Being promotable isn’t just about working harder or clocking extra hours. But how do you stand out for promotion without getting burned out?
In this episode of the #Career101Podcast, host Porschia and guest Jeremy Cline, host of the Change Work Life Podcast, explore practical strategies to position yourself effectively for promotions. They discuss the importance of focusing on meaningful tasks, clear communication, and authentic leadership rather than just doing more work.
Jeremy shares insightful tips on identifying which responsibilities truly impact your visibility and career growth, how to politely decline tasks that don’t contribute to your goals, and ways to proactively demonstrate your readiness for advancement.
If you’ve wondered how to make yourself more promotable without compromising your work-life balance, tune into this conversation for actionable insights and guidance.
Jeremy Cline is the host of the Change Work Life Podcast, where he helps professionals navigate meaningful career changes and find greater satisfaction at work.
What you’ll learn:
- How to strategically position yourself as promotable without working overtime or burning out.
- Practical tips for identifying high-impact tasks that boost your visibility for promotion.
- Essential skills that make you stand out as promotable, regardless of your industry or role.
- How to handle being overlooked for promotion and positively shift your reputation.
- Ways to proactively demonstrate leadership potential, even if you’re not a people manager.
- How to determine which extra responsibilities align with your goals and when to confidently say “no.”
As a thank you for listening to this episode of the Career 101 Podcast, we are sharing our FREE master class – Career 911: Solving the Top 5 Challenges Executives and Professionals Have! It’s a training based on solving the common problems our clients have experienced to reach their goals. You can get access to the master class here!
Resources:
- Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Today, we’re talking about something that’s on everyone’s radar, how to position yourself for promotion and make yourself more promotable. Let’s be honest, working harder isn’t always the answer to getting ahead. In fact, the real key to earning a promotion lies in working smarter and strategically. So how do you stand out without burning out?
Porschia: How do you prove that you’re ready for the next [00:01:00] level without constantly clocking extra hours in today’s episode? I’m sharing an interesting conversation. I had with Jeremy Klein host of the change work life podcast Jeremy is a former lawyer who spent 20 years largely furthering other people’s dreams And then he became a coach.
Jeremy was kind enough to have me as a guest on his show, and we discussed a few things. Number one, how to make yourself stand out without working overtime, learn to focus on high impact actions that showcase your value and potential. Number two, the skills you need to get promoted. Discovering the interpersonal and leadership skills that hiring managers and decision makers look for when considering candidates for advancement.
Number three. Ways to demonstrate that you should be promoted [00:02:00] from leading initiatives to solving organizational pain points. We’ll discuss how to build a compelling case for yourself. And number four, how to figure out which tasks matter most. Promotions don’t come from checking the boxes. They come from delivering results that align with your organization’s goals.
We’ll touch on how to identify and prioritize the tasks that truly matter. If you’re ready to stop waiting and start taking charge of your career trajectory, this episode is filled with actionable strategies to help you move up the ladder with confidence and clarity. So grab a notebook, tune in and get ready to position yourself as the go to candidate for your next promotion.
Let’s dive in.
Jeremy: Is getting promoted really just about more money, more status, more power? And how do you get yourself [00:03:00] promoted? That’s what we’re going to find out in this week’s episode. I’m Jeremy Klein, and this is Changework Life.
Hello and welcome to Changework Life, the podcast that’s all about beating the Sunday evening blues and enjoying Mondays again. If you want to know how you can enjoy a more satisfying and fulfilling working life, you’re in the right place. When you work hard and you do a good job, you might naturally think that your reward is to get promoted.
Is it as simple as that? Is working hard enough? How do you make yourself promotable? Do you even really want to be promoted, or does it just feel like something you should be going for? My guest this week, who’s going to help us answer these questions is Portia Parker Griffin, founder and CEO of Fly High Coaching.
Portia empowers ambitious professionals and motivated executives to add on average 15, 000 to their salaries. She also hosts the Career 101 podcast to give people an edge in their career. Portia, welcome to Change Work Life. [00:04:00]
Porschia: Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy.
Jeremy: I have to say, I’m really intrigued by this average figure of 15, 000, by which your clients increase their salaries.
Is this telling us that there are an awful lot of underpaid people out there?
