If you’re an ambitious, career driven person, your eventual goal will be to get into management positions and maybe even run your own company one day. But when you’re starting from the bottom, they seem like impossible goals. You’re not going to be the only person that has ambitions for leadership and every time an opportunity for promotion comes up, you’ll be in direct competition with a lot of your coworkers. It’s up to you to show your boss that you’re better for the job than anybody else. There are a lot of different ways that you can set yourself apart from the competition when there is a promotion available. These are some of the things that you should be doing if you want to land a management role.
Pick The Right Company
Every company has a different attitude toward promoting people. In some companies, they’ll always look outside of the company when there is a management role available and hire an experienced candidate from elsewhere, rather than promoting from within. If you’re working in a company like that, you’re going to struggle to climb the ladder, no matter how good you are. If positions keep coming up but they’re always filled by external candidates, it might be time to start looking for a different job where you’ll have more opportunities for advancement. This is a good thing to ask about at interview because it will give you a sense of how likely you are to get a promotion at some point and it also shows potential employers that you’re a driven and ambitious person.
Favoritism is another issue that you’ll run into in some companies. When a position becomes available, the bosses will choose the candidate that they have the best personal relationship with, rather than the person that is most qualified for the job. You’ll see people that aren’t very good at their job being promoted around you and it’s so frustrating. You can stay in that company forever but you’ll never progress if the boss doesn’t favor you over other employees. There’s no point wasting your time in a place like that and you should just start looking for a different job at a company that takes a more professional approach to promoting people.
Ask For Promotions
You might be getting passed up because of favoritism or maybe it’s just because your boss doesn’t think that your work is up to scratch. But in some cases, you might be passed up for promotion because they don’t realize that you want it. A lot of people feel awkward about asking their boss for a promotion but you shouldn’t. It shows initiative and most of the time, they’ll respect the fact that you’ve asked them outright to consider you for the promotion. When a position becomes available, you should go to your boss and let them know that you want to be considered for it. When you do this, it’s important that you give them some reasons why you’re a good candidate. You can’t just walk in there and tell them that you deserve the job, you need to demonstrate why by giving examples of your good work in the last few months. You’ll never get a promotion without asking for one, so always make it clear that you’re looking to move up when an opportunity presents itself.
Get Qualified
You’re already qualified for your current job, that’s how you managed to get it in the first place, but are you qualified for a management position? Experience is important, but if you take the time to get more qualifications outside of work, you can learn some of the skills that you need to be an effective manager. You could consider doing an online bachelors degree in organizational leadership in your spare time. It will teach you things like how to motivate a team effectively, how to communicate with your employees, and some of the different theories and management styles that you can use. Doing a qualification like this benefits you in two ways; firstly, it gives you a lot of the skills that you’ll need as a manager so you’re better prepared to do the job well. Secondly, it shows your boss that you’re dedicated enough to use your free time to develop your skills and improve yourself. That’s the kind of person that they’ll want for a leadership role so it will really help.
Prove Yourself At Work
When you go in and ask for that promotion, it’s important that you can give examples of good work that you’ve done, which means you need to be performing well in your current role. Doing everything that your current job requires is a start, but that’s what’s expected of all employees anyway. You can’t expect them to be impressed because you’re doing your job properly. If you’re going to land a promotion, it’s important that you go above and beyond your normal duties. Try to make yourself more productive so you have a bit of spare time to help out other employees. You should also look for ways that you can improve efficiency around the office and give suggestions to your boss. This shows them that you’re a good problem solver and you’re invested in the success of the company.
You should also try to develop your management skills and prove that you’re a capable leader by assisting your coworkers and helping them to solve problems with their own work. If you can demonstrate to your boss that you are capable of motivating those around you and helping them to be more productive, you’re more likely to be considered for management positions.
Network Properly
Even though you don’t want to be working at a company that promotes people that they like, rather than the best candidates, it’s always important to have a good relationship with your superiors. Often, it won’t be the person directly above you that makes the decision, it’ll be people higher up that you don’t have too much contact with. But making yourself known to these decision makers and impressing them can really help when a position becomes available. Networking with big players in other companies is also useful because it will open up new opportunities elsewhere if you’re not getting the promotion that you want at your current job.
The first step is to find the right people to network with. Try to learn a bit about the company hierarchy and find out who calls the shots when it comes to promotions. Then you need to start looking into ways to get in contact with them. Using LinkedIn is a good place to start because a lot of business people are on there. If you create yourself an account where you can showcase your skills, and then try to connect with the leaders in your company, you’ll be on their radar. You should also look at networking events that they’re likely to attend and start going to those. You’ll meet a lot of people that could help you to further your career. While you’re at these events, you should strike up a conversation with these people and ask them if they’d be willing to meet with you at some point to discuss your career or just give you some general advice. Hopefully, you’ll leave the event with the contact details of a lot of very influential people.
Now, it’s time to start setting up some meetings. You’ve got to remember that these are very busy people and if you’re wasting their time, you’re going to give them a bad impression and that’s going to hurt your chances of getting a promotion in the future. It’s best to set up a quick lunch meeting with them where you can discuss your future career prospects and ask them for advice. Always think about what you want to get out of the meeting before you go in. If you don’t have a clear goal in mind, you’ll end up wasting their time. If you learn how to network properly, you can build strong business relationships with the people that are making the decisions and next time there is a promotion available, they’ll be sure to think of you first.
Threaten To Leave
This is a last resort option and you should only consider doing this if you’re repeatedly being passed up for promotion, but it can be an effective strategy. Often, bosses won’t promote you because you’re great at what you do and they don’t want you to move into a new role because they’ll struggle to find a good replacement for you. If you’re working hard and making yourself a valuable asset to the company, you might find that you have this problem. If you go to your boss and be completely honest with them, tell them that you love working for the company but you want to progress and if they can’t offer you that opportunity, you’re going to start looking for another job, you’ll find that they will do anything to make you stay. If you’re a valuable employee, this ultimatum could lead to the promise of a promotion next time a position becomes available.
Moving up the ladder and finding management roles is always tough and there’s a lot of competition out there, but if you follow these steps, you’ll have a much better chance of getting that promotion.
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