The Real Reason You’re Not Getting Promoted

Why is it that our education system neglects to teach us the skills needed to excel in our career? Yes, we are always taught to do a good job, but is that enough? The answer, as we all know, is no.

Doing good work and trying your best is simply the baseline expectation for being considered for a promotion, but it’s not what gets you promoted.

Most people admit to doing just enough work to avoid getting fired. How is that a way to go about your career?

75% of the workforce believes that advancing in their careers and finding meaning in their 9-to-5 is some sort of a myth. I’m here to tell you that it is not.

Before jumping into specifics, you must first believe that finding purpose in your work is not out of reach. You must believe that your work matters. You must believe that you matter. And lastly, you must believe that the ceiling is not where you think it is.

Let me first start by saying, you will never get ahead in your career, or even get promoted if all you’re banking on is doing your job well.

That’s right. Contrary to belief, if all you bring to the table is being good at your job, then at best, you might get recognized for your service. Every so often you will receive the occasional “bump” in your salary too.

I’ve been in the career coaching/staffing business for quite some time now, and here is what I see most often on resumes:

• 20 years of project management experience.
• 15 years of experience as a Senior Accountant.
• 10+ years of experience of financial analysis.

I think you get what I’m saying. Each time I read that, I always ask my clients, why have you been a Project Manager for 20 years? Why haven’t you moved into a Director, VP, or Program Manager role in that timeframe?

To the Accountant: why haven’t you moved into a controller-level role? Do you not want to be a Director of Finance?

If you love what you’re currently doing and a promotion is not a goal of yours, then that’s totally fine. There are many people who go the specialist route and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, there might even be more money in that route in the long term. But that’s a completely different story for a different post.

If you are, however, getting passed up for promotions and not moving into leadership roles, then keep reading.

Being in the industry that I am, provides me direct access to Fortune 100 — Fortune 500 executives and leaders. I also have extremely successful friends. From people who’ve built multi-million dollar companies, to corporate big whigs, and thought leaders.

I know the exact qualities, and traits they look for — not only when they are hiring someone, but more importantly, when they want to promote them.

And what’s the last thing they look for? You guessed it, the last thing that they look for is someone who has merely done their job well. Let me reiterate, that’s just the minimum standard to even be considered for advancement.

From working with my clients, and talking to my super-friends, I’ve compiled a list of the most important traits that people who get promoted possess:

They don’t rely on good work alone. Their behavior, and the way that they treat people is what others remember most about them rather than just their professional output.

They are extremely self-aware. They welcome constructive criticism about their weaknesses (both personal and professional weaknesses), and then work diligently to improve upon them.

This can be done in many ways — reading self improvement books, working with a coach, attending conferences, finding a mentor, etc.

The point is, they hate to be stagnant. They believe that growing is living, so they work extremely hard to improve who they are every single day.

They have a strategic vision that is bigger than themselves. If you only care about yourself, your work, being solely recognized, and your own salary, than you’re digging yourself into a bigger hole than you might realize.

If you don’t align your work with your company’s vision and mission strategy, you’re not going to get ahead.

Extremely successful people will tell you that they believe in something that is much bigger than themselves. Their turning points (including my own) came when they set out to help others achieve what they wanted and put their wants on the back-burner.

They aligned their actions with their company’s values and vision. They thought about their role and how it could help the entire company further its cause. It wasn’t just about them.

They had an owner mindset. This is perhaps the most important trait of them all. Having this mindset says a lot about you as a person, and it shows how much you actually care about the company.

When you see yourself as an employee — someone who works for ‘just’ another company — your employer will view you that way as well. Your employer will notice that you’re only working for a paycheck, that you’re clocking in at 8, taking a full one hour lunch break at 12, and then clocking out at 5.

Don’t get me wrong. You will still get noticed from time-to-time if you do good work. You’ll possibly even get rewarded for it too, but you won’t make it to that next-level of success you’re hoping for.

When you think like a company owner, you become one with the company. You put the company’s best interest at heart. You act and talk differently. This is when your employer will notice you and put you in a better position to succeed.

Think of it as a relationship. The more you do for someone else, the more appreciation you will receive. It’s the same exact concept with a company. You get out what you put in.

They make everyone else’s life around them much easier. One of the key take-away’s from this point is this: if you can make your bosses life easier, and even their bosses life easier, you’ll automatically be viewed much more favorably then anyone else.

