Get a Promotion 1: Overview

This begins a new series on getting a promotion from your current job to a better job

As the economy improves people who took lower paying jobs, now look to increase their income. Some will look for new jobs in new companies. Many hope promotions will provide better responsibilities and increased income. You may want a promotion or know someone that does. Either way the posts over the next few weeks will share ideas to help you get the promotion.

Do the Job They Want Done—and More

You must do the job they want done to keep your job. For a promotion you need to do more than what they expect:

• Verify that you understand what results they want you to achieve
• Identify how management measures your performance and the results
• Establish the value of the results
• Set goals to achieve the results and then exceed them
• Investigate how to improve your performance
• Chart expectations, targets, and actual performance

Fit Into the Work Team or Organization

Organizations establish written rules, unwritten rules, organizational behaviors, and corporate cultures. You need to prove you understand and fit into the organization for them to promote you. These steps will help you fit in:

• Find a mentor to nurture and guide you
• Build a network of people within the company
• Study the policies, procedures, and guidelines for the whole company
• Let your mentor and network teach you
• Conform to the attendance, dress, and behavior standards

Provide a Good Return on Investment

Your company expects a good return on their investment in you. You cost them:

• Salary
• Matching contribution on a pension
• Medical benefit (if any)
• Training time at less than ideal performance
• Facilities costs for your desk, utilities, equipment, and supplies

You need to prove that you return at least 7-20 times than the total of these costs.

Communicate Your Successes to Management

You must communicate your successes to management effectively. You hold responsibility to prove that you deserve the promotion—and that you deserve it better than anyone else.

Wednesday we will begin examining how to discover what job management wants you to do