Career advancements usually come with a bigger compensation package, more influence, and better control over your day-to-day tasks. But is there a way to speed up the process and guarantee you’ll earn your promotion on your timeline?
If a work promotion would move your five-year plan along nicely, you’ll need to understand the steps necessary for supporting your journey. From communication to displaying a dedication to development – we’ll take you through our proven tips for progression below.
Tips for career progression
It’s one thing to feel ready for the next step, but it’s an entirely separate thing to show that you’re ready and capable of taking on a new role and different responsibilities.
If you have your mind set on achieving a promotion of any kind, the six proven tips below can help you work towards it…
- Prove you can develop
Striving for the best in any situation and consistently demonstrating improvement are guaranteed to show your dedication to career progression. So, how can you prove your development capabilities?
Developing your skills can bridge the gap between consistently performing highly and showing growth potential. Often, this will involve employees finding a balance between looking at the bigger picture and keeping one eye on the finer details.
The key to earning the promotion is to avoid becoming complacent in your role. Look to continue diversifying your skills, take learning opportunities, and ensure you always act on constructive feedback.
- Forge strong relationships
Communication, collaboration, and relationships can all take you far in the workplace.
A promotion is usually the result of discussions amongst other key figures in your organisation rather than the result of an individual decision. Therefore, you should focus some of your efforts on forging strong relationships with as many of these important figures as possible.
Not only will this ensure the right people view you in a positive light, but it’ll also ensure that your name is one of the first thrown into the ring should a suitable position open up.
Strong relationships with your managers can pave the way for a less awkward conversation should you decide to ask for your promotion rather than wait around. Having a good foundation to stand on during a conversation like this can improve your confidence and help you advocate for yourself, which in turn might improve your chances of securing the promotion.
- Practice active listening
It isn’t always beneficial to dominate every conversation you’re involved in. Instead, practising active listening can improve engagement, avoid misunderstandings, and boost productivity.
In turn, active listening can help you go above and beyond in the workplace since you’ll be paying more attention to what’s going on. Employees practising active listening can find it easier to develop an understanding of their colleagues and adjust their working style to be more helpful at the right time.
This skill can make you more promotable – especially if you’re looking to move into a managerial or supervisory position. Displaying the desirable skills necessary for the job you want is a no-brainer.
- Define and achieve your goals
Those with clearly defined goals are often more likely to achieve them. Whether you create a professional development plan including your ideal promotion and anything that might help you get there or chat with your manager about your career progression vision – you should have a good understanding of your aspirations.
This alone won’t necessarily lead to a promotion. But continuously talking about and visibly achieving the goals you set will demonstrate your dedication to personal and business growth.
While others set personal targets but fail to achieve them, employees that can communicate their goals and ensure they stick to them will stand out against others. It shows a good attitude to work and a strong determination to achieve, which are all qualities worth investing in from a business perspective.
- Pay attention to others that have been promoted
Have other people within your company been promoted recently? If so, it might be worth having a chat to find out how they did it.
Whether they were actively seeking a promotion or it came out of the blue for them, recently promoted colleagues might be able to give you some useful tips and advice to help you out. Even if they weren’t expecting it, you can still ask them what they were doing in the run-up to their promotion to get some ideas of what to do.
- Create value wherever possible
The influence you’re given is usually dependent on whether you seem like you’re adding value. A company is more likely to invest in you if you’re bringing tangible results and ROI.
Creating value for your company will look different depending on the industry you’re in and the role you’re currently fulfilling. Are you going above your targets every week if you work in sales or marketing? Did you create a new process that saves the company a significant chunk of its budget?
Think about any additional tasks you can take on that will improve your standing within the company while also proving your worth.
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