Professional advice on how to get a promotion

One of the most common questions we get here at The Change Laboratory is how to make the jump from individual contributor to manager. That makes, sense. Almost everybody wants to move up. But actually snagging a promotion… Well, that's an entirely different story.

That's why we're dedicating this episode of the Stop Hating Mondays Podcast to providing some foundational answers to the common question, "what do I need to do to climb the corporate ladder?"

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TRANSCRIPT

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Caanan

One of the most common questions we get here at The Change Laboratory is how to make the jump from individual contributor to manager.

Kent

Yes.

Caanan

Yeah, we get it all the time. We get it because almost everybody wants to move up, but actually snagging a promotion… Well, that's an entirely different story.

A lot of people, whether they know it or not, think that a promotion is something that happens to you.

Some move through that career with the idea that promotions should drop in your lap when you've been around long enough. We'll call these the it's my turn people.

Others put in hard work but never actually like grab for the brass ring instead. They wait for someone else to say “Hey, do you want a promotion?” And we know that doesn't happen.

And then some people ask for the promotion but can't back it up. They can't answer the simple question “why now and why you?’

Well, if you recognize yourself in any of those three groups or you were just now starting to think about going for promotion, we've got some ideas.

I'm Caanan. This is Kent. And you're listening to the Stop Hating Mondays Podcast and today we're talking about how to get a promotion.

Caanan

OK, let's just assume you are not in the it's my turn camp – those people who believe the promotion should just fall into their lap because they've been around long enough. That's not a strategy. Let's just assume you're not one of those people.

But let's assume you are in the camp of people who are putting in the hard work – you're earning the promotion – but you're just not asking for it. You're not grabbing the brass ring.

Kent

Yeah, and this is a pretty big group of people. You know most of the people we know of are those hard workers who are kind of wondering why things aren't happening. And oftentimes it's simple. They haven't been their own advocate.

Caanan

Well, yeah, that's our first tip. Be your own advocate.

Kent

What's interesting about this is… Of course it leads to so much frustration because people think, especially in this situation, that people are noticing – that leaders are noticing – and that in a way they'll be one of those people who thinks “my time will come. My time will come. I'm doing the work.” But when I've sat down in coaching sessions to talk to these people about “OK, So what have you done? And what has your manager’s response been?”

Often I learn that this hasn't possibly even come up in manager discussions or, worse yet, these people aren't even having one-on-ones. So part of being your own advocate is making sure you're having one-on-ones. Making sure you've got that face time. Making sure this is touched on appropriately.

You can't be like “I'm ready to move up! I'm ready to move up!” in every meeting, but, you've gotta set clear expectations for your leader and your leader has to then set expectations for you so that you can hold each other accountable. They know you're doing the work to move up, and you know they have your back in getting you moved up.

Caanan

And you know, it's unfortunate that you can't just do the hard work and expect that somebody is going to… your manager or your skip level is going to notice and say “hey you deserve a promotion.”

Yeah, I mean, in the ideal world, that's how it would work, but it doesn't.

So yeah.

Back to our tip #1. Advocate for yourself.

Advocate for yourself.

Kent

Maybe that's all three tips.

Caanan

OK, so you have advocated for yourself.

I don't know how many times we had to say it, so now we're assuming you've done that and you have decided to ask for a promotion. Which is great. Good job!

Now you have to be one of those people who can actually answer the question “Why you and why now?” And that question will come up. So our second tip is to come prepared to answer that question. And how are you prepared to answer that question? You track everything.

Kent

This is another interesting thing too, because when it comes to consulting with work groups or doing coaching sessions with individuals, when you're kind of laying everything out you realize everything gets gray for people.

You've done a lot. You've achieved a lot. You've moved up. But we're not used to tracking this stuff, and we're certainly not used to driving the tracking of it. And what I mean is a lot of people wait for their performance evaluation to happen to them rather than actively being a proactive part of that. And something we you know mentioned constantly is that you should always be keeping a “win file.”

Now you want to keep every email of thanks of congratulations. You want to talk about your achievements and your wins and your impact. And if you can quantify it, all the better. So you want this win file to be something that feeds right into those one-on-ones… right into those performance reviews.

