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7 Tips To Earn A Promotion

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Promotions can be hard to achieve. While we would all like to be promoted, it can seem hard when you have worked at a firm for a long time and the prospect of promotion has never quite materialized. Or when people around you are getting promotions and you are alone in not getting one. If this is the situation you find yourself in, you have to channel your frustration into getting a promotion. It is possible, provided you think carefully about it.

Here are 7 tips to help you get a promotion:

1. Be friendly with the boss

It may sound cynical, but at times there is nothing more you can do than get really friendly with your boss. It may seem like a trite tip, but it is a worthy one. If you are on good terms with your boss, he/she is much more likely to consider you for promotion and you likely will be first to know when promotions arise.

2. Put the hours in

Someone who is well known for being hard-working is much more likely to receive a promotion than someone who just doesn’t put a lot of effort into their job. Make sure that people KNOW you are working hard, so you receive recognition for it.

3. Be friendly with everyone

Don’t jump on people’s backs in an effort to get a promotion as this could come to haunt you down the line. The thing to do is to get along well with everyone, so people will not resent you when you do get promoted. This is a philosophy that I have always subscribed to and it always served me well. When I worked at a school — which can be a hard place to work — I learned that if I was nice to people, eventually they would be nice back. This served me well, and I was subsequently promoted from an assistant to a proper teacher.

4. Be determined

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe then you will be successful”
— Eric Thomas.

The above quote is very apt. It shows that those who are really determined to meet their goals will do so eventually. If you want a promotion, work hard for it and it will definitely come one day.

5. Don’t give up

“Never give up on anything that you cannot go a day without thinking about”
— Winston Churchill.

We all experience failure in life, but the important thing is to rise from it, for failure often drives us on to better things. If you do not get one promotion, it may mean that you are in line for a better one.

6. Be innovative in your job

Bosses like a lot of initiative, so try and look beyond your job requirements and think about how to contribute to the company outside of what you are paid to do. You would be surprised at how far a little effort goes in the long run.

7. Be patient

As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so if you consistently work toward getting a promotion, it is likely that it will happen in the end. You just need to have some patience, which is again something easier said than done, but being patient will allow you to feel better in the end about yourself. Often in life the hard things are worth waiting for, and a promotion is definitely one of those things.

About Mary Isabale

Mary Isabale is a career expert and experienced hiring manager. She’s written more than 100 articles on career advancement and unemployment issues.
photo credit: juhansonin via photopin cc

Are You Hanging Onto The Ladder Of Comfort Or Climbing The Ladder Of Success?

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“The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.”  Thomas Henry Huxley

Life doesn’t always turn out the way you expect.

After my brother, Scott, graduated from college with an accounting degree, he opened an eyeglass store with a partner. They employed a full-time ophthalmologist, and business was booming. A few years into it, Scott became intrigued with the idea of becoming an eye doctor himself, so he went back to college to pursue a degree in medicine.

He applied to several ophthalmology programs, but he could not get accepted — no matter how hard he tried. Yet he didn’t give up. He studied hard, retook the exam and tried again. No dice. Finally it dawned on him that he may be pursuing the wrong path, so he explored other areas of medicine.

Shadowing a friend who was a podiatrist, Scott found that he loved the field of podiatry. He pursued it, effortlessly got into a program, graduated, and after years of hard work is now a partner in a successful surgical practice. He developed two implants that were approved by the FDA, and the company and his practice are growing like wildfire.

My brother could have gotten comfortable with his original plan and led a pretty good life. The eyeglass store was doing well — why should he do anything else? He couldn’t get into ophthalmology school — so why not give up on medicine altogether? He still had his accounting degree to fall back on. Each time he “failed,” he made the decision to climb the next rung on the ladder, challenging himself every step of the way. This has made all the difference.

In today’s economic environment, many people are holding onto their rung for dear life. Even though they don’t have the career they dreamed about — they may not even LIKE their current job — fear and inaction keep them stuck. Over time, one of three events is likely to occur:

  • One — they remain paralyzed, clinging to their rung until the end of their career.  They then pay the price of regret for never reaching their full potential.
  • Two — the rung breaks, sending them crashing down with no choice but to choose a similar path or try something different. Some will take the opportunity; others will opt for more of the same.
  • Three — the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the fear of change. The choice is made, and one hand reaches for the next rung on the ladder, and the next, until they have reached the pinnacle of their personal and professional pursuits.

If you feel like you’re stuck in your current position, now is the time to begin to take action to become the person who gets promoted. In his article “Get Noticed!,” Alan Hall shares four steps to climb the corporate ladder. These actions include: be innovative; make recommendations; raise your hand; and support and mentor your fellow peers. Recognition and achievement comes to those who are willing to do what it takes to be successful.

Is it time for you to climb to take it to the next level in your career? Think about one thing you can do today to move yourself to the next rung. Our journey on the ladder of life will never end. It’s the climbing that is the fun part. Enjoy the ride.

P.S.: Sometimes our hand slips and we fall down a few rungs, it’s all good. It makes us that much stronger when we continue to climb and see what lies ahead.

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As Founder of Grategy, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to create stronger employee and customer engagement, retention and satisfaction. Her proven gratitude strategies (Grategies) lead to increased productivity, passion and profits. She is the author of seven books, and co-stars in two documentaries: the award-winning “The Keeper of the Keys” and “The Gratitude Experiment.” To learn more, visit www.grategy.com.

photo credit: Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho via photopin cc