Becoming the “Most Promotable”
Posted September 7th, 2010
To become “promotable” in your company, the best thing you can do is 1) earn it, 2) tell your boss you’ve earned it by 3) asking for the promotion.
Here’s how to do these three steps.
Step 1: Earn the promotion. You’re going to have to do the work to get a promotion. In fact, you’re going to have to do more than what’s stated in your job description to get the promotion. So, meet with your supervisor and get a written list of what she expects from you. Try to make these items as quantifiable as possible (you’ll get five new clients a week, you’ll write 10 articles a week, you’ll process payroll for 15 employees a day, etc.). This way there will be no disputing when you’ve met — and even exceeded — these expectations.
Now comes the work part. Not only should you meet these expectations, you must exceed them as much as you can. If your boss expects you to bring in five accounts a week, aim or six or even seven. Do you need to process 15 employees a day for payroll? Aim for 20.
Yes, this is very hard work. You don’t have to go overboard and kill yourself, of course, but you should be diligent and work to — at the very least — consistently meet your boss’ expectations. Meet and/or exceed them and you’ll more than likely get that promotion (more on this in a moment).
Step 2: Show Your Boss You’ve Earned a Promotion. As you go about exceeding expectations, be sure to document these successes. Every now and then — every week, every month, every six months — send your boss an e-mail or memo documenting what you’ve done over the past few weeks. In the e-mail mention that the expectation was five new clients, but that this week you brought in seven. And so on.
Even if you don’t send such a memo to your boss regularly, at the very least, write down your successes somewhere for yourself. You can send this documentation to your boss just before you go to your boss to ask for the promotion.
Step 3: Ask for the Promotion. It’s rare for managers to give raises and promotions on their own. They may notice how well you’re doing and appreciate it, but more often than not, you’ll have to ask to be rewarded.
You can ask for a raise at anytime, you don’t need to wait until your yearly review. If you’ve been exceeding expectations consistently for six months or so, it’s certainly justifiable to ask for a promotion/raise.
If your boss says she can’t offer you a promotion at this time, ascertain when that time might be. Try to get her to pin down when a promotion may be feasible (maybe she can only promote at the end of the fiscal year, for example). If a promotion is unfeasible at this time, you can always negotiate for something else, such as more vacation time, flexible hours, the chance to telecommute. If the answer is a firm no, you can ask to reopen the discussion in a few months.
If you feel there’s no hope for a promotion/raise at your current employer, all the hard work you’ve done exceeding expectations — with your documentation showing you’ve done so — will be quite interesting to another employer. Seeing that a promotion is not feasible at your current company for the foreseeable future may mean it’s time to take your exceptional work ethic to another firm.
If you’re looking for your next terrific position and live in the Bay Area, give Bayside Solutions a call. We can help place you in temporary, temp-to-hire and direct placement positions with some of San Francisco’s finest companies.
