How to get promoted at work

Want to get promoted?

Do you know the mistakes that women tend to make?

Today I’m going to share five common mistakes to avoid if you want to get promoted at work.

1 – Don’t compare yourself to others – just because a co-worker got promoted, that isn’t a good basis for your business case. EVEN IF you think that co-worker doesn’t work as hard as you or lacks experience. Your promotion needs to be based on YOU and your performance. Comparing yourself to others won’t win you any brownie points and may come across as unprofessional. Possibly a bit whiney too. (And it may well have been your manager who put that co-worker forward).

2 – Make sure you know how the business is doing – if the business has just gone through a round of redundancies, now might not be the right time. Though maybe you could argue that promoting you and giving you more responsibility will help the business. That’s why it’s important to know how the business is doing because that will help you to frame your business case.

3 – Relying on hard work to get you noticed. Working hard and getting good results is not enough. Yep. You read that right. Everyone else is too busy working hard and getting their good results to notice you. You need to be explicit about wanting a promotion. You need to express your ambitions and big yourself up. Not in a cocky arrogant way.

4 – Don’t rely on a good personal relationship with your manager. Sure it makes sense to have a good relationship with your manager, but that on its own won’t help. Your manager will need to present a business case based on facts, skills and experience, not on how you both get along.

5 – Don’t get emotional if you don’t get the promotion. If you really wanted that promotion and you got turned down, it’s ok to get upset. But not at work. Not in front of your manager. Stay calm and instead ask for feedback on what you need to do differently and where you need to change your behaviour in order to get promoted next time.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll get the promotion you want or expect the first time that you ask. But it is important that you do ask, and don’t just wait for it to happen.

Avoid these common mistakes and you’ll be much more likely to get promoted when you do ask.