Today I'm going to share about top key lessons about promotions that I learnt over years.
If you ever ask for a promotion and the answer you get was No, then here is probably what happened:
You worked really hard, including overtime and in the weekend.
You said Yes to go beyond your scope and took more responsibilities.
You think that you delivered the work well.
Your relationship with your manager(s) and co-workers are good. You even hanged out with them after work.
You got positive feedback and performance review.
You was hoping and waiting for the right time to finally ask your manager(s) to promote you because of everything you did.
And then the answer was a No.
You were very disappointed.
You keep wondering what went wrong.
You either blame yourself or complain that life is so unfair.
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Does it sound familiar to you?
If you go through all the points I mentioned and don't know how to navigate through this situation then here are some important lessons:
Lesson 1: When it comes to promotion, communicating in advance is the key.
Do not wait until you think you're ready to start sharing about promotion.
Communicate it from the very beginning when you start a new job/a new role and even a new scope.
Share what you expect, design a development plan and align it with your company in the next 6-12 months and beyond.
Why?
This is managing expectation 101: Get aligned before deliver.
It gives you a clear roadmap of what, when and how to deliver values that you and your company BOTH want.
It provides opportunity for managers to KNOW your goals and provide the right scope to nurture and set you to succeed.
It helps your mental health.
If they say No (because of many reasons other than your performance like headcount, strategy, budget, etc), at least you know about it early.
Lesson 2: Find an executive sponsor to support your promotion.
I didn't know about the term of "Executive Sponsor" until I attended a career sharing session of a senior leader that I admire in 2017.
I discovered that being a high performer is not enough to guarantee an early promotion, especially in corporates. (Startups will be different).
You also need to know how to navigate through layers of stakeholders and being able to standout among many super talents.
According to Ruchi Sinha, PhD wrote in Harvard Business Review:
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