Do you want to get promoted?
Most people do!
Yes, most people who are working want a promotion. A few don’t, but the majority of the young leaders that I have worked with for over 25 years all desire promotion. Promotion is a good thing. But, it’s not the only thing, biggest thing or defining thing of your life. Promotion comes and goes. It can be a sign of growth, development and advancement. Simply, promotion means advancement, progress and development. It is something that most ambitious young leaders really desire and work hard for…or they think they are working hard for.
Sometimes what or why we want promotion is actually for the wrong reasons. There are some common mistakes and misunderstandings about promotion. A better understanding of what promotion is and isn’t will allow you better to prepare for it.
What is Promotion?
Promotion is More than Recognition
Promotion means more than recognition. Yes, recognition is a part of promotion, but if you are immature, all you are working for is recognition. Recognition comes and goes and it goes more often than it comes. Work with a purpose, work with a passion and work to get results. Don’t work for recognition. If you do you will be sorely and frequently disappointed. Promotion is good. Don’t make promotion about recognition. Make promotion about results. Learn how to get the best results, teach others how to get the best results and promotion is a door that will not be too far in your distant future.
Promotion is Not More Important than Accomplishment
The famed business leader Peter Drucker says, “Promotion is not more important than accomplishment.” Promotion is not an accomplishment. It may feel like accomplishment. But, in reality, accomplishment is more powerful, more lasting and more impactful than a promotion. Accomplishment is what you achieved, what you’ve done and the results you’ve gotten. Accomplishment is not what you think you can do, but what you have actually done. Work to accomplish things. Don’t work to get promoted. Accomplishment is more meaningful than promotion.
Four Elements of Promotion: Potential, Impact, Accomplishment & Humility
Many young leaders and even veteran team members think “I deserve a promotion.” But that is because they are mentally measuring or having someone other than the boss tell them about their potential or their perceived impact. Potential, alone, does not merit a promotion. Perceived impact, too, does not merit a promotion. Perceived impact is the difference you think you are making to others or the organization. Real impact is a difference validated by those in authority over you. Potential plus real impact plus accomplishment puts you in the conversation for a promotion (if one even exists). There is no guarantee for promotion. The fourth and most important element is humility. I simply will not promote someone in my organization who lacks real humility. If you think you are humble and say to others that you are humble, you probably are full of pride and lack real humility. Humility is the force multiplier for promotion and simply why many who have climbed get stuck. Promoting a person full of pride, absent of real humility, will have devastating affects on the organization, moral and others.
I encourage my young leaders to work on personal development and personal accomplishment and then when the time is right, the opportunity will open. This is where the humility enters in–you don’t demand, you wait. Patience takes humility. I simply have seen too many young leaders with lots of potential but their potential is paired with impatience, a lack of real impact and very little accomplishment. I’ve seen too many young leaders miss out on their potential promotion because they left, quit or checked out too early.
Four things you need to get in the conversation for promotion: potential, real impact, real accomplishment and humility.
Why do we want to be promoted?
We want a promotion for one of several reasons. The first reason is we may want to make more money. We assume, with a promotion comes more compensation. Secondly, we may want a promotion to have more authority or control over what we or others are doing. Thirdly, we may want a promotion so we can be viewed or view ourselves as successful. Fourthly, we may want a promotion because we believe we have earned it or deserve it, even if we are not sure what comes next or what a promotion means. Fifthly, we may want a promotion because we believe we could do a better job leading or directing than the person “above them”. Finally, we may simply want a promotion because we feel stuck or un-engaged in our current role or position.
- Don’t view promotion as climbing a ladder.
Promotion is not climbing a ladder. The problem with climbing a ladder is eventually you run out of rungs of the ladder. Then, where do you go? What do you do? Promotion should not be viewed as climbing a ladder, because you will simply be focused on the next rung, as opposed to make the place where you are at the most effective and most productive that it can be. Promotion is more like an opportunity. View promotion as more door than ladder rung. A door you walk through. A rung you step on, hold on to and eventually leave behind. Sometimes, you simply aren’t ready to walk through the door. A door you can only be partially certain what lies behind it and what it opens to.
View: Promotion as a door that opens versus a rung you climb on.
2. Don’t think of promotion for more money.
Life is not about making money. That being said, you need to have a proper view of money. You need money to live. This is one of the reasons why you work. I like making money. But, I believe you have to develop a proper perspective of what money is and what it is not. I believe that money is simply a tool or a resource that allows a skilled individual to leverage the tool or resource in a way that creates opportunity, freedom and discovery. However, if you just want to get a promotion to get more money, then you are basically a mercenary. A mercenary is a soldier for hire. Mercenaries have no loyalty except to their wages. They are not loyal and not very trustworthy, because they lack commitment because they are always in a pursuit of more compensation. Truly successful leaders who gain promotion are not in it “to make money”. They are in it to make things better, make lives better, make things more productive and more effective.
View: Promotion is the opportunity not to make more money but to make elements of your job more effective and more productive.
3. Don’t think of promotion as an arrival.
Too many individuals think if they can just get promoted to the next level they will have “made it.” Listen, while you are on earth, there is more to learn, more to do and more to grow in. Promotion is not an arrival. Promotion is not a destination. Many individuals will work really hard to get promoted and then once they gain the promotion they feel as if they have arrived. Another way to say they have arrived is “entitlement.” Entitlement is the belief that you are owed or deserve something. Instead of working hard, they make others do the hard work. They abandon the practices and principles that got them promoted in the first place. This is why many young leaders get promoted and then get stuck. They unintentionally start thinking and working like they have arrived. It is often evident to every one but the one who got promoted. Promotion is not an arrival it is a step in your growth and it should encourage you to keep learning and keep discovery. Entitlement kills both growth and opportunity. Avoid it at all costs.
View: Promotion is simply one step on your journey of self-discovery and growth.
4. Don’t view promotion as the ultimate sign of recognition.
If you want to be a great leader, stop worrying about recognition. Rather, put your focus on the results over recognition. Recognition is cheap, but results are not. You want your boss to notice you? You know what bosses notice: results! Too many young leaders think that when the boss’s eyes are on them they need to perform. They are wrong, it is more critical to perform and get results when the boss’s eyes are not on them. The boss knows, because the boss knows the business and the business is measurable by results. Promotion should be an acknowledgement of results, not recognition. Some results are harder to get than others. The young leader desiring promotion needs to put their head down, accept that life isn’t fair and you can’t be anything you want to be and get to work. More than getting promoted, young leaders need to learn patience and resilience. You are not more valuable because you get promoted. You will have more responsibility, more pressure and more demand for your time if you get promoted. Most people are ready for what comes with promotion. This is why compensation rises with promotion. Because more is expected and their is greater risk & pressure as you are promoted. Many young people think a promotion means less work and more money. They are grievously wrong. As you rise pressure and risk rise. This is why those who are “higher” in the organization have more liberty and greater compensation.