Promoting

This is not “10 stupid fucking ways to act desperate for recognition” or “12 things bosses say will get you promoted, but when the time comes, they tell you you might have to wait longer or you are too valuable in your current role or they hire someone else”

We are talking about how to climb the ladder proactively on purpose. The mechanics of promoting.

People give and receive promotions for strange reasons. Luckily, attracting and retaining high skill talent is a common corporate goal; turn this to your advantage.

Who?

Besides yourself, get your people promoted, and figure out who all the players are in your promotion path.

Your promotion is a big deal to you and is a sub-bullet of what other people are trying to accomplish. If you think about your career path 50% of the time, your manager probably thinks about it 5% of the time. This means, if you barely put in any effort, the rest of your company will put in even less. They aren’t necessarily assholes, they just have other shit to worry about.

So, it is up to you to make a business case that makes promoting you more of a benefit and less of a chore. No matter how you do this, it’s always going to be a chore for some of them. Nothing makes people unhappier than having to do their fucking jobs.

Some common stakeholders include:

• Your boss – gets graded on your development and also their department objectives
• Your boss’s boss (etc.) – the less they have to worry about, the better
• HR – the less paperwork, the better
• Finance – the less money, the better (aim for 10:1 return for them)

When? 

Obviously, as soon as possible. But, realistically, it helps to be aware of the key promotion milestones and the environmental factors that influence them.

The key milestones are:

1. When will you ask or be asked? – Of course, it’s better to be asked because it puts you in a favorable negotiating position for terms, but waiting to be asked can take a while. You could try to use inception to make someone want to promote you, but chances are it’s simpler to make a business case and ask.
2. When will a decision be made? – The milestone here is when an actual decision maker will approve the decision. In large companies this will almost certainly be more than one person (Manager, Executive, HR, Finance, etc.). Make sure your business case helps everyone “win.”

Once you know the major milestones, the next thing is understanding your environment:

• When are hiring and headcount decisions entered into the budget? – Make sure you know exactly who makes what decision and when. Build your case well ahead of that decision.
• How often do people get evaluated? – If this is annual, then start building your story so that you can plant seeds at least 4 months ahead. If it’s every 6 months, at least 2 months.
• Is there already promotion cycle? – If there is, you have less flexibility but should make it easier to meet the requirements.
  

Where?

There are different places to be promoted. Figuring out exactly what position you want is critical. It makes everyone’s job easier, including yours.

Think carefully about what makes the most sense and what you’re most likely to be able to actually get with your current advantages.

• Higher level of the same role at the same company
• New (hopefully better) role at the same company
• Better opportunity at another company
  

Staying put is often the best bet if you have options on your horizon. Best option are usually jobs that are needed, planned, almost budgeted, but not yet open. Next, jobs that are already open if you can chat directly with the hiring manager responsible for the requisition and level with them about exactly what they need and why.

Being an insider means you get all sorts of information that outside competitors won’t get. Use every relationship and advantage at your disposal to edge people out. Rewrite the job description. Bring up the importance of specific skills that you uniquely have. Etc.

Remember, the people who wrote these were way too busy to think everything through. You will be more committed to the role than they are, and you can use that to steer them where you want them to go. 

Progressing in the same role is good if you are specializing. Taking a new role is useful if it comes with some good upside risk. Steer clear of roles where people rotate in and out constantly as they signal institutional flaws.

Be flexible. Don’t let a short term comfort decision cost you long term economic benefit. If opening up the Asia market is going to put you in a position to rocket into the top tiers, pack your family up and go. They have schools and pediatricians everywhere.

As with any risks the key is to provide reasonable parameters. Make clear that the company must provide an end date in writing. Ask for half up front and half upon completion. Everything is negotiable.

If you are in an industry with crazy high demand, or your internal relationships are actually weak, then moving to another company is your best bet to get a rapid increase in cash and some new faces in your network.

Why?

 Everyone loves recognition. Feels fucking great. But what’s even better than recognition? More.

• More money (duh!)
• More impact
• More learning

Even people at the top who have all the money they could need still recognize the value of advancement as a measure of their progress. Well some people at the top also need money to keep up with their law suits for being creeps at work – you know who you are.

Once you’ve narrowed down your audience, your timing, your audience, it’s time to build your business case.

How?

Three things ultimately drive promotions (in order of importance):

1. Opportunity – shit that needs to be done. Specific things that need doing with specific dollar value assigned to them.
2. Sponsorship – a specific person or multiple people you can reference by name. They should be personally interested in helping you reach your goal and you should be able to speak to them directly, regularly. 
3. Skills – knowing how to actually do the work. With all the shit you can learn online, this is the easiest thing to close.

Opportunity will largely be out of your control. You’ll need to keep an eye out constantly for things that need doing. Once you lock onto a few things, it’s important to start building up a dollar value to target.

Aim at at least 10 million dollar problems. If you don’t see a clear path to 10 million in value creation, discard it. Doesn’t matter how interesting or cool, don’t bother wasting time.

Once you find the opportunity you want to go after, nail down a sponsor. Who stands to gain the most if you deliver on this opportunity? This is ultimately the buyer of your business case.

Lastly, you’ll want to translate your current skills (or skills you plan to develop, which you should obviously say you have) to delivery of the business case.

Your business case should basically follow this general structure:

We need someone to _______. Hiring outside means you’ll need to spend money to teach them _______ (insider knowledge) and _______ (skill you claim to have).

In a few more years, there will be other things to do, but right now, let me jump in and get this into a healthy state so we can easily translate it to someone who’ll be able to run it for the foreseeable future.

By the way, ______ is more than ready to cover what I’m doing today. I’ve spent the last several months teaching them knowing that we’d be going after _____ (opportunity) soon. This seems like an excellent opportunity for them.