Earn That Promotion: Career Advancement Strategies

Promotion requires hard work and determination. Especially important is maintaining constructive work habits. Simply put, managers like working with people who are positive, independent, focused on their work and present themselves well. These are the people that will earn a promotion.

Whether you are just beginning your career or are established in your field, these tips can help you achieve success.

Create a business plan that outlines your strategy for promotion

A business plan is the most important communication tool that an organization has for assessing opportunities, evaluating risks, and securing resources. A good business plan will align priorities and provide focus for achieving that promotion. Knowing how to develop such a plan is an invaluable skill to all employers, regardless of industry segment. By developing a career promotion plan, you are not only learning about how to promote business ideas and products, but also providing yourself with a powerful tool for achieving your own goals. Your career promotion plan should include a timeline, list of required skills, resources available to help you achieve your goal, prioritized tasks that need to be completed, and a strategy for marketing your professional achievements.

Stay positive

Maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity requires substantial effort. But it is the challenges and not the everyday tasks that will define your character at work. Management is constantly evaluating how you perform under pressure, when faced with the unexpected. By uncovering opportunity where others see only risk or unsolvable problems, you are demonstrating your commitment to your job, the project and the company.

Share your knowledge

Knowledge is one of a company’s most important assets. When you share your knowledge, you are also sharing your experience, and it is this experience that makes you more valuable to your company. Knowledge enables companies to perform optimally, train new staff quickly, and deploy better products and more efficiently service their customers. Key to knowledge sharing is documentation, especially in the engineering and technical sectors, since processes and tools change quickly. Ensure that all documentation is distributed to colleagues and management alike.

Maintain your mental health

Take all of your allotted holiday time. It is important to take a break. When you return to work, you will be refreshed, be better able to focus and contribute new ideas to improve the organization.

Focus

Demonstrate commitment to your employer by keeping pace with changes in your field. If you haven’t already achieved certification or completed specialized courses relating to your job, you should do so. Many companies have internal training programs and even provide financial incentives for completing courses or certification. It is also important to show interest in company initiatives outside of your immediate purview. Many companies, for example, participate in charity events or perform volunteer work. These types of events are usually sponsored by executive management within a company. By getting involved, not only are you helping your community, but you also have the opportunity to meet and work alongside the key decision makers in your organization. It’s important to know who the decision makers are in your organization — afterall, they are the ones who would approve your promotion.

Keeping abreast of your company’s new products or services offered by your company is another great way to demonstrate your interest in the company. Engage employees in other departments, and discuss your projects with managers in other functional areas, even if they don’t have a direct stake in the project’s outcome. This may also uncover opportunities in other departments that you were previously unaware of.

Strive for efficiency

Focus on optimizing processes which you are familiar with. Optimizations often lead to cost savings and improved customer satisfaction by reducing or eliminating duplications of effort and improving product quality. Even if these savings are indirect, management will appreciate the effort. This is especially important in a down market.

Be professional

Finally, don’t forget the basics: dress for the role and keep out of office politics.