There are several ways you can accomplish this.

• Do not give your boss any real reason to talk to you, at least about your performance. Unless you need coaching, or guidance on something, become invisible to them (again, as it relates to talking about performance). The secret is, leaders want to know that they can trust that you’re always doing what’s best for the company, and doing it well.
• Become proactive. One suggestion that always works is to ask your boss to teach you to do one of their tedious administrative tasks, something they find redundant and time consuming. Once you’ve learned it, then take it off of their plate. By saving them time, you’re now viewed as an asset and someone who is willing to go above and beyond their responsibilities. It also gives you good visibility into a leadership task.
• Become really good at what you do, and start teaching it to your counterparts and peers. Mentoring others, without expecting anything in return, is yet another sign that you care about other people’s best interests, including the company’s.

They speak up for their work, but they don’t brag. — This one might sound confusing at first, but it’s really simple.

Your work, and your work alone will never speak for you. It will ONLY get you so far. You need to be the one that speaks up for your work, and not only that, you need to speak up for how much value it brings to the company.

If you can articulate how your work aligns and even furthers the company’s mission, it’ll speak volumes for your career advancement. By doing this effectively, you’ll always stay relevant in management’s eyes.

The best way to do this is to schedule a weekly or bi-weekly 1:1 with your manager to go over your progress and your accomplishments. Take this time to talk about how your work is helping the company, the team, and the bottom line.

Again nobody likes a bragger, so make sure you speak to your accomplishments with a sense of humility.

They’ve had excellent relationships with their higher ups. 95% of the time, the one and only gatekeeper you have to helping you move ahead in your company is your boss. Everything will live and die by them.

If you’re one of those people who do not like their bosses, my only advice is to learn some conflict resolution tactics fast, then apply them to your relationship. You have to get this person on your side, and then keep them there at all times.

Each week when you do a weekly analysis of your work, ask yourself: “What can I do to better my relationship with my boss? Have I done all that I can to help make their lives easier?”

Successful people have mentors, or coaches who do not work for their company. A mentor or a coach that works outside of your company can give you objective feedback on your short-comings and areas of improvements.

The right mentor or coach will already have been down the road that you’re on right now.

Mentors and coaches are not meant to validate your self-perceptions. They are there to be completely honest with you, and relay what they’ve observed about you in a constructive and actionable manner.

They are also there to help you to navigate through your career. They will give you clarity on where you are, help you to figure out where you want to go, and work with you to strategize how to get there.

The best part is, they are your safe-zone. Sometimes, no matter how close you are to a colleague, there are just certain things you should not feel comfortable telling them about yourself, or about work. You don’t have to worry about that with your coach.

They view every challenge as an opportunity. This one is about attitude. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that leaders and uber-successful people have an extremely positive outlook on life. No, I’m not talking about delusional-optimism.

They view bad days as good days and great days as good days too. If something didn’t go the way they anticipated, or if they hit a roadblock, they will take as an opportunity to learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

They don’t waste time complaining. If anything, they give themselves a very short amount of time (usually a few minutes) to vent and complain, and then they are right back to work figuring out a solution to their problem.

They don’t view things as happening to them, rather they view things as happening for them. They don’t fail, they learn.

They also do not waste time gossiping. They are busy worrying about how they can better themselves for the sake of the company. They always think about what more can be done. They celebrate other’s successes.

They are life-long learners. Most importantly, they are humble, and they don’t walk around with a sense of entitlement.

This trait is equally as important as the rest, if not one of the most important. Attitude is everything. You can read more about it here, The 5 Attitudes of Career Success.

Conclusion:

So there you have it. You’re little cheat sheet into the mindset you should have if you want to move ahead in your career.

Please share your thoughts about this article by commenting below. Especially leave a comment if you feel I’ve missed something.

If you’d like to learn more about how to gain clarity on your career aspirations, and build powerful strategies to find meaningful work, then drop me a line at Gaurav Valani.

Lastly, if you’ve felt that this article valuable, I kindly ask that you help me in spreading the word by liking it and sharing it with your network.

Gaurav Valani is the Founder, and CEO of CareerSprout. His passion is to help millennials and young professionals find meaningful work and to build a purpose-driven career.

To learn more, follow him on Twitter @gauravvalani, or on Snapchat, @gauravvalani. You can learn more about CareerSprout here.