Porschia: I definitely think that’s one way to look at it. Yes. And then also Jeremy, to your point about our audience, you mentioned it in my intro, a lot of our clients are very ambitious. And I find that a common pattern I hear when they hire us is that they want to strive for whatever that next goal is.
And we know with careers, a lot of times it’s financial, right? So they might want to make a slight bump, whether that be with salary or job title. We’re getting promoted, like we’re going to talk about today, which could possibly include both of those. So yeah, that’s just a pattern that we’ve seen.
Jeremy: And what’s your backstory? Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into coaching? [00:05:00]
Porschia: Yes. And I will try to keep it quick. Jeremy, I have an undergraduate degree in psychology, so I was always interested in how the mind works and really helping people. Through psychological needs, right? I am a millennial, so I graduated in the depths of the recession, and I realized that I did not want to go and get a PhD and become a psychologist, which is what people said.
Hey, that’s the only thing you can do with your psychology degree. I graduated in the depths of the recession and I said, I’m just going to go figure out this working world thing and try to see what happens. So I moved across the country from Atlanta, Georgia in the U S to Los Angeles, California.
And I fell into working for a financial consulting firm. And so long story short, it was. What a lot of people would think of as boring, but the great skills I got from that was learning how to help business owners and seeing how a small consulting [00:06:00] firm ran and somewhere in between there, I ended up in sales and I was stressed out, overworked.
I had a health scare and I said, you know what, for this kind of pressure. I want to be selling something that I really truly believe in. And so I had heard about coaching, researched it and decided to start my own coaching business.
Jeremy: Just like that.
Porschia: Just like that. And then I did realize, in studying, Exactly what coaching is and getting certified that coaching is really everything I wanted to do, but I didn’t know existed because back then they didn’t talk about coaching when I was an undergrad, like it wasn’t obviously main street like it is today.
So just the solution oriented nature of coaching the positive side, working with people as opposed to focusing on, like psychological traumas and things like that. Was just really prolific to me and I wanted to be a part of it.
Jeremy: So let’s talk about promotion is getting promoted only about [00:07:00] Moving up in the hierarchy and getting paid more
Porschia: So I think this depends on who you ask jeremy for me The answer is no.
I think it really depends on the type of promotion. It depends on the individual depends on the organization it depends on and by type of promotion, the role that You are being promoted into. So I don’t think that, it’s all about one aspect or another.
Jeremy: What do you see, say, in addition to a role as being a kind of promotion?
So suppose you’re asked if you can spend some time working on a particular project because they have seen skills in you and it doesn’t make sense. Form a natural part of what you’ve been doing or your job description, but it’s something that they’ve realized, you could be a good fit for this.
Porschia: Taking on extra job duties is one way that I like to talk about that with our clients, Jeremy. And you’re right. Sometimes people just, See [00:08:00] things in you or in someone else. And they asked them to work on special projects. Another way that a lot of our clients have experienced that is someone has said, Hey, can you train this new person that’s coming into your role?
Even though their job title isn’t technically trainer, or manager, but they might be asked to do those extra job duties. If you embrace those, that can be a great way to position yourself for promotion in the future.
Jeremy: I’ve seen people push back against that and say something along the lines of, it’s not in my job spec and I’m not going to get paid any more money to do this sort of thing, so why should I?
I’m curious to know how you approach that sort of mindset. So
Porschia: it’s definitely a mindset that you can have and it is a common one. I really think that it depends on where you are in your career. And if you want to be promoted at some point in, I’m [00:09:00] sure most people’s working lives, you started off in a position of learning, growing, developing, quote, unquote, to some degree.
And if you are interested in getting promoted at your current organization, then I would encourage you to perhaps. Think about, possibly going above and beyond really. And yes, you can say, Hey, that’s not in my job description. I’m not getting paid to do that. I’m not doing any extra work.
You’re definitely well within your right to do that, but you just really have to make that internal decision for yourself. Do I want to go above and beyond? You don’t have to, right? There are no have twos in this life, but, and then how, Do you want to see your career play out in that organization that you’re in?
And if you do desire a promotion, if you do desire to perhaps develop within that organization, then I would encourage you to really reflect on, [00:10:00] taking on extra roles. Now, again, when I say take on extra roles, I’m not saying be used, right? I’m not saying do two and three different job descriptions.
