Alright, so you didn’t get that promotion. Maybe it’s your first time going after it and you’re thinking, okay, I’ll go for it again. Or maybe you thought, third time’s a charm, and it wasn’t. Yeah – been there, experienced that. Maybe you’ve been having lots of dialogue with your manager and you’ve checked all the boxes, but still no promotion.
You’ve seen others, your colleagues, your counterparts receive the promotion or other promotions, and you’re thinking, wait a minute, my skillset is stronger. Or we at least have the same experience. What’s happening? And you’re starting to take this personally. Well, guess what? You should!
Promotions are absolutely personal, but even if you’ve been having these conversations with your manager or whoever else is responsible for the promotions, I’m going to ask you to flip it and think about how personal it is and start to have a personal conversation with yourself. The first thing I want you to be thinking about is, why do you really want this promotion?
Look, most people go after a promotion because it’s for recognition, it’s the greater job title, it’s more money. And while all of those are legitimate reasons, and oftentimes I do want you to go after the promotion for that, I want you to be valued, I want you to get paid what you’re worth, absolutely!
But if that’s the only reason you’re going after this promotion, it might be THE reason you are not getting it.
It’s not personal enough for you, it’s too logical. Versus, where’s the true passion behind the promotion? I mean, truly, really? Why are you fighting for it? Recognition, what does that really mean to you? Going to a higher level? Why are you passionate about that? Why do you want to make more money and give back? What does that look like for the organization?
Truly, what is your passion behind this promotion? And if you can’t answer that for yourself, most likely it’s not coming through in your conversations or your interviews because you’re way too logical. And we’ve got to up that level of enthusiasm and energy, not just in the words that we’re saying, but how’re conveying it. Managers, leaders, organizations, they want to see people who are truly excited about opportunities.
Because when they show enthusiasm, it means that they care about what’s happening next. So I’m going to challenge you on this personal piece, to reflect it back on you personally. Have the conversation with yourself, why do I want this? And I’d even say, what skills don’t you have that you really need to be looking at and advancing?
You might check all the boxes and you believe you earned this promotion, but is there something, some secret sauce, some little thing that you could be doing to really showcase how you are absolutely almost overqualified for this position? We want to change how we communicate.
Didn’t get the promotion? Have that communication, that conversation with yourself, and flip the communication from the logical to the passionate side. Show your energy and enthusiasm!