And honestly, serves as sort of a centerpiece of answering that question Caanan just posed, “why you and why now.”

“Well, here, let me show you. I've tracked everything.”

And when you couple that with #1: being your own advocate, being sure that you're having the one on ones, then this is coming up an appropriate amount of time within your one-on-ones. This is coming up at your quarterly or semiannual or annual performance review. That's a pretty powerful combo. Being your advocate in that way and then stepping into that fully prepared and meaningfully by tracking everything.

Caanan

It's such great advice, because if you're a doer – and you're a doer – it's hard to stop and track, so you've got to habituate this. The win file is a wonderful idea.

Track everything.

Have the receipts ready.

When you go to ask for that promotion, you'll be able to wow them. They will not be able to deny you a promotion if you're sucker punching them with achievement after achievement, impact after impact.

It's too much to ignore.

Kent

Except you may not want to say that you have receipts, or your leader will think that you’re a Gen-Z Tik Tokker.

Nothing against Gen-Z Tik Tokker.

Caanan

Like I said at the opening of this podcast, a lot of people want to move up. They want to move from individual contributor roles into management roles, yeah?

But you know what?

A lot of people don't actually know that that's what they want. They just want to move up, and that's the course that's being laid out for them.

Kent

It's the culture of the company.

They've said that over and over to recruit you in. “We move people up from within.” “We're hiring this many people,” so it's like you get on this moving escalator and you've decided you're on it, even if you're not sure you're on the right moving escalator.

Or if you want to be on an escalator at all.

Caanan

You're on an escalator that may not actually, like, automatically get you to promotion, but you're only escalator nonetheless.

So it's important to take a beat when you're thinking “I want to move up.” And this is our third tip. Understand what you're getting into.

And a lot of people don't understand what they're getting into, and I'd say even more people delude themselves.

So, in the work groups and companies we work with and the individuals we work with, lots of people, – especially after something like, you know, the Great Recession of a decade ago, or the current pandemic that we're coming out of – many people are ready for a big career switch.

We're going to get into that in another podcast.

And they translate that into unrealistic expectations. So as common is that in many cases people don't know what they're getting into 'cause they just buy into a culture at a company, but a lot of people are willing to start over… Say, take a lesser position in order to get a foot in the door at the company.

So then people again in these work groups we work with have this expectation that their next goal is to move three rungs up or something – Maybe not quite as often – but something that comes up from time to time, people wanting to move up the ladder, but to things that are not only going to require being your own advocate and tracking everything (as we said in tips one and two), but a promotion such that you're going to need developmental courses. You're going to need potential higher education. Maybe a graduate degree as opposed to the Bachelor’s degree you have. And so often people haven't really viewed that realistically.

Basically, and the fact that that takes time. So they come in with his eagerness. From day two… “Let's work on how I get promoted” and they're not prepared to do that period. They don't have a realistic expectation, which makes this third tip so important.

Understanding what you're getting into.

Caanan

Yeah, and this is critical because you do not want to get in a situation where you actually get the promotion you've been advocating for and then you're set up to fail because it is not, in fact, the right fit for you. It's not, in fact, what you want to be doing.

It doesn't fulfill you. It doesn't light you up. And that can be incredibly detrimental to a career.

Kent

Yeah. I think the thing that most commonly comes up… People just feel like they need to be in leadership positions. And we've all been on the receiving end of those mistakes. Like people just blindly think “there's no up chain to a bigger role as an individual contributor, so I'm going to be a leader” and you're not set up to be a leader. It's not in your DNA. Then, so often, these people become leaders – and we've all had these managers who were good at the job, but they're terrible leaders, – which is a sign you don't want to be working for a company that puts too many of those people in leadership roles. Yeah? But take the advice yourself that you wish you could give these managers you've had in the past. First, if you're not wired to lead people, then you've got to get honest with yourself in these early stages and say “Okay, what is something I can do to put my natural strengths and talents to work in a way that will have a greater impact on the organization I work with and that will make me feel like I'm developing professionally.”

Caanan

Excellent advice, excellent.

Caanan

So that's it. You've decided you want to climb the ladder. Well, here are the three tips.

Be your own advocate.

Track everything. I'm going to say that again, track everything. Even if you're not going for a promotion.

And understand what you're getting into.