The science of getting promoted at your current company may alter slightly depending on the industry, company, and job role that you’re currently in. 

However, there remain several general principles to bear in mind that separates those who will stand out from the crowd and rise through the ranks quickly, vs those that won’t. 

Being promotable primarily means being someone who consistently meets targets and deadlines, communicates in a clear way, and is able to see the big picture.

At the same time ensuring you demonstrate a positive mindset by focusing on developing your skills, knowledge, and relationships.

First thing is first though, you’ll want to decide if your goal is to climb your way up at your current company, or if you find that these opportunities are limited, then your second option is to move to a different company.

However, assuming you’ve already landed a job at a company that operates in your desired industry and that there seems to be good opportunities for growth, then rising up the ranks in your current company should now be your primary focus.

In this lesson we’ve highlight seven principles to getting promoted, these include:

1. Demonstrating a leadership mindset
2. Being prepared for key performance reviews 
3. Scoping out your desired job role
4. Thinking like an intrapreneur
5. Self-promotion
6. Being a positive team player 
7. And patience

We’ll now go into each of these 7 principles in more detail…

The first thing to think about is to develop and demonstrate a leadership mindset at work.

Developing into a great leader is a continuous process of self-reflection that takes time, hard work, and discipline. And to quite a large extent we’ve already covered a lot of this in levels one and two, when focusing on developing your purpose and wellbeing.

However, it’s worth recapping some of the key points here too.

There are three core elements to being an effective leader.

Firstly, there is your vision: This is about knowing who you are and why you exist. It is key to shaping your goals, motivation, and giving you a clear sense of direction.

Secondly, there is your mission: This is largely about having a clear idea on how you plan to execute your vision.

And finally, values: This is what you stand for. Alongside your core values as discussed in lesson three, typical leadership values would also include discipline, integrity, authenticity, and determination.

Typically, when working as an employee for a company your vision, mission and values should largely be guided by what has already been outlined in your job description. So your vision and values should largely be aligned to the vision and values of the company and your line manager. Whereas your mission will largely be your key metrics as flagged up in your job description.

Further to this, there are then a further seven competencies that every 21st century leader should possess. These include:

• Firstly, a strategic mindset: This relates to your vision and mission as just mentioned. You must have a clear goal of where you’re going, and a framework of how you're planning to get there. We would also bundle organisation skills into this too, as it’s an absolutely key skill in order to thrive in the workplace. Organisation skills include things such as planning your time and workload effectively, keeping your calendar and schedule up to date, saving and organising key files and links, and having a good workflow system in which you are continually noting down key processes for tasks that relate to your work.
• Secondly, be results focused: You should have complete clarity on your performance expectations so that you know what success looks like. This would involve having clearly established goals in place.
• Thirdly, there is communication skills: Communication is the underlying success factor in all that you do as a leader. This is largely about learning how to speak the language of the industry and company.
• Fourthly, and as we’ve already briefly mentioned there is integrity: This is about honoring your commitments, and working well as a team player. For example showing punctuality in terms of not being late, and meeting targets and deadlines. And if you think you are going to be late for a meeting or a deadline then you should be open and transparent about it.
• At number five there is self-study: Studying plays a key role to helping you grow your industry knowledge. But you should also be focusing on developing your skills. You can then start to apply your new knowledge within your current work place, which will add more weight to your CV when applying for future roles.
• At number six there is personal growth: Demonstrating leadership in the workplace is great, but you want to ensure that you’re also demonstrating leadership in your personal life too.
• And last but not least there is appreciating diversity: Effective leaders should be able to demonstrate engagement and collaboration with talent regardless of race, sex, age, ethnicity, or thinking styles.

The second principle to getting promoted is to be prepared for key performance reviews.

Speak to your line manager in advance to schedule into your calendar when your key reviews will take place, and clarify the criteria they'll use to assess your performance. 

This should be the main thing guiding your focus.

