Everyone wants to get promoted. There are so many perks to being promoted, with the most prominent ones being a higher salary and some benefits that come with the new position. Although hard work is one way to get there, there are so many other things that can make you a good candidate for a promotion. Read on as we discuss how you can get the promotion you have always wanted.
Make Yourself Known
Your boss will not promote you if they do not know about you and why you would be the best fit for the position. The first step in getting yourself known is to identify who makes promotion decisions in the company. Next, identify who they are closest with. These are the people who are likely to give you an insight into how the promoting party makes their decisions. When you have this information, you will be in a better position to make yourself the best candidate for the job.
Once you identify who makes these decisions and how they make them, it is time to get in touch with them. This can either be through physical contact or letting your job do the talking for you. If you do an excellent job, that would be a good way to get on their radar and they are likely to get in touch with you themselves which is a better prospect than you getting in touch first.
When you make contact, don’t be too pushy or show them you are desperate for the position. Doing either of these things might damage your chances of getting that promotion.
Help Your Boss and the Business Succeed
Your boss is the one likely to decide whether you are promoted or not. If they are not, they are likely to be contacted during that process. Impressing them should, therefore, be on top of your list.
Start by learning the company’s goals and objectives. Once you find out what is important to the business and what they would like to achieve, focus on making that happen. If your work helps your boss or business succeed, your boss is likely to notice you and this will increase your chances of getting that promotion.
Keep Learning and Upgrade Yourself
Businesses want proactive people. Many bosses want to know that you are open to improving yourself, developing your skills or refining them. To do this, you can start by finding some learning opportunities. Some of these opportunities include taking webinars, attending conferences or asking to be attached to projects outside your department.
If the position you are focused on calls for a postgraduate degree, getting one is a good way to show that you are proactive and you are willing to keep learning. There are lots of postgraduate universities where you can get a master’s or even a PhD degree. You can find a list of top postgraduate universities at University Compare. Here, you can compare the different universities, their degrees and programmes to see which one would be the best fit for you.
Make Yourself Indispensable
When you make yourself indispensable, your chances of getting promoted increase. The way to do this is to make yourself an authority on something specific in the business or your department. When you do this, your fellow employees will start seeking you out and when they do, management will take notice because you will stand out.
Do the Job
Sometimes, the best way to get noticed is to do the job that falls under the purview of the position you want. If management sees that you can already handle tasks that are supposed to be handled by someone in the higher position, they will consider you for the position because they know you can handle it.
Remember not to lean too much into these new responsibilities because this might be seen as insubordination or trying to make personal decisions on behalf of the management. Many bosses do not like this.
Build a Living, Working Portfolio
Once management takes note of you, they will ask you what value you bring to the business. You do not want to start thinking on your feet about all the times you helped the business succeed. To make things easy on yourself, document every success you have at the job.
Compile your list of successes after the completion of a project or when you hit a milestone. Keep things simple and document just the important points. That way, you can quickly show what you bring to the table without the hiring party having to go through pages of details.
Work on Your Leadership Skills
Higher positions call for leadership skills and qualities; decisiveness, trustworthiness, confidence, critical thinking, and more. When you have these skills and qualities and act like a leader, management is likely to notice.
Also, try to be a role model for fellow employees because businesses look for people who are role models and who inspire others for higher positions.
Try not to get into bad habits like missing deadlines or being late.
Look Outside Your Current Employment
Sometimes, you can do everything you need to in order to make yourself the best candidate for promotion and still not get it. If this happens, it would be a good idea to start thinking outside your current employment. There may be a business in your horizon that is looking for someone to fill the position you want to be promoted to.
To make this easier, always know what is happening in your industry or niche. That way, you will know what positions open up and when they do, you will be in a position to reach out and try to be hired for that position.
Getting promoted is something every employee aims for. That said, if you do not put yourself in a position to be noticed or present yourself as the best candidate for that promotion, management is likely to pass you over. Therefore, find ways to stand out, lead and show that you can handle bigger responsibilities.