A lot of people think that if they work hard and do their jobs well, they are going to be in line for promotions. These days, performance alone is not a guarantee of career advancement.
One of the lessons people learn early in their career learns is that not everyone possesses the same degree of talent, work ethic, intellect, and persistence. Some seem to struggle in their careers while others seem to move ahead quickly and are successful whatever they do.
Here are some strategies to increase your chances of being promoted:
1. BE PROACTIVE
Don’t expect other people in your company to tell you how to contribute. Don’t wait to be asked to do something. Instead, take the initiative to look for ways to add value. Take actions within the scope of your job role that show initiative and propose actions that show you understand how the entire operation works, not just your corner of the world. Act like an entrepreneur inside the enterprise.
2. SHOW YOU ARE AN INSATIABLE LEARNER
One way to show your desire to advance is to be curious and ask lots of questions. Don’t just focus on the surface either, probe the answers to the questions and dig down until you really understand something. Then, put it into practice. If you test what you have learned then it begins to integrate into your behaviors, making you more valuable every day.
3. FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER
Customers can be external individuals who buy your company’s products, or they can be internal parties that consume the work output you are producing. For example, if you worked in a bank as a teller, your external customers are depositors, borrowers making payments on their loans, safe-deposit box holders, and more. Your internal customers are in the audit department who rely on you to be accurate, or in the security department who rely on you to report suspected fraud. Every job has internal and external customers. Professionals who advance rapidly understand who all the customers are and strive to consistently exceed customer expectations.
It’s always a good idea to look at the desired outcomes of your role to be in line with what your employer is seeking to achieve.
4. FOCUS ON BUSINESS OUTCOMES
Individuals who advance in their careers always seek to ensure their work positively impacts the organization’s key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s always a good idea to look at the desired outcomes of your role to be in line with what your employer is seeking to achieve. Take the time to understand how each KPI is affected by another. For example, if revenues go up and expenses (another popular KPI) remain the same, expenses go down as a percent of revenues, which in turn raises the profit (yet another popular KPI). Having literacy in these stat
5. FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY
Promotable individuals take the time to master their job duties and see how their work serves customers in other departments. As a result, they are always looking for ways to improve the work processes to be more efficient (get more done with the same costs in time and resources, or reduce costs while keeping the quality and quantity produced the same, or both). This is the sort of mindset that moves people up through organizations quickly.
6. FOCUS ON BEING AGILE
When you operate in a flexible manner within your job duties to accommodate others, your value to the organization improves. It is important to respond nimbly to challenges, not fight them. Don’t dig in when your supervisor suddenly changes direction. They see the benefits of new opportunities, not the difficulty of making a change. They even anticipate change because they have become close to the business and can see the signs.
7. LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
Successful people must make mistakes in order to become successful in their careers. Thomas Edison finally found the secret to inventing the light bulb after nearly 10,000 failures. His response: “I’ve not failed, I’ve simply learned 10,000 ways that a light bulb won’t work.” Each failure taught him what not to do and eventually, he became one of our most admired inventors.
8. LIVE WITH INTEGRITY IN EVERYTHING YOU DO
Another cardinal rule is to always do what you say you will do. Don’t offer an excuse why something wasn’t done. Own your results, good or bad. This way, you build a track record of being 100% trustworthy. The other side of this principle is to not accept everything and become overwhelmed either. By setting limits, you will be able to truthfully fulfill every challenge you accept.
BOTTOM LINE
Every one of these behaviors is within your control. There is secret trick to any of it. Just the simple desire to perform to the best of your ability and become highly promotable.