The first key relationship that you must build and foster is with your boss or direct line manager. So it's important to get a clear understanding of each other's needs and expectations. You can do so by:

• scheduling regular meetings with them to keep them in the loop on your projects.
• ask about the best way to communicate with them.
• get a clear picture of what success looks like.
• share what support you may need from them.
• and be honest with them about your development and career goals, for example if you have your eye on another internal job role.

If you have a side hustle outside of work though it’s usually best to keep that quiet.

You should then also be actively scoping out your desired next step. This should be tied to your vision.

This is quite an important one. It’s rare that you’ll simply be handed a promotion. Usually your best bet is to actively keep your eye out for internal vacancies and then put yourself forward for them.

HR departments will often post new internal opportunities on their website, so it’s worth bookmarking the page, and regularly keeping your eye on it for new opportunities as and when new roles do get posted.

Once a suitable opportunity presents itself that fits within your career vision and you’re at least a 70% match for it, then you can go ahead and apply for it. 

If you’re less than a 70% match for the job role you should still read through the job description, and establish a gap analysis so that you can prepare yourself to become a better match for the role in the future. You can even still apply for it. Even if you don’t get it, people will know what your intensions are, and it will increase your chances of getting it next time around.

Fourthly, think like an intrapreneur.

Employees don’t tend to think like entrepreneurs, so by doing so it will help you stand-out. It shows people that you're tuned into the big picture, you're proactive, and you're the type of person who really ‘gets it’.

Thinking like an intrapreneur not only shows great leadership, but importantly also helps you develop key skills, knowledge and relationships around whatever your vision and mission may be.

It will also hopefully make your life at work a bit more fun too.

The starting point to thinking like an intrapreneur is that you’ll need to firstly research and understand your industry, as well as your company’s internal business operations to ensure you’re fully up to speed with the big picture.

You want to be able to research things such as: 

What’s your company’s current problems? Products? Services? Stakeholders? And opportunities? 

You can educate yourself on a lot of this within your current job role, but this will also most likely require additional self-study time too. 

You should also hopefully already have a pretty strong understanding of how to go about this from what you've learnt in level one.

When it comes to picking an intrapreneur project start with the big picture.

Has your CEO spoken publicly about innovation? Is innovation a core value discussed on the webpage? If you can answer yes to this, then that’s a promising start. If you answer no, then you may struggle to make a success of this.

A successful intrapreneurship project should result in a proven and scalable way to improve your company by either tapping into new sources of revenue, improving internal operational efficiency, or helping the brand build a sustainable competitive advantage.

A good way of coming up with a strong idea is to use a similar method to as we’ve already discussed in level one, in which you’re looking for solutions to problems that your company has.

Another important factor to picking an intrapreneur project is to ensure that it aligns to your strengths, and is linked to your career vision. By picking something that you’re passionate about and that focuses on developing your strengths, you’ll be far more likely to make a success out of it.

The aim here is that this should be a win win, it should be good for your company, and good for your career at the same time.

Before spending too much time on your idea, you will need to identify the following:

A vision of how big your idea could be and what it could do for your company.

The first small step you want to take to test your idea (this will significantly eliminate any risk factor)

And what your success criteria will be.

If your idea has a big benefit to the company, and you know how to test your idea without spending too much money, you might be onto something.

Once you have a good idea you then need to communicate it to the company. You’ll have to explain what it is you want to do, what it could mean for the company, and that first small step you want to take to test your idea. 

You can start off by raising this with your immediate line-manager and getting them to sponsor you. But you should also be thinking more broadly. Try identifying and connecting with relevant colleagues from other parts of the organisation with useful skills and resources who can help you.

You'll then need to get conceptual approval from leadership. Often there is a formal green-light process in large companies. Either presenting to the board, or to the department managers.

