How to Keep Moving Up
People often want more responsibility and a bigger title. Whether it’s at a full-time job or on a volunteer board, leaders are wired to pursue greater influence. Increasing responsibility and influence is a way for us to be more valuable. One challenge with positioning ourselves for more responsibility is being promotable without being self-promotional. And another challenge is demonstrating sufficient credentials while lacking direct experience.
A friend of mine in pharmaceutical sales recently asked me for advice on how to position himself for a promotion. His two primary concerns were that he didn’t want to rub others next to or above him the wrong way in the process and that he lacked a senior leader title on his resume, which technically made him under qualified. “How do I become qualified for a role that requires that I’ve been in the role?” he asked.
We talked about three ways that leaders can authentically position themselves for more responsibility:
1. Declare you want it. A sales trainer once said to me, “We get what we ask for or less, rarely more.” Usually people want to help others get what they want. Most leaders know that helping people move toward their career aspirations usually means that those people stay in the organization longer and are more engaged in their roles. A challenge in identifying high potential people for future leadership roles is remembering who might want more responsibility and why they deserve it.
2. Do parts of the bigger role. Someone on my team asked me for more responsibility several years ago. I was open to the idea but wasn’t sure she was ready. A few months after her initial request, she asked if I’d support her hiring an unpaid intern that she would supervise. She motivated, coached and supervised this intern so well that I gained confidence in her ability to manage others, which led to her promotion. Consider the core competencies or skills required in a higher level role and find ways to do pieces of the broader skillset. To highlight the experience and grow from it, ask others for feedback and informal coaching.
3. Develop a bigger view. Someone once approached three men laying bricks at a construction site and asked each one separately what they were doing. The first said that he was laying bricks. The second said that he was building a wall. The third said that he was building a school. I want to employ quality brick layers and promote school builders. School builders see innovation and process improvement opportunities and communicate at a higher level. View yourself as an organizational leader who happens to be in your current role rather than a person whose capabilities and contributions are defined by your current role.
What are the keys to promotability in your view?
Comments are closed here.