Like I know during COVID a lot of people were doing and even now, There are a lot of layoffs going on. I’m not saying that, but I am saying, going above and beyond your job duties. And a lot of people are actually not only encouraged to do that, but depending on how your organization handles the performance review process, the only way to get that exceeding, exceeding expectations, which is a common Kind of top performance review metric, right?
Are you at expectations above expectations or exceeding expectations? A lot of times to get that exceeding expectations, you are going to have to go above and beyond, right? But again, it’s your choice.
Jeremy: And just going back to what you were saying earlier, when you talk about above and beyond, you’re not necessarily talking about doing more hours, because that’s something that is definitely going to put some [00:11:00] people off.
If your hours are nine to five, and for whatever reason you want to stick to those hours, then above and beyond doesn’t necessarily mean, no, you’ve got to stay two six, two seven, two eight, or whatever it could be.
Porschia: Exactly. Great point, Jeremy. Yes. Just I mentioned, it doesn’t mean that you’re taking on two and three different job roles here.
It doesn’t mean that you’re staying late every day, but it does mean that you are showing that you are doing more than I would say, just the average person in your role, if that makes sense. And yes, that can be done within your nine to five working hours. It’s really also about positioning to like, to, and we will probably get more into this and to in this conversation, but it’s all about positioning yourself.
When I talk about positioning yourself or promotion, you can do that in your standard nine to five hours.
Jeremy: Okay. And so just to deal with another objection, [00:12:00] but as it is my, Standard job description takes all the time. It takes that nine to five. So how can I do these extra above and beyond things while still keeping the same hours?
Porschia: So that is going to depend on the person’s organization and their Job role. One way that I think most people can do again, that’s not going to take you any extra time is to think about what I call the gaps, right? So what are those areas that you see on a day to day recurring basis in your job? That could be done better that perhaps are not streamlined, perhaps are not as effective as they could be.
And how can you make just a suggestion to perhaps your manager or someone else in your department? Again, depending on how your organization is structured to point that out and then [00:13:00] provide perhaps a potential solution, right? That shows that you are just thinking about Thanks. Improving, thinking about productivity again, separating yourself from the average person in the world.
Jeremy: When people think about promotion, odds are the first thing they’ll think about is an increase in salary. And then the second thing they’ll think about might be some kind of increase in seniority. Now that might not be an increase in seniority, which results in more power or influence or that kind of thing.
It might just be you’re up another label on the corporate ladder. When considering what promotion could do for you, for the individual, what are some other things to think about beyond just these kind of obvious ones of money and status?
Porschia: So I. I think that’s a great [00:14:00] question. A lot of our clients are motivated by different things, right?
So yes, money and status. A lot of people are motivated by. I find that a lot of our clients are actually motivated by learning. They’re motivated by growth. They’re motivated by development. They’re motivated by doing challenging work. That’s something that I hear a lot where someone might say, Hey, I’ve got this job.
I’ve been doing it for two years, five years, 10 years. And I could just do it, with my eyes closed, I’m ready for a new challenge. So the whole idea of being promoted and perhaps, taking on either a different role or additional responsibilities can also, Really, I would say, contribute to someone’s thought about work by having that challenge factor, that learning, that growth development factor as well.
Jeremy: So it sounds like a good indicator that you might be ready for some kind of promotion, whatever that means, is that basically you’re [00:15:00] bored and doing your job on autopilot. Yes, great way to put it. So developing that a little bit further, what might indicate to someone that they need something but that perhaps a conventional promotion isn’t?
What they need in order to feel more satisfied at work,
Porschia: so I think boredom to your point is great. Someone who might be restless, in some way, I would say, I think those are the top 2, feeling that sense of boredom, maybe a little restless with, the current. Roles and responsibilities that they have.
Jeremy: What could they be looking for that might not be satisfied with a promotion?
Porschia: One of the most common things I see, that people think that they’re going to get or think that they are going to feel, is a sense of importance. I think a lot of people are doing, are looking for promotions or looking for certain job titles or even certain [00:16:00] salary levels in their mind figures is because they want to feel important.
