Posted by We invest much of our lives at work, but how often you decide about where your career will go and actually commit to it? It takes months or years of hard work and showing your capability before you can confidently sit down and talk to your manager for promotion. The following action plan will help you manage yourself in preparing to advance your career.
Are you ready to climb up your career ladder?
Before you check in with your manager to talk about a possible promotion, make sure you have accomplished all you can in order to develop yourself and take on every learning opportunity that you have come across at the company. Review the job specification of your desired position. If the position does not exist, look up if there is an existing position that is available within your organisation.
Ask yourself what are your skills gaps and what can you do connect them to yourself? For example, you may be a graphic designer looking to progress into a more senior designer role, but are lacking in certain designing skills. Therefore you would take the opportunity to upskill yourself further before proposing to your manager either through a mentor or online courses. By taking the initiative to develop on your own, you can save your manager some of the work by placing yourself in a better position when you ask for their approval.
Setting up for the meeting
Start with deciding on what exactly you want in terms of promotion and what kind of support you require from your manager to help you get up there. If you are still unsure what exactly you need to do to get your promotion especially when it comes to learning progression. Prepare some questions to ask your manager about it. Being in a managerial position themselves, they should be able to provide the necessary insights and guidance for you.
Getting a promotion means you there will be more responsibility weigh in on you. Now the first thing that will come into your mind is about salary raise, your main priority should be your development first before talking about money. When it comes to negotiating for a salary increase, you should be aware of how much money you should reasonably earn in your aspired position to avoid over-demanding.
Justifying why you deserve to be promoted is also a crucial step. Look at your progress and accomplishments you have made from your current position and what you have contributed to the company as a whole. Provide relevant examples such as key achievements, your KPIs that you have exceeded and any positive feedback you receive from your colleagues and clients. Voicing these key points will help convince your manager that you truly deserve to be promoted.
Take note on how far you did in upskilling to prepare yourself for a future role. This will show that you took the initiative and enthusiasm to advance your career. Last but not least, reaffirm your loyalty to the company by showing how your career will progress in the long term with them. The key here is to ensure your manager value you as a valuable asset to the company, vital and worth investing in.
During the meeting
Try to avoid overwhelming your manager with every detailed information in a single meetup. Start by structuring down on how you want the discussion to flow, the key points that you wish to convey and perhaps write everything down. It is best to ensure the meeting is well composed, clear and a proper lead up to the conversation.
Initiate the discussion with what you want and let it flow naturally, provide the rest of the key information when it is the right time. Striking a balance between having a clear structure or a checklist of things you want to explain and being open to a two-way conversation is the best way to build up the discussion.
Always keep an open mind because there will always be a possibility that you will not receive an offer for promotion right there and then. Your manager may even consider putting you on a promotion plan with a certain KPIs for you to fulfil first before conducting a review in months times. Set yourself up for any outcomes and be flexible in overcoming the challenges you may face.
Once the meeting has concluded, send an e-mail as a follow-up to thank your manager for his/her time and the confirmation of what was discussed. Try and come up with a formal action plan together with your manager. This will allow both of you to keep track of your career progression.
Preparing for the outcome
Be ready to accept if your boss refuses this promotion and they may have a good reason to. Perhaps your proposal was declined on the basis that there are still key areas that you must improve upon, try to get as many details as you can. It could also be the fact that the company may not have the resources or the time to invest in you? Will things change soon? If the company is set to provide you with the necessary guidance and support in putting you up for the promotion, that would be a better outcome and you should definitely take up this opportunity.
What if for whatever reason, you won’t be getting any form of guidance and support that you deserve, perhaps it’s time to consider that you should move to a different company that can give you the opportunity. Leave us your thoughts on the comment sections below. Head over to Jobstore.com and unveil your next job opportunity.
You Jing is a content writer who writes career and lifestyle contents to inspire job seekers and employers alike on their journey to work-life balance, empowerment and transformation in their career path.
Reach me at youjing@jobstore.com