4 Tips For Getting That Promotion You’ve Always Wanted

Monday morning rolls around and you’re back in the office, faced with another project to start. Indulgence-worthy as they may be, you’re forced to push your musings from the weekend aside and dive headfirst into your responsibilities. You may let out a much-needed sigh as you stare at your desk and feel overwhelmed. It can feel like you’re walking in leaden shoes at work when you aren’t engaged.

One way to instill fresh vigor in your day-to-day work life is to strive for a promotion, and here are four cutting-edge tips on how to achieve that.

1. Seek to add value to others in all situations

You’ve probably heard it before, but the concept of “adding value” to situations and people is truly a goldmine when it comes to career and personal development. The piece of this advice that most people get tripped up on is how exactly to add value.

The simplest (and a highly effective) way to provide value for your coworkers is to ascertain their goals and provide pro bono help towards a specific goal. Ideally, the more snugly your help fits into the framework of their goal, the better experience you will both have.

2. Learn as much as you can about your desired position

More often than we may realize, one of the only obstacles blocking us from further success is simply not having the right information. Establishing the exact promotion you want to aim for and then opening the floodgates of information is a key advantage for success.

When taking even a brief look at some of the world’s most successful people, you’re bound to come across intriguing revelations. While there are many geniuses who have risen to the topmost ranks of success, pure smarts is not a prerequisite for incredible success. Neither is “being in the right place at the right time.” Luck is largely a mythical notion that holds no weight in the pursuit towards fulfillment.

What you will find with successful people of all kinds is they were able to leverage the correct information they had in order to bust their butts with that information. Learning as much as you can about the position you want to move into puts you in a place to become the next expert on that topic. This piece of advice can seem like “fluff” at times, but very few people actually practice this bit of wisdom. Talking about something and doing it are completely different things, and it takes an individual built with enduring character to carry his or her goals to the end.

3. Make a proposal to your boss

Here’s where the good stuff comes in. You’ve networked and provided help for coworkers; you’ve opened yourself up to fresh information within your desired position; and your emotions are rising alongside your anticipation. The true secret about getting that promotion you’ve always wanted is that you can’t simply laze about and hope it will show up with no effort on your end. The best way to kickstart the promotion process is to make an indisputable proposal to your boss.

The most prominent of points to understand is that you must present your information in a way that immediately conveys the non-selfish benefits of you getting a promotion. Essentially no one will want to advance you in a company where you’re only looking out for your own gain. When work is truly fulfilling, it’s when a group of people are all working towards a cause bigger than themselves. Talented as you may be, people want to see that you’re contributing to the big picture as the priority over your paycheck.

The secret to making a killer proposal is the following. Always start by using the sandwich technique: open with a positive note, include your request somewhere in the middle, and close on a different positive note. This is a time-tested approach for successfully delivering unexpected suggestions of any kind. Before you go any further though, it’s critical to understand the actual way to bring up the proposal.

Start off by saying, “May I offer a suggestion?” If you’re given the green light, talk about how you’d be willing to accept the workload of the position you’re seeking in addition to the work you’re already performing, for a specified length of time. The idea here is to convey how you’re willing to be flexible to meet the demands of the company, and you can perform relevant work on top of what you’re already doing. This illustrates how you care about your work in more than simply financial, material ways.

Make sure to clearly state the length of time you’re willing to engage in this workload experiment. It can be any length from 30-90 days (or longer) – just make sure the range you pick is something you can actually handle. Then, to close, suggest that you and your boss should discuss a potential promotion, if you successfully complete your additional work during the allotted time.

4. Remain patient

Once all of this is said and done, the only action you can take is remain patient. It may sound a little silly, but it’s true – there’s only so much leverage you can exercise before you must leave it in the hands of other people. There is the possibility you may not get promoted. If this is the case, remember that whenever one door closes, another opens. While not every circumstance will bear fruit, all circumstances provide fodder for learning, which is oftentimes equally valuable.

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