It’s a good idea to share the credit of the project with the team you’re putting together, including your line manager. You'll attract more engagement and help from stakeholders and you'll increase the likelihood of your project succeeding. Even if it means you’ll have a smaller part to play, it will most likely lead to a bigger win, and people will probably still recognise that you were the one that created the spark.

However, while doing this it’s of course important to ensure you’re continuing to excel in your primary job role. 

Taking on an intrapreneur side project alongside your current job role will mean more work and most likely working voluntary hours beyond your contracted hours, but you want to be thinking about the long term benefits in terms of how it will help you evolve your industry knowledge, skills, and relationships, which could be the key thing to helping you land your dream job.

Another tactic to help you clinch a promotion is to self promote yourself.

You can't assume that those in power are tuned into your activity and success. So don’t shy away from being your own cheer leader.

It may feel unnatural to self-promote but that's exactly what you must do in order to get noticed at work. Bosses are busy people and don't always remember who is responsible for getting what results. That's why you need to remind them when that person is you. 

This includes: 

- speaking up in team meetings

- keeping a record of your accomplishments and sharing them publicly

- networking online with work colleagues (including with senior managers)

- and having a professional social media profile and perhaps promoting your activity and achievements on there too

The final tactic to helping you clinch a promotion is to be a positive team player.

If you had yourself down as an introvert when doing the personality test in level one, then the idea of trying to transform yourself into some sort of social butterfly at work may sound daunting at first. 

But the concept here is an important one for your professional development, and when you bear in mind these tips, it will hopefully not be as daunting as you might have first anticipated.

Firstly, be active in team projects. A good team depends on everyone working well together, so first and foremost make sure you’re actively contributing to team projects and meetings. Also show a willingness to support others who may need your help. And crucially, always be willing to take instruction from those more senior to you. 

Secondly, learn to deal with office politics. A full-time job can sometimes mean spending 40 hours every week with the same people, enough to test anybody’s patience. If things get stressful, try and take some time out and calm yourself down. It’s important here to focus on finding solutions rather than dwelling on problems. 

Thirdly, learn to be able to deal with awkward individuals. The best way to deal with a critic is to feel sorry for them, to understand that they don’t like themselves, and are projecting that outwardly. So again rather than focusing your attention on the problem they are presenting, focus your attention on something else, something more positive.

Also, make the effort to get on with your line manager. This is the first and most critical relationship you need to get right. So how do you go about it? Firstly, you need to show some respect. Part of being in the workplace, especially when you’re quite junior, is knowing to defer to the expertise of people with more experience. Your boss is in their position for a reason, likely as a result of their years of hard work and dedication. Swallowing your pride and annoyance if you don’t like a decision may be hard, but remember that it’s very likely your manager really does know what they’re doing. Secondly, show your boss you’re all in. You want your boss to see that you understand the company's goals and that you are aligning your work accordingly. Thirdly, you want your boss to know that you have their back. Part of your job is to make your boss successful. This might involve things such as proof reading their work, but most importantly giving them their share of credit when a team project comes together.

Finally, don’t take negative feedback personally. Treat any critical feedback at work as a useful clue to help you improve and learn for next time. Don’t sulk, no one is perfect, and you’re bound to receive negative feedback fairly often. That’s just the way it works in any organisation, they are boiling pots of different opinions, and your best bet is to simply have an agreeable and cooperative attitude. One day, when you’re running your own business or head of your department you’ll be calling the shots, but this simply won’t be the case at the beginning. Use any disappointing news as motivation to keep learning and improving. It’s understandable to feel frustrated when a decision is made that you may disagree with. But approaching the problem with emotions running high won’t help. Take a few deep breaths. If you need to, step away from your desk for a few minutes, and get your feelings and immediate reaction under control before then trying to tackle the problem in a more productive way.

Finally, remember that getting a promotion is not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take time.

Your focus should be on developing your skills, knowledge, and relationships. While achieving your targets as outlined in your job description. With the right focus and attitude, you’ll eventually attract the promotion you’re seeking.

In Einstein’s words: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value”.