DELIVER YOUR EXISTING RESPONSIBILITIES ON TIME, ON BUDGET

It might sound obvious, but you need to be doing a good job in your current role, to be considered for promotion to the next level up. I learned the mantra ‘on time, on budget’ early on in my Accenture career, and it has stuck with me. Make it yours. There is nothing more pleasing to a client, or to your boss, than a solid track record of meeting your deadlines and staying within budget.

Just remember that it’s all about working smart, not hard – and free up some time to plan your next promotion. Most middle managers are too busy working on the detail, and producing results – giving little time or space to considering how to move on to the next role. I have said it a few times already, but I cannot say it enough – performance alone will not get you the promotion. On the other hand, if you are not doing a good enough job in your current role, then you are seriously hampering your prospects of being considered for something up a level.

GET YOUR TEAM WORKING FOR YOU

As part of carving out some time to focus on your promotion prospects, are there opportunities to get your team working harder for you? Is it time to reset priorities for the team and individual team members? What if you assume that you will be getting a promotion within three months, what changes would you need to put in place between now and then? You would have to find a successor. Do you have one? If not, why not? You should always have someone on the team who is capable of taking over from you. If there is someone with potential on your team, start investing in them now. If there is not someone on the team who has the potential to take over your role, then think about the criteria you would set out for a recruitment brief and start discussing with your HR partner the need to get a number two on your team. If you feel that it would shake things up in a constructive way, then start telling people that you want to get a promotion, and are getting ready to move on.

OFFER TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITIES FROM YOUR BOSS

Ask your boss for extra responsibilities. But remember that your goal is to get promoted. Ask for responsibilities that will help with your leadership skills, and increase your visibility within the firm. Don’t end up doing extra administrative tasks and being a martyr to your boss – making him look good, while you do all the work and get none of the reward. As you take on more leadership responsibility, you need to let your boss know that you are doing this in order to build experience in readiness for promotion. Let other people know that you have also taken on new responsibilities so that they realise you are ambitious, and that you have taken initiative. Don’t be modest about your achievements.

WORK ON HIGH-PROFILE PROJECTS

Do you know what matters to the CEO? What is the company strategy? What are the key projects that are trickling down from the CEO agenda? If you don’t already know the answers to these questions, then now is the opportunity to find out. If you feel like the Group CEO is a million miles away from your reality, then this in itself is an insight. Why do you feel so disconnected from the CEO agenda and the company strategy? If you feel this way, it is quite likely that so do many others. Could you try to fill the void by suggesting to your boss or your boss’s boss that you set up and lead a taskforce on connecting the company strategy with the on-the-job day-to-day reality? Try to either work on a high-profile change project, or set one up. Either way, try to gain visibility with the Group CEO or as close as you can get to the top. It may be easier than you think. There are always ongoing organisation change projects. You just need to do your research and find out what is under way and try to play a contributing role. Start with any project that involves management consultants – if the company is willing to invest in management consulting fees then you can be sure that they are working on a strategic change initiative.

SHOW LEADERSHIP QUALITY

Could you become a first among equals on your team, by demonstrating your leadership qualities to your boss? Do you think your boss considers you as his successor – and if not, why not? Could you ask your boss for advice on how you could demonstrate more leadership quality?

Is there a new practice area that you could offer to lead? If you can come up with an idea for a new growth area for the company, and create the business case for it, then you are clearly showing your leadership capability and readiness/deserving of a promotion. Demonstrate early in your career that you have the courage, willingness and confidence to make changes for the good of the business.

No matter what level you are, you can follow the advice above. Don’t see it as something that you could do when you are promoted, or when you are more senior. Empower yourself to be a leader now. For example, if you are in your twenties, you will be a lot more technically savvy than some of the elders in their forties and fifties. Perhaps you can suggest a digital strategy or a new app to enhance your company products and services.

TAKE PART IN A CROSS-FUNCTIONAL INITIATIVE

Corporations are so highly matrixed that cross-functional initiatives are necessary to improve communication and coordination of goals across various divisional teams. Participating in one such cross-functional team is a great way of getting visibility with decision-makers outside your functional area. Not only does this give you visibility and greater access to decision-makers, but you can also learn a lot from your peers in other divisions about what promotion opportunities may exist in their areas, and who is a good boss to work for.