We’ve helped a lot of our clients to your point earlier about, that. On average, 15, 000 increase in salary, we’ve helped people to get that specific job title they wanted or get that salary figure that they wanted. And they still weren’t happy because then they realized that they were looking for a feeling.
They were looking for an emotion that they thought. That the job title was going to give them.
Jeremy: No, that’s really interesting. And I’ll bet if they just speak to their boss about it, they’ll probably learn that they won’t necessarily get that from from the job title status increase.
Porschia: Yes, absolutely.
To that point. One thing I’ve heard from, quite a few of our clients before is they were, in that scenario that you just mentioned and they wanted to be a manager or a people leader. And then I’ve heard from a lot of people that afterwards they said, you know what I’m and I’m going to quote a past [00:17:00] client directly.
He said, I’m tired of following people around and making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. I just want to go back to focusing on myself. And being an individual contributor. Yes I hear that.
Jeremy: Achieving promotion is going to be sector specific in a sense. So there are going to be certain skills which are applicable to some sectors and which aren’t to other, which aren’t to other sectors.
But I’m wondering if there are certain top skills that anyone can look to develop to be successful. To help themselves get promoted no matter what industry or sector they work in.
Porschia: Yes, I would say communication, leadership, and networking are some of the most important things that you can develop that will help you to get promoted regardless of the industry that you’re in.
Communication is important for people who want So many [00:18:00] things, but really being able to explain yourself and articulate your ideas in a clear fashion is really important. I can’t remember the study off the top of my head, but there was a study in the past that really just looked at. The perceptions of people that were able to communicate well, people automatically attributed a lot of things to those people, like leadership capability, ability to handle something just on how they communicated.
So that’s really important leadership. I think, to some people might seem a little obvious, but having leadership skills where people think about you as someone who can help get things done, help achieve certain goals. Again, that, people think of you top of mind as a leader, that I think bodes well for you in terms of positioning yourself for a promotion.
And then I said the [00:19:00] networking. Networking is a concept that personally I shied away from, especially early on in my career because I am an introvert. Just putting myself out there and going to network introducing myself to people is not my natural kind of way of being. So networking also is important when it comes to positioning for yourself.
Yourself, I should say for a promotion, because people have to know about you in order to think of you. And then they also have to see you as someone who again, stands out, not necessarily the average person in your role.
Jeremy: I’d just like to touch on leadership. That person you described who got promoted to a line management position and then realized they didn’t want to chase around people.
Is leadership Only relevant [00:20:00] if you’re looking for promotion to that kind of a thing where you are line managing or you are leading a team or something like that, or can leadership be a valuable skill to develop, even if you’re looking to remain in a role, which one might categorize as a, an individual contributor.
Porschia: Yes, I think leadership is very important, regardless of the role that you’re interested in, and it’s vital for individual contributors as well. An example, I’ll give a lot of organizations, some of their partners. They might have different career tracks for people who worked in large corporations that have career development tracks or plans that managers and HR talk about.
They might know this, but one individual contributor track that’s common is the subject matter expert, the SME track, where you might never have any direct reports. But you become [00:21:00] the go to person for whatever process, software, product, whatever the organization does, right? And in that instance, Leadership is very important in terms of being thought of as the go to person capable of maybe leading projects or initiatives in some way coming in and adding extra insight when other teams or individuals are having conversations.
So that’s just, I think, an example of an individual contributor where leadership is very important and something that people would consider when promoting someone to that type of role.
Jeremy: And at the risk of going down another rabbit hole, you mentioned how people who are perceived as communicating well are also perceived to have certain abilities that come with it.
I’m paraphrasing what you said in a nutshell. What does communicating well mean in this?
Porschia: [00:22:00] I think it’s really about clarity in ideas. And speaking or writing, delivering your ideas in a way to where other people understand them, other people know what the goal is, they know what they’re supposed to do, and I think things are perhaps specific enough to where people can take that information and then run with it, right?
Not, [00:23:00] be confused, not have to maybe ask 25 questions afterwards. If that makes sense.
Jeremy: Yeah. And I think this is probably a skill that you can develop pretty early on. So even if you’re in a junior role and you’re taking instructions from someone senior, then the way you can deliver feedback or deliver an outcome or that kind of thing, It’s, it all involves communication.
