Effective and Actionable Strategies to Use to Get a Promotion

Want to know how to get promoted at work?

Here Are 5 Ways You Can Get Promoted

1.     Be an Expert Level Communicator

2.     Be Reliable

3.     Be a Team Player

4.     Improve Your Skills

5.     Be Proactive

Not quite sure how to do those things, don’t worry I’ll go through step by step to make you ready for your promotion.

But first:

Did you know, there’s multiple ways you can get promoted? 

We tend to think that the only way to get promoted is for your boss to give you a raise and a new title, but that’s not always the case.

Here Are 5 Ways You Can Be Promoted:

1.       Vertical Promotion: This is the most common type of promotion, where an employee is promoted to a higher position within the same department or team. This promotion is based on the employee’s performance, experience, and skills.

2.       Lateral Promotion: In this type of promotion, an employee is moved to a different department or team within the same organization. This type of promotion is usually given to employees who have demonstrated exceptional skills and are ready for new challenges.

3.       Promotion by Acquisition: This type of promotion occurs when a company acquires another company and promotes employees from the acquired company to higher positions in the new organization.

4.       Promotion by Succession: This type of promotion occurs when an employee is promoted to a higher position due to the retirement or resignation of the current position holder.

5.       Promotion by Appointment: This type of promotion occurs when an employee is appointed to a higher position due to their exceptional skills and experience.

Okay, now let’s get deeper into exactly how you can get promoted at your job.  We are going to assume you are looking for the traditional Vertical Promotion since that’s the most common.

Strategy To Be Promoted #1: Be An Expert Communicator

Let’s face it, if you are an introvert, it’s difficult to navigate the working world.  (If you are an introvert, you should read our blog “Jobs For Introverts” which should help you in your career).  Being outgoing and able to talk to everyone from the lowest level to the highest gives you an advantage.

In my corporate career, I spent many evenings at dinners and after hour events with work colleagues, and like it or not, this is where you can bump yourself up into the next level.  Forming strong relationships with your boss and management both inside and outside of the office is extremely important.

Of course you want to be able to handle clients and other departments like a pro, but being someone people actually like being around is key to moving up in any organization.  If you can’t communicate with coworkers, you’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.

If you’re struggling with your communication skills, seek out some help, and you can do it from the comfort of your own home.  I’d recommend LinkedIn Learnings to get started.

Strategy To Be Promoted #2: Be Reliable

There is a lot that goes into this second strategy even though it sounds simple.

In a world of hybrid work, being reliable has a couple of different meanings.

If your job is 100% Remote:

1.       Be online during the hours you’re supposed to be.

2.       Communicate with your boss if you have to step away for long stretches of time.

3.       Go the extra mile when it comes to communicating frequently.

If your job is Hybrid:

1.       You might not like this one but, try to show up in the office on the days your team goes into the office.  If you don’t like going into the office, this one is going to be difficult.  My advice here is to try your best.

2.       Try and be in the office early and don’t be the first to leave.  Again, not easy and I know it’s not ideal, but if you want to get promoted, these are the things you’ll have to do.

Besides showing up and communicating, being reliable is also being someone who your boss can depend on to get something done.

When I worked in radio news and had to be on site to report breaking news, my boss knew she could rely on me to get wherever she needed me to be whenever she texted me to let me know where I had to go.  (and those places could range anywhere from Country Clubs to inner city streets with hookers trying to get into my car…. I wish I was lying about that).

Strategy To Be Promoted #3: Be A Team Player

Try this the next time you have a team meeting, and your boss asks for a volunteer:

1.       Be the first person to raise your hand to help with a project.

2.       Offer to help team members out if they’re drowning in work.

On one of the teams, I worked on, I got to the point where my boss wouldn’t let me volunteer for projects anymore because I was always the one volunteering (these work stories make me sound like the best employee in the world…maybe I am).

Being a team player doesn’t just mean volunteering for everything all the time though.  It also means working well with your coworkers and not throwing them under the bus when things go wrong.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned Tom Brady in a few blogs, so I’ll give him a shout out.  Even though Tom Brady was one of the greatest football players to ever live, he was constantly sharing praise with his teammates.  He never took credit for winning, it was always someone else.  A long way of saying, be like Brady, put your team first and let your work speak for itself.

Strategy To Be Promoted #4: Improve Your Skills

You can argue that this one may be the most important, but for now let’s keep it at 4. 

If you don’t improve your skills and want to be promoted, you may be waiting a long time for that promotion.  It should go without saying that you should constantly be working to improve your skills.  Whether it’s taking trainings at work, shadowing coworkers in the role you’re looking to get or reading as much as you can, improving your skills is a must.

It’s also important to show that you’ve improved your skills.  You can do this by:

1.       Presenting a new skill in front of your team via a PowerPoint Presentation

2.       Helping your boss or coworker with a project and demonstrating a new skill that you’ve learned.

Show that you’ve been learning new skills by talking about it with your boss because in most cases, they are the person that is going to be making the promotion decision or they’ll need to know what you’ve been learning and doing.

Strategy To Be Promoted #5: Be Proactive

Sitting and watching the time go by is not a great way to spend your day, especially if you’re looking for a promotion.  Being on your phone, surfing the web, or taking 2-hour lunches and waiting for someone to give you a project will guarantee you stay at the level you’re at.

It may be uncomfortable, and it may feel like you are annoying people, but ask if you can help with something, whether it’s sending an email or going through a 10,000 line excel file.

Showing your boss that not only do you WANT to be at work but also that you WANT to make an impact is a sure-fire way to make it to the next level.  Be the person that is involved in everything that your team has on their plate. 

Showing how valuable you are to the team but having your hands on everything will almost force them to promote you, whether they like it or not.

Final Thoughts

Getting promoted is not easy, especially in the world we live in today.  Companies are tightening their finances and don’t want to put out any more money than they have to.

It’s your job to become so valuable to the team that they feel like if they don’t promote you, you’ll go somewhere else and make the other place more money.

If all of this sounds great, but you feel like you need help making it to the next level, the coaches at YOUR CAREER STRATEGY are here to help you.  Book a FREE call and get on the path to a promotion.

You can do it!