Distinguishing wanting a promotion, and being truly ready for one, is extremely important. We all want to feel our career is progressing nicely, but to ensure this progression is at the right time you have to consider how ready you are.
#CareerCounsel is on hand to help you decide if now is the time for that big promotion and what you really need to consider.
Making a difference at work is vital for feeling valued and respected, while being an important aspect of career progression. What have you done throughout your career so far that now warrants a step up the ladder?
All of this is great but you have to remember one thing; making a difference will be more important than ever if you are to be promoted. Clear your mind of what the promotion means for you and think about what it means for your company as a whole. What will you do differently with this added responsibility? What will you bring to the table for your colleagues? If you can answer these questions confidently, great! If not, you need to work out how you will make positive change happen…otherwise it might not be a successful attempt at a promotion.
One aspect of a promotion might be taking a managerial role with a team reporting to you. Your very own team… that sounds good right?
You need to be sure you are ready for this, as you will have a responsibility to ensure your team are happy in their own roles and have enough work to be getting on with. You need to motivate them so overall performance improves. This is a very big deal; it’s not just your career and day to day tasks to think about anymore.
If you feel it’s something you need more practice at, try to show support to your colleagues and allow people to see your qualities as a manager. You can get more insights on managing and delegating responsibility from our guest panda Ghilaine Chan!
Having ideas is great but how confident are you in putting them forward? Can you take an idea that isn’t quite ready and learn from feedback? These are skills you will learn from the beginning of your career, but with a potential promotion, your ideas have to be supercharged to merit a step up the ladder.
If you are looking for a promotion, you should be full of ideas and solutions to make the company bigger and better. So some of these ideas might not come to pass, or will need more work, but that’s OK. Proving you are ready for more challenges is not only important to those making the decision about your potential promotion, but to you also. If you are ready to take on these new challenges then you could be ready for that next step.
This is a very important question when you are considering the next step on your career journey. In terms of your career plan, is your current company able to accommodate your goals in the long term? Could it be that moving to a new company might be the best option for you? It’s a tricky one.
You do not want to accept the responsibility of a promotion only to realise the environment isn’t quite right. Even if you’ve been with a company for a while, changing the dynamics of your role is a huge change in itself. You want to be totally comfortable with the next chapter in your career, so being curious about similar opportunities in different organisations is not a bad thing.
Ultimately, a solid plan with loads of thought put in to what you truly want from a promotion will help you determine if it is the right time to progress. If you are at this point in your career, we hope our tips will send you on your way to a pandabulous promotion!
If the answer is that you aren't ready and you have to potentially decline a promotion, here is our advice on turning down a promotion.