So maybe it’s an opportunity there to say okay, so I’ve delivered that. I’m just curious to know whether it landed, whether you understood everything. Is there anything in the way I communicated to you that I could do a bit better?
Porschia: Exactly. Exactly. It’s definitely a skill that people can work on regardless of their level in an organization or where they are in their career.
And you maybe think of something there, Jeremy, when I was working on my master’s program, one of the cool courses that we had to take was business writing. I had never really thought about business [00:24:00] writing and how you craft information for an email in a business setting versus if you’re writing a research paper, right?
Or writing a novel or something else, an article, but really one of the aspects of business writing that I think really parallels this conversation that we’re having about communication is being as brief. Direct, clear and concise as possible so that people don’t confuse again with what you’re saying.
Jeremy: I have a theory that the easiest way to get promoted is to change jobs. What do you think?
Porschia: I think that can be the case in a lot of instances. And I do think that sometimes it can be the fastest way. To change jobs, I would dive into what you’re focusing on with easiest there, but I do think sometimes it can be faster to just.
Apply for another job that’s at a higher level and focus on that.
Jeremy: And what might be the [00:25:00] downsides with that approach?
Porschia: There are quite a few. So as people are seeing now, and I’m not sure if it’s as prevalent in the UK as it is in the US, but there are people who really focused on getting jobs at certain organizations and those organizations Have laid off masses of people.
And a lot of times it’s like the last one in first one out. So if it’s based on tenure, the people who have been at the organization longer, a lot of times actually get kind of preference in terms of. Staying and the other people are laid off earlier, so I have seen people who were like, Hey, I don’t care about this job.
I want to go work for this huge company here and then huge company has layoffs and also depending on your work history, you can come off looking like a job hopper and. There’s a debate on, if being a job hopper is a good thing, if being a job hopper is a bad thing, what is a job hopper, all of [00:26:00] that.
But I will say that when you are applying for highly competitive positions, where there are hundreds of candidates, the fact that you’ve moved around a lot of recruiters will look at that and think of you as perhaps not as safe of a hire as someone else.
Jeremy: In some cases, promotion seems to be about getting the nod, so you’ve reached a, I don’t know, a mid ranking position and someone takes you aside and says, Yeah, you know what, we think that you’ve got what it takes to get the nod.
Get promoted to the next level. I’m curious to know whether that’s something that you should wait for because that’s the way it happens. Or is this something where you can be more active and you’re not waiting for someone else in the organization to go? Yes, you are a chosen one.
Porschia: So I do think that you can [00:27:00] actively, what I call position yourself for promotion.
So show that you have potential, right? Demonstrate that you are perhaps ready for the next level, but to your point about the easiest way of getting promoted is to get a new job. Sometimes you can do all of this. And if the opportunity just isn’t there, then. you’re not necessarily going to get that promotion because the job hasn’t been created yet or the job isn’t open yet.
Jeremy: And that’s a good point, isn’t it? That you might be the best performer in the world, but there does often still need to be a business case for you to get promoted.
Porschia: Exactly. And that’s what can take the time, and things that are beyond your control that are involved in if that job becomes open and, how they go about filling that role.
But I could share if you want some, perhaps, tips or suggestions that I [00:28:00] have told our clients in terms of trying to demonstrate that they have that potential and they’re ready for a promotion if you’re interested in that too.
Jeremy: I definitely am and it goes to this question I had as to whether it makes sense for someone to almost Make a plan.
So like having your own sort of personal internal marketing plan, your own promotion plan, what could that look like? How long a timeframe might you want to be thinking about?
Porschia: Absolutely. That’s exactly what we work with our clients on. It is a plan, right? It’s when you’re positioning yourself for promotion, you have to be strategic about it.
You have to think ahead. I won’t say have to, because there are some people that I think are naturally doing these things, so it seems like for them, they didn’t plan it, but I think for most people, it is wise to have a plan. Think about your reputation. Think about the initial impression that you made when you started in the role that you’re currently at.
Think about all of that as you [00:29:00] position yourself.
