These days, being good at your job doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll get promoted. Being promotable, on the other hand, increases your chances of success and helps you take the career steps you’re aiming for.
Being promotable draws together your professional skills, competence, business sense, and relationship-building skills. The result? The impression of someone who will be valuable to your organisation at increasingly senior levels. When you’re recognised for your specialist expertise and have a track record of success, you’re no doubt likely to be seen as a candidate who can move up through the ranks. You will need other personal attributes that go well beyond your current role, though. To get ahead, you’ll need to show that you have good business sense, can deal with the trials of office politics and are able to manage change, and that you’re loyal to your employer to boot.
These attributes go hand-in-hand with the need to communicate and network effectively, and you’ll also need to cement good links with people who can sponsor and support you as you move along your career path. Don’t worry if this sounds like a tall order: read on to find out how you can bring all your skills together and make them work for you.
Step one: Work on your ‘visibility’
1 I’m very keen to be promoted and think I have done everything I can to get noticed. Competition is fierce, though, so how can I boost my chances?
Blowing your own trumpet too loudly isn’t always the most effective way of influencing events. Being clear about what you want and why you deserve to be promoted is, of course, very important, but a subtle approach can also reap rewards. You could, for example:
find a mentor or sponsor in the organisation with whom you can work (see chapter 7 for more help on this)
talk to your boss and discuss your development plan, emphasising that you believe you have more to offer the business
Remember that you don’t have to limit your campaign just to your office space. Why not publish articles in your trade or professional magazine, or accept invitations (or volunteer) to speak at conferences? If you want to raise your visibility more locally to demonstrate your commitment to your local area, you could get involved in a charity or community initiative.
TOP TIP
Try to become more visible by taking the opportunity to mix with decision-makers and by sharing stories of your success at appropriate times. It is quite a tricky balancing act, as you don’t want to annoy the very people you’re trying to get to know, so use your common sense and judge the situation before you start spreading the good news about yourself! For example, don’t chase people round the office to tell them something when they’re clearly in a rush or in a bad mood.
2 I work in an organisation where promotion is a thing of the past for most people. How can I work my way into the senior management tier?
Many modern businesses have opted for ‘flatter’ management structures and this means that there’s often no longer a clear ‘route to the top’. In cases like these, ‘promotability’ has to come from a different angle. For example, there may be prestigious and exciting areas for you to work in, or some career-enhancing assignments that you could get involved with.
TOP TIP
Every business has its own way of doing things or a distinct set of criteria by which it measures its high-flyers. Take a step back and see if you can spot why other people in your organisation have been promoted. Is it a reward for what they’ve achieved, or the way they’ve done it? If you can spot a trend, you’ll be able to plan how to follow it yourself.
Step two: Think about the bigger picture for a moment
Making yourself promotable is not an easy task because it means that you have impress on many different fronts. For example, you have to be familiar with not just your own organisation, but with what’s going on in other areas of your industry. What are the trends? If you work for a commercial organisation, is your market thriving or shrinking?
You need to develop social and political skills so that you can build good relationships with others and also find a personal leadership style that you’re comfortable with and can develop into a distinctive personal ‘brand’ in the long run.
It’s ironic that you may find that the personal skills and attributes that have helped you reach your current rung on the career ladder might actually sabotage your chances to climb any further. For example, if you have a very individualistic approach that differentiates you from your peers or are seen as a ‘maverick’ prone to challenging the status quo, you might have to think about losing such traits. This may not appeal to everyone, so do think long and hard about the changes you might have to make—and how you’d feel about yourself in the process—before you embark on your campaign.
Research conducted by the US Academy of Management in the late 1990s highlighted several extra factors that can prevent otherwise very capable people from progressing in their careers. These include:
problems with building good relationships with others
not meeting business objectives
failure to build and lead a team
not being able to change, or cope with change
Two further derailment factors that were considered to reflect the changing business environment were later identified. These were the failure to learn to deal with change and complexity and overdependence upon a single boss or mentor.
If you work at each of these factors in turn, you’ll be building the personal capabilities that will boost your promotability and distinguish you as a future leader.
Step three: Build great interpersonal skills
As you progress through your career, there’s a shift in the balance between the skills you have to offer and your ability to build relationships. This latter talent becomes an important part of your personal work ‘armoury’—more senior roles demand a higher level of political sensitivity because at that level relationships go beyond the day-today work setting and are more likely have an impact on the long-term interests of the business.
Knowing this, many potential leaders try to fake it with an over-confident communication style. Don’t go there. An approach like this will just make you seem arrogant and unlikeable.
TOP TIP
Good interpersonal relationships are built by people who have no axe to grind and who aren’t trying to create an illusion of confidence and capability. There’s no substitute for genuine self-confidence; people can generally see through those who are putting it on, so make sure you know yourself well, understand your values, and can create a clear picture of what you want. With this in place, good communication and an easy manner will follow naturally and authoritatively because it will genuinely reflect who you are.
Step four: Meet your objectives
To be promotable, not only do you have to meet the objectives of your role, but you have to contribute to the wider business too. This means showing initiative and taking an interest in areas outside your role boundaries. You could do this by volunteering for an important project, chairing a committee, or leading a special interest group. If you’re seen to be supportive of—and passionate about—the business, you’re much more likely to be noticed as someone who could make an impact at a more senior level.
