How to ask for a promotion at work - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

How to ask for a promotion at work Youve got your eye on a promotion. Maybe its the next job in your career path, or maybe its in another part of the company. Now what? A CEO tells me what managers are looking for A few years ago, I had a chance opportunity to talk with the CEO of a large public utility company. We met in his office on the top floor of a tall building, and we talked for 90 minutes. This was extremely generous of him think how much his time must be worth and I wanted to make the most of it. Our conversation covered a lot of ground, but theres one question and answer combo that really stands out to me, even now. I asked, How do you find the people that you promote to be your VPs and SVPs? I wanted to know the secret sauce for finding untapped potential, for identifying future superstars so that I could get promoted myself, and so that I would know how to find talent too. His answer: I look for people that are already working in and exploring areas outside their own, and I promote them. In other words, he was looking for people already doing the jobs he needed to fill. I expected him to use words like potential and future, but instead he used the word already. I learned that business managers dont generally promote people based on potential, they promote them based on results. Theyre looking for people who have already demonstrated that they can do the job. They may have to train them on the specific details or operational duties of the new role, but the major pieces are often in place before the promotion. In hindsight, this is obvious. Managers are very, very busy people. They dont have much time to teach people how to do new jobs. They barely have enough time to delegate and manage the business theyre responsible for running. So theyre not looking for potential, theyre looking for value right now. My two-step process From this perspective, a promotion looks a little different. Instead of something thats granted to you by managers when they think youre ready, its something you do and then ask to make it official. 1. Do the job Determine the differences in responsibility between your current job and your target job, and start doing those things. You can usually find job descriptions on your company intranet, or on the companys Jobs page. If you cant find the job description for the job youre targeting, find someone doing that job and ask them to tell you about it. If the new job youre targeting is outside your current group, run it by your manager first. You may need to explain that youre interested in a new role, and you want to get experience with it to see if it might be a good option for you in the future. Be as transparent as possible so your manager doesnt feel that youre being sneaky, and so you can avoid any political landmines that may be lurking. Sometimes, you cant just start doing that new job, so youll need to think of other ways to get some exposure to it. For example, maybe youre aiming for a promotion from Consultant to Senior Consultant, and the difference between those two roles is that a Senior Consultant mentors other Consultants. Mentoring probably isnt something you can just do, so youll ask your manager if there are any good mentoring opportunities where you can be useful. Im really comfortable with the Consultant role, and am already documenting processes and creating training for new Consultants. If there are any Junior Consultants that need a mentor, I would love to work with them. 2. Ask to make it official Once youre pretty comfortable with the responsibilities for the job youre targeting, then you can make a compelling case that your manager should promote you and make it official. I want to show that Im ready to be a Senior Consultant, so I created new training material and have been mentoring a Junior Consultant for the past couple of months. Can we talk about moving me up to Senior Consultant? Wrapping up Instead of waiting for a promotion to come to you, go get it with this two-step process: Do the job  Determine the differences between what youre doing now and what the new job requires, and find a way to start doing those things. Ask to make it official  Once youre comfortable with the new jobs responsibilities, talk to your manager to determine whether you have more work to do, or if shes ready to make it official. This article was originally published by Josh Doody at fearlesssalarynegotiation.com.