Jeremy: When do you start to implement a plan? Do you look at a, I would like to get promoted by, a particular date and you do a T minus something and come up with. A plan. So when are we talking like a year, two years, five years what do your clients yeah.
What do they do?
Porschia: So the first thing I encourage people to think about alludes to something we were chatting about earlier is that. You want to make sure you’re in the right organization first before you start, this plan to position yourself for a promotion, because you might be in the type of organization that doesn’t have any opportunities, will not have any opportunities for the next two years.
And you can do all of this, and perhaps it won’t help you to reach a certain goal. So the first thing you’ve got to think about and really determine is if you’re in the right organization, then from there, I encourage people to think about their long term goals. First, and then work [00:30:00] backwards into a promotion.
So if somebody says, Hey, I know I want to be a director one day, for example, that’s something I hear from a lot of our clients. If they’re an individual contributor right now, then their step towards longer term goal of becoming a director. Maybe they need to, in their organization, become a team lead or a manager first.
And so if you say, Hey, I want to be a director in the next 10 years, then we can work backwards into the promotion that you would be working towards now for a lot of people. They start thinking about promotions at the 1, 2, 3 year mark and that, those are some of the most common timeframes I see people talk about.
Jeremy: So you’ve got this sort of timeframe, you’ve had a look at the opportunities you’ve satisfied yourself that. There is the possibility of getting what you want in the organization where you are. So yeah let’s give some examples of how you [00:31:00] can then position yourself.
Porschia: Yeah. So one of the first things I recommend people do, this is a great point that she made earlier.
I think all of these things can be done within your standard nine to five or whatever your working hours are. So these don’t necessarily require you to your point earlier, Jeremy, about working overtime. I. Recommend that our clients start volunteering for assignments or projects that are already within their job scope.
So when I say that, a lot of times people know that there are certain projects or certain clients or certain accounts that might be perceived as more difficult, right? And that people run from, Oh, I don’t want that account. I don’t want to work for that client. I don’t want to do that project. You volunteer for those, and that can go a long way in positioning you as a leader, someone who openly embraces challenges, and that might be ready for the next level.
Okay, so [00:32:00] people will remember if everyone else was running from the project and you volunteered for it. Something else that you can do, and this goes to your point about leadership earlier, is to not blame other people when things don’t go as planned. Leaders and some of the best leaders usually don’t engage in a lot of blame, right?
Instead, they are looking for solutions and trying to make things better. And I think a lot of times just energetically, a lot of people feel better about that, right? Instead of spending a meeting talking about where the breakdown was and how everybody was wrong. You maybe let other people touch on that, or you touch on that briefly, and then you move on to solution and then along with that is really staying positive.
I think some of. The not only the best leaders, but when people think about who’s ready for a promotion, it’s usually people who are positive, maybe even in a negative situation. Maybe they can inspire or [00:33:00] motivate other people with their attitude. I think those are all some things that People can probably start right now.
Jeremy: I’ve now got an image of someone who’s got a permanent Richter’s grin on their face. Who’s running headlong towards the really difficult clients. And I’m seeing me, I’m seeing that person burning out or only doing it because they have to do it. And I’m curious as to where you draw the balance between that kind of stuff and not driving yourself crazy.
Cause chances are, there are difficult clients because. They are difficult clients. And yes, you might mark yourself out by saying, Oh, don’t worry. I’ll look after that account. And then after three months, you think, why on earth did I do this? There’s got to be an easier way. Nevermind getting promoted. I just want to run out that doors screaming.
Porschia: Yes great point, Jeremy. It’s also about your own capacity and what you can handle, right? So do you [00:34:00] really have the time to think about positioning yourself for promotion right now? Do you really have the time or the bandwidth to maybe take on a difficult project? That’s a great question to ask yourself before you just blindly volunteer.
Great point. I will say though, that if you are again, to the point of wanting to stand out, you’ve got to think about how you’re going to stand out within working hours from the rest of the people on your team. I’m sure there are other ways that you can stand out in a positive way, but I think volunteering for, certain projects or accounts have been one of the positive ways that our clients have successfully, I would say, positioned themselves for promotions.
And when I say volunteering to you also want to make sure that you’re volunteering for things that are needle movers and the organization business focused. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, Jeremy, but a lot of [00:35:00] times they’ve done research about, for example, women in the workplace, and they’ve shown that women might take.
