Undertrained? How to Take Charge of Your Professional Growth
November 14, 2024
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As the year is gaining speed, you might want to match it to your career. A job promotion is one of the many milestones that workers aim for in a year. But what does it mean to get an employee promotion, and is it the same thing as advancement? Sometimes you’re not really ready for a higher position, but that doesn’t mean that you should stay where you are.
Read this mini article about how and when you can climb the corporate ladder, and how to advance in your career to get ready for a promotion, according to leading publications.
In an article written by the Indeed Editorial Team, they argue that you should learn to see the difference between promotions and advancement to make the right moves for your career.
The first thing you should ask yourself is what is a promotion? A promotion is when an employer moves an employee up the corporate ladder. An employee’s promotion usually means they will have more responsibility and authority in the company, which will help them keep moving up in the organization.
“When you show initiative to take on more responsibilities and accept challenges, you show your employer that you are committed to advancing in your career.”
Now, a promotion is not the only path forward for your career. You can advance without needing to move up on the rung. There are some ways in which a promotion and career advancement might look similar but differ in reality. These are upward mobility, compensation, performance, and development.
When you aim for a promotion, you want a completely different job title, with different responsibilities and at a higher level. All this might sound good, but maybe you aren’t interested or ready for a completely new position—you cannot go from a JR role to a SR without learning. This is where mobility comes in: you train, learn, and hone your skills before taking a leap and applying for a promotion.
Another thing to keep in mind is compensation. You’ll get a pay rise if you move to a higher level in your profession, but you may want to do a lateral move into another position. This advancement may or may not have a pay rise, but the future position you can aim toward has a better financial prospect. This brings up the development of your career. A promotion means you have the skills and knowledge, but advancement is what you do to get the skills and knowledge.
Now, Kathleen Davis at Fast Company’s mini advice column answers some of the most pressing questions they get regarding career paths, and obviously, employee promotions are one of them. The first thing Davis says is to remember that sometimes a job promotion has nothing to do with your actual work performance—you might be denied for variables such as timing and budget.
Still, she recommends a four-step strategy to work on to get that promotion. This is a strategy that requires commitment and attention to timing, as there is no reason to work yourself to the bone if there isn’t really a promotion in sight.
The first step is to work above your job description. If you want to go up the ladder, you must demonstrate that you can handle your desired role. The next thing is learning to shine, as people need to notice you and keep you in mind for a promotion.
“It’s not enough to keep your head down and do good work and hope you’ll get noticed; you need to make sure you are attached to visible success.”
The third thing is making a clear and compelling case. People might know you’re good at your job, but do they know that you want to move up on the company ladder? Why do you want to move up? You need to be noticed to be heard, but you need to know what to say once you’re up on the mic. Focus on the work you do and how a title change will only reflect it, and how you can help the company advance on its goals from a better position.
The last step is to get the timing right. As she mentioned at the beginning, sometimes the time is just not right, so to avoid being unceremoniously shot down, keep an eye out for when promotions usually happen or personal and company-wide wins.
In an article penned by Amii Barnard-Bahn for Harvard Business Review’s Ascend, she wrote about her experience as a Fortune Global 50 executive regarding employee promotions. She stresses that a promotion is not just about doing your job well enough but about how you relate and work with different people. In her experience, she mentions that being told you aren’t ready for a promotion usually means that you’ve spent too much time working on your skills and neglected your relationships.
She advises workers to strengthen their relationships by following five actions. The first thing should be knowing what sets you apart from your teammates and how to use it to work with others.
“To identify what sets you apart, ask yourself: What you are known for? What types of problems do people frequently come to you to help solve?”
The second thing is to change your mindset from “me” to “we.” One way to shift your perspective is to accept feedback to avoid blind spots and act more readily with self-awareness. Another way, and the third point, is to jump at any chance to develop your leadership skills, even when you’re not a leader in title. These chances can present themselves as volunteering or mentoring, as you might be able to offer a different point of view and expand your connections with someone else. Through mentoring, you can not only help someone else grow, but you can stretch your muscles and see what works particularly well for your leadership style.
A leader must know how to work and balance different personalities. Barnard-Bahn argues that leadership won’t put you in a higher position if you can’t actually manage people, so you need to learn which personalities are easy for you to manage and which challenge you the most to strike the delicate balance of leading them effectively.
Lastly, you need to set boundaries with work. Overworking yourself is not a good path to a promotion, as saying yes to everything will only take you to burnout. Instead, learn to think strategically about what to agree with and what to say no, as the “extra” time might be the time you get to make your moves for a higher spot.
Career advancement doesn’t always mean a job promotion, but you need to constantly improve yourself and your hard and soft skills to reap the reward. Change your mindset when looking for a promotion. Instead, look for advancement, for the little things that you can improve in your everyday life, and then, when you identify that you’re ready or you hear good stuff about your work, go full throttle on that promotion.
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