Many seemingly qualified people today are being overlooked for promotions.
If you are one of them, you are probably asking yourself, “why?”
Sally failed in her presentation at a board meeting with insurance executives. She was unable to answer their questions in a tactful manner. Then, making matters worse, she justified her poor performance. She ignored the coaching offered by her boss because she believed her skills were fine. As a result, she was sidelined and when her boss retired, the board gave his job to someone else.
Often, we have an opinion of who we are and what it takes to get the promotion. Often, we are wrong and don’t understand why. The truth is, we have blind spots that get in our way. To be promotable, we need to be coachable.
Joe is a team manager in an engineering firm and hates his boss, Scott, the director. Joe justifies his feelings by sharing examples of when Scott swooped in and took over a couple of projects. As a result, Joe’s team needed to correct Scott’s errors. To make matters even worse, Scott decreased bonuses citing budget issues. Prior to working with a coach, Joe didn’t see his complaints about or conflicts with Scott as a problem. After all, all his co-workers hated Scott too. When the coach said Joe needed to resolve the controversy, Joe got upset. He retorted, “But you don’t understand…no one likes him!” The coach reminded Joe of his goal to be promoted. “To be promotable, you need to build positive working relationships with everyone.” Joe took the coaching and it worked! All of a sudden, Scott became easier to work with. After his co-workers began asking him for advice on how to work with Scott, Joe received an unexpected call from the company president. “I hear you’re doing great work. I want to promote you to an executive position when you’re ready.” Joe had done the work required to become promotable.
What do you need to do to be ready for the next promotion? The short answer is, hire the right coach to champion you to develop the right skills with the right attitude.
Focus on These 11 Key Skills
- Listening. Stop mind-reading. Don’t start conversations with, “I know how you feel or how you think about …. This limits hearing new ideas that provide solutions.
- Curiosity. High-performance individuals are curious and promotable. They deep dive into learning about their profession, company, and/or products. They develop advanced solid hands-on experience and don’t settle for mediocrity.
- Job Fit. The #1 reason promoted people succeed is they fit the job! Before you leap to find the right job, hire a coach to develop clarity and avoid the costly trial and error approach. For fastest results, also use qualified 360-degree feedback and qualified job fit assessments.
- Emotional Intelligence. Are you aware of how your words and actions impact others? Mindfulness makes a significant difference in your ability to lead others and have them want to follow you.
- Attitude. If you are a know-it-all, you miss out on solutions that save time and money. Appreciate each and every team member and give them credit for new ideas and solutions.
- Integrity. When you fail to fulfill promises, stay in communication, and return phone calls/emails, you are labeled a difficult person to work with. Integrity is key…do what others expect of you and do it well. It makes you promotable.
- Focus and Resourcefulness. If you are easily distracted by the bright shiny object syndrome, you lack focus. This also happens when you get stuck and lack the initiative to find the resources required to get the job done well. Promotable people blast through perceived challenges.
- Resilience. Do you allow team dynamics of conflicts, complaints, and criticisms to get in the way? Promotable people must be unstoppable when working with and through others to achieve intended results!
- Positive Interactions. Do you believe you are fearless when you dominate and steamroll over others to get your own way? This approach rarely works in building teams or creating win-win-win outcomes, which are keys for promotability.
- Self-Promotion. Being a braggart is not the type of self-promotion that wins you promotions. Learn how to brag in a biz savvy manner to get the promotion you want.
- Compassion. Set aside being highly-critical and have empathy. All people have challenges, including you. Learn to ask, “How can I be of help?” Then, follow-through.
Being aware and developing the above listed 11 key skills and examples will start you on the road to be promotion ready.
©Jeannette Seibly, 2019
For the past 26 years, Jeannette Seibly has been a champion for people achieving results. She has helped 100s of bosses create more fun, 6-figure incomes, and success when working through confusing situations. To get promotion-ready, contact Jeannette for straight talk with dynamic results.
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