Extra roles with a specific committee or different things, but they weren’t necessarily needle movers, things that were top priorities to the leaders of the team. And so while they were volunteering for all of these, committees or special, parties or activities that they put on, people didn’t see them as needle movers.
So they might’ve been wearing themselves out. Volunteering and participating in all these extra things, but they weren’t seen as a high priority for the business. And so that’s why I mentioned, projects or accounts, because generally those are some of the things that people will notice and think of as important, if that makes sense.
Jeremy: Now this is really interesting because I’m sure that it might not just be that The individual volunteers for things which aren’t actually seen as needle movers, but there [00:36:00] might be a boss who, I don’t know, maybe they’re thinking that it is a good opportunity for that person, or maybe it’s just, they want something off their desk.
And so they present a, an opportunity air quotes to someone as a means by which they can show off their stuff when, in fact, it’s not. It’s not a needle moving job is actually, it might be an important dull admin task, but it’s not something that’s going to be brought into the mix realistically when it comes to assess whether or not someone is right for promotion.
Porschia: Exactly. Exactly. That happens a lot. And they’ve even done research about biases, about who they, who someone would recommend take what activity. And in that position, I think it is really important again to be strategic. So let’s go back to what you were talking about earlier. Let’s say someone does have a plan and they say, Hey, I want to be promoted in the next [00:37:00] year or two years.
They say, Hey, I’ve got this amount of time. And my boss perhaps has come to me with organizing the Christmas party. And while organizing the Christmas party might be a really important thing because we do these holiday events every year, I don’t really have the time, energy or bandwidth to do it.
And in fact, I want to position myself for other opportunities. Then that comes to having that conversation about how you might. Nicely, right? Decline that opportunity or come up with another solution that doesn’t involve you working on it or owning something on your own and you just contribute to it, but it doesn’t suck up all of your time to your point.
Jeremy: So how do you figure out what tasks are the needle movers when your boss says, Hey, we’d love to get you involved in debt collection?
Porschia: That’s another great question. It really depends. So of course, it’s going to depend a bit on your organization. You’re a leader, all of that, some clues to help you figure out what [00:38:00] those are though, would be one, look at what the primary goals are for the organization.
So most companies, especially the larger ones, they share what their goals are, they share what their strategic plans are, they share their vision, mission values. All of that and compare what you’re working on with those things. It’s obviously much easier if you’re in a department or you have a job with a lot of quantifiable metrics like sales, marketing, even customer service, because there are numbers and metrics around all of that.
So it’s easier to figure out what the needle movers are there. But if you don’t know, compare to what your executives, bosses, managers, directors are talking about.
Jeremy: And if your boss does present you with an opportunity and you look at it and think there is no way this is a needle mover, how can you say that to your boss?
Porschia: I generally recommend that if people are going [00:39:00] to decline something first you’ve got to look at it from a positive angle, right? So most people default to the negative. Most people default to Oh, my gosh, this is a waste of my time. No, I don’t want to do it. So after, if you think that way, right after you have that thought, look at is there any way that this could be a needle mover?
Is there any way that this could be an opportunity that perhaps give me more visibility to network, communicate or show leadership skills? If not to the right people then you want to think about how you can nicely decline the opportunity. So there are a few ways to do that. You can either mention how you have other projects.
It doesn’t fit into your schedule or you can volunteer to contribute to it, but say, hey, I really can’t. Own this whole project or activity because of X, Y, Z, right? You have other work, other initiatives that are going on and then have those initiatives. Make sure those initiatives are needle movers, right?
So that someone can [00:40:00] clearly see that they would be asking you to take time away from something that’s a needle mover. Really important to work on something that isn’t.
Jeremy: Let’s finish off on what could be slightly negative, but let’s turn it into a positive. You don’t get promoted. What are some of the constructive ways that you can deal with that?
And how do you avoid feeling or sounding frankly, a bit desperate?
Porschia: This is probably one of the number one things that I hear from clients. So I’m glad you asked it. Jeremy being overlooked for a promotion can really hurt. Let’s just be honest about it. Especially if you formally applied for a promotion or, in some way you made your interest known and then they selected someone else.
