According to a study on the SHRM website, the average promotion rate for a company is just 6%. Essentially, divide total promotions by total number of employees and you get an idea as to the opportunity for promotion within a company. There are very few interviews that I’m a part of where I don’t hear the applicant ask, “How’s the upward mobility here?” There is a dichotomy there where a high percentage of people want a promotion and a low percentage of people earn a promotion. I want to help you be in that 6%.

Recently, I read that the first step to promotion is to make your boss obsolete. Ok, unless you work for a unicorn boss, that could be a career limiting tactic. My goal has and will always be to make my bosses successful by making the organization successful. That’s led to promotion after promotion. If your organization doesn’t value that, then you should look for another place to work. Simple as that. Next, “being a team player,” is often high on the list and that’s fair. But what does that mean and how do we do that? This post is going to help break that down.  Before we get to the 6 Ps of Promotions, there are a few initial considerations I think are beneficial to share. 

Be Patient:

In high school sports, most are interested in playing varsity. Many freshman/sophomores would prefer to skip the Junior Varsity (JV) gig and move right to the varsity team, even if it means less playing time. Some make it, some don’t. For those that don’t and end up playing JV, they get more playing time and hone their skills prior to running the floor as varsity players later. A lot of times, those players end up out playing the ones that went straight to varsity. The same concept applies in business. It’s easy to get into a hurry for that next step. We overlook the importance of honing and perfecting our skills. In fact, I have direct experience with this. Early in my career, I was promoted often and quickly. This created a situation where I had to learn and lead at the same time. I’ve learned there is great value in being patient and honing our fundamentals and skills. There is nothing wrong with playing JV for a while. Enjoy learning. Then thrive as a leader.

Know the Situation:

Information and intel is power. Here are some good to know examples. Does your organization have a succession plan? What’s it look like? Is your organization’s promotion percentage above or below the 6% benchmark? According to SHRM, out of 1500 firms studied, about 43% had a succession plan. Doing obvious math, that means more than half (57%) of organizations don’t have succession plans in place. The more we know about the structure of the organization and what its needs are for leadership, the more effective we can be to position ourselves into the future of the company. We can decide to stay, go, or transfer depending on the trends and structure of the organization. This is a far overlooked factor in pursuing upward mobility and promotions in business. 

6 Ps of Promotion — Professionalism, Principled, Positive, Proactive, Perform, Passion

Professionalism:

The best way for me to think about professionalism is, again, through sports (and music). Have you ever seen a professional athlete or musician up close? The degree to which they perform their craft is almost beyond comprehension. Try it. Go outside and throw a football. Most throw a wounded duck about 30 yards. A pro quarterback throws a tight spiral, on a rope, up to 70 yards. Watch a skills competition for most sports. Some of that is natural talent, but a lot of it is hard work, practice, and determination. They have fundamentals plus skill. In business, there are workers, and then there are those true professionals. If you want to get promoted, one aspect is truly, being a pro and learning what that it. 

Looking the part is one aspect of professionalism. We need to know what to wear in all occasions and have a good social concept of what area of the stage we are standing on. Funny side note, Michael Jordan didn’t need glasses, but got fitted for some to look more professional in his business dealings. But just looking professional doesn’t make us professional. It take a combination of a lot of elements. I’ll list some key areas that I believe establish us as a professional:

• Practice and hone your skills and craft
• Study, learn, read, and research
• Relentless pursuit of winning
• Punctuality – Being respectful of people’s time is huge
• Maturity 
• Resolve
• Respect
• Humility
• Credibility and consistency

There’s more to professionalism than just those elements. A few folks in my career really stand out as examples of what it meant to “be a pro.” One guy, a mentor of mine when I was active Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), was one of the best pros I’ve ever seen. What was it? In that career, operators must have the book smarts and hands-on skills. This guy knew the books, procedures, acquisitions, and “the big picture.” He was also the best of the best with practical, hands on performance. He lived and breathed EOD. Constantly studying, practicing, training, and continuously improving. He had natural talent for sure. But he relentlessly pursued being a pro. When he retired, he retired at the highest rank he could go. 

I’ve been fortunate to be around a lot of true professionals. None of them are exactly the same. However, many exhibit similar traits of maturity, urgency, competency, and many of the traits above. I’ve come to admire people who work as hard as they need to in order to be a true professional. When you recognize them, work to keep them! To get promoted, be one. 

Principled:

If you read the first post, Decisions, Decisions, Decisions, you may recall that values and principles are essential to good decision making. The same concept applies to promotions. Principles, values, and integrity are all foundational to long-term success and promotions in business. Now, I am sure you’re saying, “I know a bunch of unprincipled jerks that have been promoted.” Yes, you’re right. And sometimes, these unprincipled folks make it all the way up. If that irritates you, then you’re on the right track. For every one person successful at using deception and displaying lack of values to get promoted, there are numerous more examples of them getting ousted. One thing I’ve learned, arrogant and toxic leaders have to be perfect. If not, there is no one willing to back them up in signs of trouble. 

