How To Get Promoted Sooner

It’s a tough competition for roles at the top. In nearly 30 years of coaching and consulting with the c-level and those who want to get there, I’ve seen more than a few interesting tactics for climbing the corporate ladder. Some work. Some make people angry and destroy trust. And some have an element of both. But what do you do in the face of ruthless competition? We’ve all met the narcissists in the board room. Their off-putting tactics have a way of helping them get ahead, but what do you do when those tactics aren’t you? And worse, what do you do when they are the competition who can sideline you from getting promoted? 

You certainly don’t play their game. But how do you win?

Demonstrate Adaptive Leadership

There is good news! In the past several years, the pace of change has sped up exponentially. This means that both problems and opportunities in organizations are increasingly complex and require a different kind of leadership to make progress or solve. Because in most cases, these challenges (adaptive in nature) are bigger than the leader alone. Egotistical leaders thrive in environments where the leader has all the answers and can dole out the tasks that need to be done, but today, that is less effective. Collaboration is critical to mobilizing people in the face of complex adaptive challenges and that is where ego and narcissism fall down. So, if you want to win and get promoted, you must drive the kind of collaboration where ideas come from anywhere while also demonstrating visible leadership.

Invest In Your Development

It’s a bit counterintuitive. Maybe even uncomfortable at first.

Be so committed to your development that you are vulnerable about what you don’t know and are working on to get promoted. This requires a bit of strategic thinking around your strengths and weaknesses…and which to share. But before you start sharing, you must understand a few things. When I say understand, I don’t mean half-heartedly. I mean the cold, hard, firm grasp on reality kind of understanding. This is how you begin to win. 

1. Find out how you are perceived. 

• What do the people responsible for chosing the person in your next role think you need to demonstrate to move up? 
• What must you deliver? 
• How must you be perceived and how does that need to shift from how you are perceived today? AND, who is doing the perceiving…whose vote matters? 

The only way to know is to ask. Be open to hearing the answers. Prepare to ask a lot of questions without getting defensive or engage a coach who can do this for you. Priority number one is to understand where you stand.

2. Start setting priorities for what you need to (and want to) work on. 

This requires humility, a willingness to be vulnerable, openness to others’ input, and a willingness to work on the things you need. Pick the top 3. No more, to start.

3. Prepare yourself to share what you are working on with the people who matter.

Your goal is to make the people who get a vote believe you are self-aware so you get promoted over the ones who aren’t. They need to believe you know what you need to work on, and that you will work hard to do that. Ask for their help with it. Get their advice and find out who can help. Then go talk to them. If you feel comfortable, share what you are working on. Ask for your team’s help too. Often, just by having these conversations, we can create the perception of progress. Be sure to check in periodically to get feedback on how you’re doing. Particularly when you have progress to share.

An Example

One of my clients was a VP of Merchandising for a large retailer. He was considered for a promotion, but he was not perceived as strategic enough. The competition was fierce. We did 360 feedback and he learned more about how he was perceived and what the feedback meant. The funny thing was that this guy had a great strategy. He had built a team with a lot of foresight and understood the big picture. But perceptions real and he had never shared his strategy. We helped him turn his strategy into a beautiful presentation. He set up “strategic planning meetings” with stakeholders who could influence promotion decisions. He talked about how his area impacted and integrated into the broader organization and the results he expected to drive. As a result, he received great feedback on his ability to think strategically was amazing and was promoted 3 months later.

Sharing what you are working on and asking for help are the single biggest drivers of development and will help you get promoted. I’ve seen it work over and over again.

If you want a coach to help you create a strategy to get to your next role – or get you off the sidelines, or if you’ve got a direct report with potential who seems to be stuck in the mire, call us. It’s what we do.