Cross-functional initiatives are also a great way to take up an informal leadership position. Usually people are not particularly keen on leading such projects because of the time it takes away from their day job. However, you could take the view that leading a cross-functional initiative is a good investment in your leadership skills and experience.

GAIN INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE EARLY ON

Working in another culture can be invaluable for broadening your experience and skill set, and will pay rich dividends for your long-term career. Learning how to adapt to new cultures and new environments is a skill in itself, and something that promotion decision-makers hold in high regard. You will benefit from participating on diverse teams or from learning how to influence and lead people from a different background from yours. It can be very exciting to work in emerging markets versus more mature markets. Emerging markets, by their very definition, are where the future growth of your company lies – and, as such, will be where the promotion opportunities also exist. It is also possible to accelerate up through your career track faster into more senior positions by taking up posts in emerging markets. Find out where your company is setting up any new divisions – and consider participating.

GET INVOLVED IN INNOVATION PROJECTS, OR SET ONE UP

Most companies are concerned about lack of innovation, and how to embed the innovation gene within the company DNA. If there are no innovation projects in your company, then you will be regarded as creative by simply pointing this out. You could offer to set up a taskforce to investigate the future trends in your industry, and possibilities of innovations and industry disrupters, and how your company could position itself better for the future. It would only take a few hours on the internet to research what other companies do to encourage innovation. Then you could write up these best practices and present them to your boss.

REPRESENT YOUR FIRM AT INDUSTRY PLATFORM EVENTS

Most people have a big fear of speaking in public, so if you have the confidence to represent your company at industry events, then you will be able to set yourself apart from your peers. Perhaps you can start by writing a paper on a specialist topic and publishing that paper as marketing material, and then lifting out the key points to create a speech on the topic. Your marketing and communications department may welcome your initiative, and offer to position you for external speaker events.

Figure 8.1 What is the next big wave?

LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS

Do your customer research. Pay close attention to what your customers are suggesting or complaining about. The closer you are to the customer, the more likely you are to spot what the customer wants next. Ironically it is the more junior people who are usually on the front line and the closest to the customer – so even though you might feel too junior to have a view, be aware that you actually have greater access to the customer truth than the CEO and his leadership team. Be prepared to state the obvious, especially when no one else will. Most people, including your boss, the CEO and leadership team, are usually so focused on next quarter results that there is not always time for them to think about industry game changers. At the top level, there is too much attachment to how things are, and not enough focus on how things could be. You might be the one to have an insight that is better than all the rest. Let’s take a simple example – supermarkets. There was a time when fresh fruit and bakeries were not sold in-store. Now we see it as commonplace. At the time this was a transformative innovation for supermarkets. So look at your company’s situation and the industry you operate in, and think about its biggest problems and whether you have any creativity or insight into how to resolve.

FIND OUT WHAT THE CONSULTANCIES ARE SELLING

It is always a good idea to take a meeting with a management consultant – and especially a good idea to take a meeting with entrepreneurs. Usually consultancies have a future-forward perspective and are selling ideas and services that are not yet fully arrived or normalised. You can get educated on what’s ahead by looking at the websites of the top consultancies. For example, I took a look at the big four management consultancies and noticed that there is a big spotlight on cybersecurity services. That makes sense given the recent corporate hacking scandals. But for your purposes it begs the question around whether your company is equipped to protect itself against cyberattacks. Could you imagine scenarios where cyberattacks have a massive negative impact on your business? How could you craft this topic area as a great insight for how your company could improve? Can you link it to your desired promotion role? Could you craft a promotion role as the new strategic in-house cybersecurity expert?

THINK ABOUT A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

Instead of thinking about what can’t be done, start to think about possibilities without limitations. Reframe your mindset. For example, if I had endless resources, what could I achieve? If I had unlimited budget, what could I do? If I had a better team, what could we achieve? If I had 10% more hours in the day, what could I focus on that would be strategic? Is there another way we can achieve our goals? This might generate ideas on how to refocus and restructure you team to focus on new priorities.

USE COMPANY ASSETS TO UNLOCK MORE VALUE

Give yourself permission to be the smartest person in the room, to voice your opinion and to share your insights. The best ideas come from looking at your company assets and unlocking them to create more value. With the next big wave in mind, try to develop a new idea that either utilises the organisation’s existing assets to unlock more value – or any other idea that is imaginative, creative and improves the company revenue. This will get you noticed and the organisation is more likely to invest in you.