How to Earn a Promotion

A Cog on the Wheel

How well do you understand how to earn a promotion?

In the first 12 years of my career I worked at two outstanding companies, Schroders and Goldman Sachs. The first 5 years at Schroders without a mentor or much of network passed by in a blur, but things were much clearer by the time I joined Goldman. It was obvious my role was as a cog on the wheel.

At the time I found this challenging. There was little insight into how the business was faring, or the results of the presentations I spent long hours preparing for others. The message I was reluctant to hear was to do your job and let others worry about the bigger picture.

Nowadays I recommend a lot more openness in small businesses as a means of building trust and coherence. Social norms have changed and transparency is valued by employees and customers, especially in the West. The rules of the promotion game, however, are still the same.

Ease Your Boss’ Burden

If you are in line for a promotion it is most likely because you beat your targets. You made your boss look good and they are happy to support your progress.

There is a school of thought that bosses keep effective employees in place because they do not want to lose their talents. In 30 years of management, I have never heard this sentiment expressed and my experience is that bosses reward good employees to avoid losing them.

What makes a good employee starts with the boss’ expectations. What type of person are they and what are their priorities? Who must they impress and what is that person prioritising? These are the questions I expected easy answers to at Goldman Sachs, while I should have spent more time figuring them out by building a network.

In the same way as you build teams of people with complementary skills, you are best able to help your boss by delivering in areas where they are weakest. Most of us would love to live by an 80:20 rule, whereby we spend the majority of our time on the small percentage of tasks that make the most difference. If you can take some of the burden of the unwanted 80% of tasks from your boss, then you will benefit both of you.

Sometime after Goldman, I got my opportunity at a startup tech firm by pitching the CEO on taking over the budgeting and forecasting work from him. I knew he was spending long hours reworking numbers to keep investors happy and that this was distracting him from developing the product and its distribution. By the end of my time at OTAS Technologies, I had taken on many tasks that the CEO did not need to do and become Chief Operating Officer, working alongside him in selling the business.

Stumbling on an Answer

When you work in a large corporation, it is important to know who your boss gets on with and who they don’t. The chances are that you will be seen as an extension of your manager and treated accordingly. If your good work helps your boss look better in front of their peers, then you will be in a strong position to earn a promotion.

When I started at Schroders I worked for the Finance Director, with whom I’d had my final interview. One of my first tasks was to go to the head of each division and document how they spent their time. Imagine these industry veterans justifying to a graduate what they did all day and being allocated costs based on what they said. This was a tricky conversation but one that mattered to my boss who was mapping business area profitability.

Fortunately, the Finance Director shared his intentions with his fellow executives so they knew what to expect and had a reasonable idea of the outcome. Good managers never ask others to do things they are not prepared to do themselves. This enabled me to stumble my way to enough useful answers to create an impactful report. When I asked my Director if I could transfer to the research department a year early, he granted approval.

It's Not You

There is a lot of negativity about managers online. My experience is that the further you rise in an organisation, the better the boss you work for. If they are not paying you close attention this does not mean they don’t like you. More likely it is a signal that they have more pressing problems and you will earn their gratitude by helping to fix them. 

Questions to Ask and Answer

1. Do I understand my manager’s priorities?

2. Am I contributing to delivering those priorities?

3. What else could I be doing to make my manager’s life easier?

Whenever you are ready there are three ways I can help you:

1. The Profit Through Process Planner: My flagship course on how to design and invigorate a business that scales. I share 30 years of experience of researching, investing in and running companies, intermingled with the science and stories of business.

2. Resolving Team Conflicts: A free email course tackling an issue that no one ever teaches you as a manager. This is an excellent introduction to one of the foundational understandings of The Profit Through Process Planner.

3. Schedule a Call. I work with a small number of current and future leaders one-to-one.