While it’s difficult, I recommend that you find ways that work for you to release any negative energy or feelings that you have around being passed over for a promotion. A few, there are a few different ways to do [00:41:00] that. One, you can talk to a career coach like Jeremy or I about it. Some of our clients also have therapists.
I’ve had some clients that just journal about it, right? So if someone is a writer and they really like to put their thoughts out on paper and that helps them to release things, you can do that as well. In essence, you want to get your thoughts and your feelings, emotions out in a productive way.
And you also want to get those thoughts and feelings and emotions out with people who are not directly involved in your workplace. That is, means not venting to your coworker, or your colleague, or your manager. That’s not what I would recommend. You want to release that energy about not being selected in a productive way to move forward.
Jeremy: Portia, we could easily carry on for probably another hour but I think we should probably bring this to a close. Anyone who’s curious to explore this topic of promotion further, [00:42:00] any tools or resources that you can suggest?
Porschia: It’s really hard, but I’m going to recommend one of my favorite books, and it’s not necessarily promotion specific, but it’s really just growth and development specific, and you can definitely apply it to promotions.
It’s the book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith, which I know a lot of people have read, but it really, I think is a great mindset resource to help, that what got you to your current role that you’re at is not necessarily going to help you get to that next role on the other side that you are looking for.
Jeremy: And where should people go to find you?
Porschia: There are a few ways. You can always check us out on our website and it’s fly, F L Y dash high H I G H. Coaching. com. And if you are social, you can come and find us on LinkedIn. You can search and I just let me [00:43:00] know that you were listening to the change work life podcast and I will accept your request.
Jeremy: Perfect. Links in the show notes as always. Portia, you’ve provided a huge amount of value in this interview. Thank you so much for coming on.
Porschia: Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy.
Jeremy: Okay. Hope you enjoyed that interview with Portia Parker Griffin of Fly High Coaching. I wish I’d had this discussion about needle moving activities with someone like Portia before.
I can certainly recall in the past having been given tasks which I didn’t really want to do, but with a vague promise that they might help my further career, and which I didn’t feel like I could say no to. And in hindsight, these activities were time consuming, but they weren’t really needle moving activities.
And that’s the tricky thing. When you’re tapped up for a job, can you realistically say no? And if so, how can you? [00:44:00] I liked Portia’s suggestion of first seeing whether there is something that you can get out of this task. So it could be, for example, internal networking and just getting your face better known.
But if not, I guess it’s something that really, you’ve got to find a solution that you can present to whoever gave you the activity rather than just a flat refusal. Show notes for this episode are at changebooklife. com forward slash 186. That’s changebooklife. com forward slash 186. And you may well be thinking.
Do I really want to get promoted? Am I in the right place to get promoted? Are there the opportunities to do should I be looking elsewhere? It can be hard to organize all these thoughts in your head and to take what you think is the right action. And this is where coaching can come in. A coach can help you figure out whether promotion is something that really is right for you or whether it’s just something which you feel you should get.
And if it is right, what sort of promotion that means, is it a [00:45:00] management or leadership position, or is it becoming the guru, like Portia was saying, becoming the subject matter expert. And then once you’ve done that, a coach can help you to figure out what your plan should be. Who do you need to ask to find out whether there are opportunities at your current place?
If you’re thinking about a move somewhere else where should you move to where you’ll get the promotion, but also be happy and enjoy your work. If you’d like to find out how coaching can help you and whether you would like to have an initial conversation with me, go to changewhatlove. com forward slash coaching.
That’s changewhatlove. com forward slash coaching, where you can find out more. Now I’ve got a couple of episodes coming up which should complement this interview quite nicely. One is about how you can be much more strategic in your career planning. So rather than just looking for job adverts and then dusting off your CV and covering letter, how can you put more of a strategic plan together?
The second episode I’ve got coming up is all about [00:46:00] salary negotiation, particularly when you are starting at a new company. What’s the process? What are some of the myths? What are some of the limiting beliefs you might have that hold you back from getting the pay that you deserve? You’re not going to want to miss either of those episodes, so if you haven’t already, make sure you’re subscribed to the show and I can’t wait to see you next time.
Cheers. Bye. [00:47:00]
