Want to Get Promoted?

It’s that time of the year. For many organizations, by the end of February, year-end reviews have been delivered, bonus amounts are decided, and promotions have been granted.

And you’re left wondering: why didn’t I get promoted? What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps your year-end conversation went like this:

Manager: ‘You are such an asset to our organization, that’s why we’re giving you a rating of 3 (on a scale of 1-5). Know that a rating of 3 is fantastic. It means you’re meeting our already really high standards!’

You: ‘oh great thank you. So what do I need to do to get a 5?’

Manager (a bit awkwardly): ‘Just do more of what you're already doing’

While the message is positive and well intended, it still leaves you wondering what the heck you’re missing to get you to the next level. And as a manager myself, I’ve not always done this right either.

However, I’m going to let you in on my little secret. Which is how I know that someone is ready for promotion. It’s a recipe I developed over the years. But I’m not a baker and I always use creative license with recipes. Sometimes I’ll even throw in new ingredients out of left field, and I encourage you to do the same.

This is something to get you started if you are either a manager trying to decide whether someone is ready to be promoted, or an employee confused as to why they are not getting to the next level.

Self-Awareness

By being self-aware, the employee recognizes their strengths, weaknesses and biases, and positively contributes to a culture of self-development and continuous improvement. I am of the belief that self-awareness is the basis for great leadership, but it’s also a life journey. Thus rewarding it from the lowest levels makes sense.

I love a well written self-appraisal that balances accomplishments with self-development topics. It not only saves me a lot of work because I can copy and paste (yes, I am lazy), but it proves to me how grounded the employee is in both their strengths and areas of development, and how committed they are to their growth.

‘I deserve this promotion because of X,Y, Z. I know that I need to work on A,B,C, and here is how I’m addressing it’.

It takes a lot of maturity, confidence and vulnerability to lay this out. I respect that.

Sphere of Influence

An employee’s sphere of influence can give you clues into promotion readiness.

The manager's job is to determine the expectations of how big the sphere should be at the employee’s current level, and to use examples and feedback to demonstrate the employee is pushing the boundaries of the sphere.

For example, an entry-level employee should be able to manage their own agenda very well. Are they starting to mentor others? Are they positively influencing their team in changing direction? Are they bringing in a new skill? Are they taking ownership of a new hire’s training plan? Those are all ways this employee could be starting to grow their sphere of influence and show readiness for the next level.

Length of Planning / Vision

Here’s my quick rule of thumb on this one. Note that I developed this while working for large organizations (500+ employees). Depending on the size and context of your organization, these principles will look different.

• Entry-level should be able to independently plan their day / week and understand how their work contributes to the team’s objectives.

• Managers should be able to plan work about 3-6 months ahead, as well as understand and articulate the annual goals for their teams.

• Directors should be able to articulate where the department is going 6 months - 2 years ahead, including relaying the long term vision to the extended teams, and how the medium term plans fit into the context of that vision, the organization and the industry.

• VPs should be able to plan 2-5+ years ahead. They should articulate the vision for the entire department, and how it fits within the company’s overall vision, mission and values, as well as within the current and future industry context. Finally, they are responsible for developing and cascading annual and long-term departmental goals, and organizing teams around them.

So as I see a VP starting to rely on a Director in their team to develop departmental goals for example, this tells me the Director in question could be ready for a higher level role.

Results

While the order of the first 3 doesn't really matter, putting results last is intentional. I know not everyone agrees, and I have had many debates on the topic. Nonetheless, as uncomfortable it may be, someone’s results are the last component I evaluate when it comes to promotion. And if I’m being very honest, more often than not, when I promote someone, I use the first three to evaluate whether this person should get promoted, and the results merely as a confirmation (as opposed to the other way around).

Results are a flawed basis for comparison. They have this reputation of being ‘black and white’ and ‘no one can debate numbers’ but they depend so much on what’s left unsaid, and how they are articulated.

Let me give you this scenario:

• Joe booked 4 new accounts, generating $5M in sales

• Nancy booked 1 new account, and generated $1.5M in sales

Who are you going to promote? Probably Joe.

However what if I added this:

• Joe booked 4 new accounts, generating $5M in sales. He works really hard, including long nights. However, when new employees come to his team, none of them stay more than two months. He is abrasive and disrespectful with those more junior than him.

• Nancy booked 1 new account, and generated $500K in sales. She also spent time mentoring a new crop of account managers, developed a strategy to retain accounts in the future, and positively contributed to the culture by organizing various networking and recruiting events. People ask to be on her team, and employees feel motivated and valued around her.

If you had to promote one of them, would you still promote Joe?

OK, so I painted Joe as a bit of a jerk, so I could make a point. That said, people’s attention span is limited. When we talk about results first, we make them seem more important than the rest. Not only that, but we rarely quantify the cost of employee churn, or the benefit of a happy workforce, even if we know those costs and benefits are real.

And with this behaviour, we perpetuate the ‘screwing over our best employees’ syndrome. Rewarding the jerks, and telling the positive change agents that ‘we need to see the results materialize’.

In his book ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’, Ben Horowitz says that in business, the order matters and it goes like this: PEOPLE > PRODUCTS > PROFITS. If you focus on the people first, and the products second, then the profits will come.

I believe the same goes with promotions. Focus on promoting those who are positive influencers, strategic and visionaries. The profits will come.

Agree? Disagree? I want to hear your recipe!