If you think about it, promotion has a lot to do with risk. Business leaders need to know what type of risks to take and what type of risks to avoid. Promotion add an element of risk to the business and trust plays a major role in determining who to promote. Put yourself in the leadership’s shoes for a second. You’re about to choose someone to promote. Do you go with arrogance, pride, and questionable ethics? Or do you go with humility, professionalism, and character?

I’ll say these two things with principles in mind. Be the leader you’ve always desired to have. Don’t wait to do it. Do it now. Act, work, and lead today as if you’ve already been promoted. And here is another key. The higher you go, the higher you want to go, the more humble you have to be. Always remember that. In leadership, you will either humble yourself or others will humble you. The first is preferable to the second. 

Principled people are valuable to an organization, to the peer group, to the leadership, and to the customers. When we have to make a decision on a promotion, seeking a principled team member is a good place to start.

Positive: 

As a leader in business, I find myself avoiding negative people. I do not avoid negative situations. Nor do I avoid reality. And, I also encourage, reward and desire candor. That’s all different than not finding time for constantly negative people. Honestly, they are drags. These types of folks don’t give you the reality you need. They give you only the reality they see. They often don’t provide solutions, nor drive value. And even if they do, it’s not unusual for them to bring the team down. If a leader avoids making time with a negative person, how likely do you suppose that negative person will get promoted? I’m thinking that is pretty unlikely, don’t you? 

Flip that around to a positive person. These team members show appreciation for contributions. They do crazy things like say thank you and good job. Challenges are seen as opportunities. Problems are faced with solutions in mind. They compliment others for delivering results and doing the right things. They reward and reinforce their team for positive behaviors. They avoid manipulation and office gossip. Bosses love these kinds of behaviors and traits. So if they have room for a promotion and there are two choices with competencies and proficiency being equal but one is a positive solutions driver and the other is sour puss – which do you think will be promoted? Exactly. Practice positivity. 

Proactive:

We don’t need to spend a ton of time here on this one. I put this in because throughout my career, I’ve focused on being proactive at every level. By understanding the big picture and knowing your area of expertise, we can be a lot more proactive. As I was coming up, I never wanted to get a task from my superiors and have them send it back to me. Certainly, it happens, but my goal is to always get a thumbs up. Recall, I’m an Enneagram 3 – Achiever. Not only did I want to turn it in on time (professionalism), but I wanted to give them the absolute best version of their request possible and do it better than they expected. And if I knew they needed something (even if they didn’t know they needed it), I didn’t wait for them to tell me they needed it. If it turns out they didn’t, that’s a better situation than them having to chase me down. 

Same logic now that I’m in the leadership position. Being a person that has a good understanding of “commanders intent,” as it where, is a huge value add. It shows you have an understanding of the big picture and can anticipate the information the boss needed to make a better decision and provide that information. I love it when I get something like that. I almost guarantee your bosses will too. 

Perform: 

This might seem obvious, and I wish it was, but it’s not. I’m not kidding, you know those people that walk fast in the hallway to look urgent? Or what about the person that says they’ve done something in the past (never did), or know certain people (they don’t)? I’ve hired people that checked all the blocks of qualifications and seemed like legit, good folks only to find out they just flat couldn’t and didn’t perform. They literally drove no value. This is sometimes a good example of the whole person concept. Some of these folks were high integrity and principles, evened showed a ton of professionalism, but they lacked performance. Sometimes, they will last as long as they feel they can excuse their way through everything. Once they realize they are out of time and found out, they’ll often just up and quit. If not, as the leader you are left to take the action – and you must. 

• Do what you say you can do. Do it well. 
• Do what you say you will do. Do it well.
• Make no excuses and use nothing as a crutch. Let your performance stand on its own. 

Passion:

Just assume that I’m talking about good passion, not crazy person passion. Passion can be super powerful if it doesn’t detract from a reasonable level of practicality. There’s a balance between passionate pursuit, entrepreneurial spirit, and good practical decision making. There’s that old saying that we need architects, visionaries, and bricklayers – and sometimes, we have to do a little bit of each.

In saying that, healthy passionate people can be the glue a team needs. If you become that person, in essence, you are like a captain on a team. In the book, “The Captain Class,” the author talks about Bill Russell, the old Boston Celtic great. He tells the story of Russell’s chase down defensive play that may have changed the course of NBA history. Bill Russell was never the top scorer or most flashy superstar, but he dove on the floor, chased down fast breaks, boxed out, rebounded, and did whatever it took to help his team. The author calls this dogged determination. I call it passion. He did his job…plus some. The plus is passion. The plus is doing whatever it takes for the team. The plus is being the glue for the team. The plus wins in the end. The plus gets you in the hall of fame. The plus, puts your team in the greatest of all time category. 

The plus is passion, the plus gets you promoted. 

Bringing it home:

I hope you get that promotion but equally or more so, I hope you find something you are passionate about so much so that dogged determination comes easy. That’s where we find true promotion. Since I’m confident you’ll get there soon, keep in mind what I said about humility. The higher you go, the more humble we need to be. It’s a positive correlation. 

I’ll leave you with something Rick Warren said: “You can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact people from up close.” Don’t get promoted and find yourself farther from people.