It is not unnatural to worry about promotion. Everyone does. You are not an exception. Maybe, you’ve put in a lot of hard work and fear it going unacknowledged. You may fear to waste yet another year of hardship with no positive result in sight. What you are going through right now is not uncommon with highly motivated hardworking executives. Worrying is natural but it doesn’t really help because getting promoted is not under your control. Instead, if you focus on what’s under your control, you may find yourself among the best ones to be promoted. The best recommendation from experts is to be promotion-ready if you want to be promoted.
Here are the 7 signs to indicate whether or not you are ready for a promotion in your company.
1. You Control Your Job
When things are under your control, you are not overwhelmed by the work pressure. You have a strategy that is working fine. You deliver. Your team is spirited. It moves on successfully from project to project.
Your team does not buckle under pressure. You have nurtured and strengthened your team enough to step up and manage crisis situations.
2. Your Learn and Continually Grow
Growth and learning are inextricably linked. When you continually grow instead of remaining static, you’re expanding your horizons. It’s a sign you will move up the corporate ladder.
Your learning must reflect in the new assignments coming your way. These new experiences offer new insights. You keep track of the latest trends and buzz words in business, ask new questions and learn skills trending in the industry.
3. Your Presence is Taken Seriously
When your presence begins to be taken seriously, you also begin to be seen as an ‘insider’. You feel comfortable in senior circles. You tend to represent your organization in external events. You are trusted. You can develop connections beyond your unit.
You bring in a fresh perspective. You bring in value for your organization.
4. You Can See the Bigger Picture
You can see the bigger picture. Others in your organization believe you can think strategically. You are trusted to represent the organizational interest in the best possible way.
You represent the pro-change organization builder. You can keep the organization on the leading edge because you challenge the status quo.
5. You Can Handle Challenges Under Pressure
When faced with challenges, you handle them with maturity and poise. You are resourceful and skilled at developing alliances when meeting a challenge. You know when to ask for help, when to negotiate and when to step back.
People usually rely on you as they can count you on when they need your support.
6. You Are Driven by the Desire to Do More
Instead of being persuaded, you are self-driven. You instinctively take the initiative involving a bigger role. You are ambitious but it is rather your inner drive that prompts you to take greater responsibilities.
Your willingness to lead is a sure sign that you may be in for a promotion, unlike someone who needs to be cajoled to don greater responsibilities.
7. You Can Influence
Your stakeholders recognize and respect you. You have the interpersonal skills to influence people and circumstances in your favor. You can drive results and favorable outcomes.
Senior managers see in you someone who would one day run the division or even organization.
When this is the way you are perceived in the organization, it is just a question of when you are going to get promoted.
Conclusion
Your worries about getting promoted may not be unnatural. But worries get you nowhere. You may or may not get the promotion, you always thought you deserved. However, the best way to address this worry is to do a reality check. You need to subject yourself to tough self-examination. Do you have in you what it takes to get promoted? These are the skills and qualities you can develop. You may already have some of these skills, while you may still need to develop some of them.
When you are promotion ready, you know it. You have confidence. You know you are on the right track. You know the signs are clear that you are now cut out for a bigger role. The time for your promotion has come. Often, it is also obvious that you are already using the skills needed in the next higher role. From here, it is only a matter of time that you get your next promotion without even asking for it.
In other words, it is more important to ask whether you are promotion ready instead of asking whether you will get promoted. When you know you are promotion ready, nothing can stop your upwards mobility. You will also have a degree of control over the outcome of your hard work.