get promoted. Being willing to share your success and to tell people about it is key to getting promoted. There is often a panel of people that decide who gets promoted at a company so it's important that the people responsible for promotions know. As you move higher up, it’s nearly impossible to get promotions without the trust of executive leadership so ensure that you have at least one person who is advocating for you and your abilities to executives. If you don’t have direct access to executives or the people on the promotion panel, you can use other avenues to be recognized. This includes being featured in company emails, newsletters, intranet websites and even external websites. Getting recognized with a company award is also helpful. Don’t be shy sharing about how your work positively affected the company and customers.
Celebrate and Acknowledge
After you do all the work and get that promotion, take the time to acknowledge your hard work and the people who helped get you there. This may include your boss, your peers and your team. Once you are in a leadership position where you can help your team get promoted, don’t forget to pay it forward and help your team get promoted as well. Everyone’s hard work deserves to be recognized.
Also, when you start your new position, remember that there will be a learning curve no matter how prepared you are, so be patient with yourself and maintain a growth mindset.
The path to promotion isn’t always easy, but working hard to get results as well as ensuring that the work you do is visible to the right people are both keys to success. Take the time you need to develop the pertinent skills for the next level so that when you get that promotion you will have continued success.