The mistake that many newbies on the ‘conscientious personal finance train’ (aka the Post Money Plan) make is to focus more on spending than on income. While spending is something that is easier to change and is one side of the personal finance equation, income is much more important. You can only cut your spending to 0, whereas you can potentially increase your income an infinite amount. Think about that for a minute…
With that in mind, let’s consider one of the most practical ways the average person can increase their income: through a promotion at work. Getting a promotion feels like you’re making progress, like you’re being given respect, but often most notably like you can now earn more money. Getting a promotion that includes a 5-15% salary increase earlier on in your career can have a large compounding effect over the course of your whole career.
Before you get caught up in the corporate ladder carrot-on-a-stick mentality, take a minute to think about why you want a promotion. If your potential promotion doesn’t translate to what you are actually seeking, consider devoting effort in a different direction. Be more focused on long term goals than a singular promotion.
Reasons why you might want a promotion:
• More money
• More challenge
• More opportunity
• More development
• More learning
• More responsibility
• More power
• More respect
Having considered why you want a promotion, now consider why you would deserve a promotion.
Reasons why you might get a promotion:
• Your superiors like you
• Your employer finds that you add value
• Your employer finds that you do a better job than your peers
• Your employer finds you hard to replace
• Your employer is afraid to lose you
• Your employer finds you professional, dependable, trustworthy, and hardworking
• Your employer deems that you have leadership/management potential
Be an employee that fits these categories. Acknowledgement, appreciation, and respect will almost always come slower and later than you think it should, but have patience and keep your eyes open for income increasing opportunities.
This Entrepreneurial Cogitation provides some tips on putting yourself in the position to get promoted at work.
Tip 1 – Work for a healthy or growing company: A company that is shrinking and having financial problems is more likely to lay you off than promote you. This is definitely an underappreciated tip. Have you heard the stories about secretaries at Microsoft, Dell, etc. in the late ‘90’s that were awarded stock options that came to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars? While there is a lot of randomness in the way things work out, its more than worth it to be scrupulous in choosing an employer. If you’re working for a sinking ship, consider looking elsewhere. Besides, due to corporate bureaucracy these days it’s much easier to get a “promotion” by switching companies than it is to get an internal promotion.
Tip 2 – Put yourself in a position of potential: This goes as a follow on to working for the right company. By working in certain fields, business areas, or positions you will greatly increase your chances of upward mobility over other areas. By taking a position in a very flat organization or field, you may not be given the chance to increase your responsibilities, learning, or earning power. Unfortunately, employees in certain roles are typecast by their employer – the janitor will not be given the opportunity to become the CEO, no matter how hard he works.
Tip 3 – Take control of and responsibility for your own career path: Companies will likely not take care of you in the same way that they used to several decades ago. Duration of employment does not necessarily translate to automatic promotions, nor should it. If you don’t speak up or take action, you could easily get put in a corporate ‘closet’ gathering dust.
Tip 4 – Develop a reputation: Make that a good reputation. If you already have a bad reputation at your company, you might need to go ahead and make a switch. You have the best chance of making an impression when you first meet people, so start things off on the right foot. Be known as the person who is dependable, competent, hardworking, efficient, trustworthy, and personable. Be those things. Your reputation precedes you.
Tip 5 – Develop mentor/mentee relationships: A good relationship with someone who is more experienced than you and/or holds more authority than you is highly valuable. Not only will you get the chance to leverage their experience and knowledge, but they will become your “inside man”, advocating for you among your superiors. Pay it forward and become a mentor to someone less experienced than you.
Tip 6 – Network and communicate with colleagues outside your direct area: By fostering many relationships, you’re casting a bigger net and creating a more intricate web throughout the company. Learning about what others do will help you better understand how all the pieces of the corporate puzzle fit together. Attend corporate functions, company outings, and social events. The more you connect with colleagues outside of the regular work environment, the more they will relate to you as a full human being and hopefully even as a friend. People are naturally more inclined to help friends than enemies. You’d be surprised how many promotions come out of networking. Besides, its enjoyable to get along with the people you’re stuck with all day.
Tip 7 – Solve problems, don’t create them: Every company has plenty of people who are willing to complain, but most companies can’t find enough people who simply provide solutions. Always look for ways to eliminate problems that are within your area of responsibility and sometimes even tangential to your responsibility. At times it may be appropriate to wait to inform your boss until after you have found a way to fix an issue. By making your superiors’ lives easier, people will eventually notice that you solve problems instead of creating them.
Tip 8 – Simply add value: This is really basic and should go without saying, but seems to often get lost in the fray. Be conscious of how you are contributing to the company, your superiors, and your peers and seek to maximize your value add. Helping the company better serve customers and make more money makes you valuable. Be irreplaceable because you’re willing to take on projects that others aren’t and do them really well. Working hard and working efficiently combined together go a long way. Prioritize and plan your tasks; this is a guaranteed strategy for increasing the value of your work.
Tip 9 – Be accountable and admit when you’re wrong: Most people shirk accountability and pass off blame like a hot potato. If you’re willing to ask questions when you don’t know something, admit when you’re wrong, demonstrate that you learn from your mistakes, and don’t repeat them – people will find it easier to trust you with responsibility and respect you for your honesty.
Tip 10 – Make your desire for a promotion known: In the end, you have to put yourself forward. Otherwise, you’re banking on falling into that promotion by accident. Have confidence (not arrogance) and communicate clearly to those who have the power to promote you that you desire to expand your responsibilities and take on progressive leadership, challenge yourself further, and develop and learn more. They want to know that you want it. Try to get put on important tasks or projects to demonstrate that you can be relied upon to deliver results. When it comes to a performance review, be prepared ahead of time. Describe and quantify how you add value and where you stand to improve.
Appendix
Things not to do:
Don’t be a known politician: If everything you do is tied to a scheming self-centered agenda, people aren’t going to like or trust you. Machiavellianism is anti-social and destructive to society.
Don’t be a drama queen: If every little issue turns into a big thing with you, you probably drain the energy out of the people around you. Further, if you gossip and plot behind people’s backs they’ll know they can’t trust you.
Don’t exude entitlement: Arrogance and entitlement are an ugly couple, stay away from both. People (especially superiors) really don’t appreciate when you act like you deserve something they don’t think you do.
Don’t be unprofessional: This is rather broad, but don’t destroy the reasons people would have for respecting you. Don’t dress like a slob, carry yourself in an uncomposed manner, treat others with disrespect, or be unreliable.
Don’t be the quiet mouse in the corner: If you never speak up, you’ll likely never get noticed.