Although it might be unpalatable to some, you may have to consider (subtle) ways in which you can broadcast your willingness to play a more committed part in the fortunes of your business, such as suggesting or volunteering for a special project. This doesn’t mean that you have to be sycophantic, but, if you act like someone who occupies the type of role you’re aiming for, it’ll be easy for others to see you in that role.
TOP TIP
There’s absolutely no point blowing your own trumpet if you can’t show that you’re meeting your targets regularly and effectively. Nothing is as impressive as a job well done, so get the basics right and then build on them.
Step five: Build and lead teams
Being able to build and lead teams is an essential skill for senior executives. Without this, the co-operative networks that are vital for an organisation to achieve its objectives are damaged. Your success in this area depends on how well you can communicate clear objectives as well as understand the skills, motivations, and personal values of your team.
Good working relationships are open, with a healthy ebb and flow of feedback to make sure that everyone knows what the team’s purpose and goals are. Build in milestones and markers to your work plan so that you can monitor progress and—just as importantly—celebrate success. It’s an excellent way of motivating others.
Step six: Learn to manage transition and change
Businesses and organisations have to respond to developments in markets and economies, and the ripple-effects of these changes have an impact on all employees. Being able to field such changes and use your knowledge and insight to direct people’s creative energy towards making them a success are valuable attributes of a leader. Being unable—or unwilling—to embrace change, on the other hand, even if you feel the change is unwise or counterproductive, could be seen as being unhelpful.
If you find yourself in a situation like this, rather than just putting up the shutters and making your displeasure clear to all, take a more constructive approach by making some alternative suggestions and explaining the thinking behind them. If your concerns are rejected, though, and you still want to stay with the company, you’ll have to combat your reservations and show your loyalty by remaining flexible and actively seeking ways of making the changes work.
Show that you’re prepared to keep people motivated and learn from the new experience rather than bang on about how unhappy you feel about it. In short, remaining flexible and looking for practical ways of making (sometimes difficult) things happen, keeping people motivated, and learning from it are all important characteristics of those in the top team.
Step seven: Build an effective network of champions or sponsors
We’ve all seen people who have been promoted on the basis of who they know, not what they know, yet this is no guarantee of future success. Indeed, sheltering under someone’s protective wing is all very well when your champion is in favour, but, if their reputation is damaged for any reason, yours will also be tarnished because of your close association.
To avoid this, build a robust network of relationships that will support you purely because of your potential and personal integrity. In this way, you can be sure that you aren’t reliant on the perception people have of someone else (and over whom you have no control), but that you’re judged on your own talent and attributes.
Can you identify role-models, potential coaches, and mentors among your colleagues who could help with your development plan? Frame your requests for help positively and explain that you feel you have more to offer the business and would appreciate their guidance—try not to phrase it so that it seems that you’re more bothered about yourself than the organisation. Turn to chapter 6 for more advice on this issue.
Common mistakes
You irritate the people who could help you
Sometimes, people looking for a move up the career ladder make such a fuss about their ambitions that they make a lot of noise around the people who they think can promote them. This won’t help their case, and in fact it’s very irritating and counter-productive. There are unwritten ‘rules’ to being promotable, which change from company to company, and you need to work these out by observing and adopting some of the tactics of successful people who’ve gone before you. Find out about the interests of those at the top and show that you’re interested in them too, or make yourself known in their philanthropic circles outside the business. For example, if you know that your boss supports a local charity, society, or sports team, why not go along to one of their events?
You’re not willing to change
Although a track record of being a maverick may get you noticed, this is usually not a trait that will get you promoted. If you are hoping for a promotion, it’s probably worth playing down your notoriety and redirecting your energies into activities that support the organisation’s best interests. Do think long and hard about how comfortable you feel about trying this route, however. For many people, there’s nothing worse than not being able to be themselves.
You ignore your team
It’s tempting to focus on yourself as you look towards your career horizon and plan for your own success. You’ll be judged on your ability to develop the talent in your team, though, so don’t ignore them. You won’t succeed by squashing those with potential, so you must trust in your own abilities and let your team flourish too. Doing this will create a loyal group who will support you in the long run. Take care to maintain these relationships as you move through the organisation, as you never know who you’ll be working with (or for!) one day.
STEPS TO SUCCESS
Understand that being ‘promotable’ means having a mix of the right skills and personal attributes.
To get a fix on what makes someone promotable in your organisation, observe the people who have climbed up the career ladder already and work out how they’ve done it.
If you’re on good terms with people who’ve been successful in this way at work, ask for their suggestions on your next move. Always thank them for their time and ask if there’s anything you can help them with: this is the secret of good networking.
Don’t alienate the people who could help you most. You’ll need the help of mentors and advisers in your campaign, so don’t harass them, or bang on at great length or at the wrong time. Use your common sense to pick a good moment to talk about your promotion dreams.
Be prepared to go the extra mile. Raising your profile outside your work setting can often boost your visibility at the office. Take up opportunities to speak at events, write for external publications, or work with your local community.
Show you can deliver. There’s no point blowing your own trumpet if you don’t meet your business objectives. Don’t expect others to take you seriously if you can’t come up with the goods.
If you manage a team already, don’t sacrifice them to your own ambition. You have a job to do in leading them every day.
Useful links
Dauten.com Promotability Index:
OCJobSite.com: