Secret to Getting Promoted

How to Get Promoted
 
In uncertain times, employers generally slow down the promotion opportunities and stymie advancement because they cannot afford to promote, back-fill positions, or pay out older Partners and C-Suite people, in times of recession. 

Take the average age of partners in the Big 4 Professional Service firms.  They used to promote people to partner at an average age of 34 before the financial recession of 2007-8.  Now this has moved on a couple of years to 36.  Who knows where this will be after this recession? In the 1990’s average age was 29!  And in the good years Partners would voluntarily retire from the firm at 58 to move on to other prestigious board and advisory roles.  This is becoming rarer, as older Partners stay in place for longer for financial reasons, due to taking a hit on their pension during the last recession, and current Covid-19 one, and the dreaded equity calls/draw reductions.

This is just a snapshot from one industry, but it reflects a lot of industries.  It has become harder to get promoted because the opportunities simply aren't there unless you have the right skills in place to help your company succeed.


What does it take to get Promoted?

Apart from having your relatives run the company, it all comes down to results.

You have to have the right experiences to talk about at interview that will make the interviewers feel comfortable with promoting you, if you don't, you will likely fail to get promoted.

The most sought after skills (among others) are:

• Leadership
• Team Management/Work Management/client management
• Strategy
• Communication
• Self-Awareness
• Autonomy
• Time Management
• Delegation

If you do not have good answers to these competency skills for the interviewers to be impressed by, you will have to get the experience before the interview occurs. This takes strategic pre-planning, sometimes a year or so out from the promotional interviews.  If you are ambitious you will need to plan carefully and ensure you get the right experience to make the impact at the interview.

It does not matter how long you have been doing your current role for, you will still need to get some experience for these skills.  Interviewers do not have crystal balls.  They won’t be assured by you saying you are ready for the promotion. They need you to have what it takes and to have some evidential experiences to enable you to be safely promoted and learn fast.

These experiences do not have to be major.  Even subbing for your manager when they were on leave, taking on additional responsibilities outside of your role, managing a team as a deputy, taking on training without being asked, improving a process, saving the company money, thinking outside the box and coming up with original ideas.


What you can do

If you are approaching a promotion, in the next 12 months’, I can help you get a strategy in place that will enable you to be a contender when the interview arises.  Even if you are looking externally you can use your current role or company to facilitate any work that needs to be done and impress the interviewers.

My Promotion Coaching is best when you have time to plan and follow through to results on the experiences you need to obtain before interview.  The coaching takes place over 5 sessions.  The initial strategy session, two follow up milestones sessions to see how you are executing the strategy. A focused session on interview preparation close to the interview and a mock interview, where all your preparation work will come together in brilliant answers. 

This will be really worth your while, as it has never been harder to get promoted and you need to plan the change. Just think how great you will feel when this pays off for you.

You can book in the Promotion Coaching here. I look forward to working with you on this crucial life changing plan.