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Transcript

Why Hard Work Doesn't Get You To The Top – What To Do To Get Promoted · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard and you will get promoted is a big lie.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hard work can even stop you getting promoted.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Many of you watching this are probably high performers.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You work harder, work longer hours than colleagues and deliver more or better results.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: You watch others who don't work as hard as you get promoted ahead of you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: This leaves you feeling demotivated, frustrated, angry, and unsure of what to do to get rewarded for all the work you are doing.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I am covering why hard work doesn't get you to the top and what to do to get promoted.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I will explain how to be promoted as a high performer and why hard work doesn't equal success.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: In my career I was promoted 13 times in as many years from trainee all the way up to board director of a large company.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I have, I hope, plenty to share for why you are not being promoted and how to get promoted at work.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, here are three important reasons why hard work doesn't get you to the top.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've been promoted past plenty of people in my career that worked really hard.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: They worked long hours and did a great job.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't get promoted and I did.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't work less than them, but I did focus my work differently.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The harder you work and the more you deliver in your current role, the harder it is for your boss to contemplate replacing you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your boss will need to go through the effort of hiring someone new who probably will not be as good as you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is so much easier just to keep you where you are.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The first important reason why good performers don't get promoted is they've made it too hard to be replaced.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Another very important reason why you are not promoted is you haven't demonstrated the skills and results for the role that you want to be promoted into.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: The risk in promoting you is too high compared to other employees who have demonstrated their skills and their potential in the new role.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is key to demonstrate that you'll be great in the role that you want to get promoted into rather than reinforce how brilliant you are in your current role.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, another very important reason why hard workers don't get promoted is their boss doesn't support their promotion.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your relationship is not strong enough, or you haven't communicated what you want clearly enough, or your boss doesn't like you that much, or your boss can't see you as a peer to them.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of reasons for bosses not supporting promotions.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Find out what these blockers are and fix them.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: How to be promoted as a high performer or at any ability level is to demonstrate that you are good at delivering the tasks, activities, responsibilities and results of the role that you want to be promoted into and not just focus on your current role.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I coach a lot of middle managers and senior managers to get their next promotion who forget this very important rule.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: When they change their focus, they often get promoted quickly.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Change your focus and change where you put your efforts and your chances of getting promoted go up 5 to 10 times without working harder.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here are five very important actions you should work at to get promoted at work a lot quicker at any level.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: The first action to get promoted, and probably the easiest, is to create visible impact and show reliability for your next level.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You are not promoted for being really good at your current job.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You are promoted when bosses see and believe that you'll be good at the next level, the job a promotion will give you.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is a huge difference.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have to show your ability to operate well at the next level or failing this, the potential to operate well at the next level.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here are five great tips to help you achieve this and position yourself for promotion.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, frame all the work you do in terms of outcomes and results, not effort.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Actively communicate to your boss in terms of outcomes.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, consistently link the work you do to the business priorities.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is about demonstrating you understand the business priorities and you are able to focus your work on helping to achieve these.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: A great way to speed up your promotion.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Third, share progress proactively with your boss, colleagues and other stakeholders.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait to be asked, proactively demonstrate these communication and teamwork skills every day.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, consistently deliver the tasks, activities and results that will be expected from someone at the next level.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to do everything needed.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just focus on what you can do to demonstrate you are ready.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, show that you are calm under pressure and okay working with ambiguity.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Show that you can deliver value or the needed results in either situation pressure or ambiguity.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: When doing these actions, keep communicating what you are doing and the value of what you are doing to your boss, team members, and stakeholders without being too self-promotion focused.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Proactively giving regular progress updates is a great way of achieving this.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training provides resources, courses, and coaching for you to build management expertise and confidence to lead any team to their best performance.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you are a middle manager or hire, every extra month it takes you to get promoted costs you thousands because you are on a lower salary for longer.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: To get promoted months, if not years, quicker, I invite you to book in a call to explore a promotion coaching program with me.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Links are in the podcast description to book in a call or go to enhance.coach and select promotion coaching from the menu.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: The second action to get promoted at work is demonstrate that you can influence without authority.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone can build influencing skills.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Influencing skills are a really strong promotion signal.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Influencing others is exactly what high performers and managers do every day, and a brilliant way to signal that you are ready for your next promotion.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here are four of the most powerful ways to influence without authority.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, building good relationships across teams and with colleagues across the business.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Relationships create influence, and building relationships shows you have a key skill required for management.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, work intelligently to help others and make use of reciprocity.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Helping others builds favours, which other people will feel obliged to repay when you ask.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Use this to be a lot more effective in your role.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Third, demonstrate that you put your team and the business before yourself.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you work to further the benefits to the group so everyone is better off, others are much more willing to trust you and follow your lead.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is a brilliant way to get promoted.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, showing others that you're able to influence others, create outcomes and help others deliver results builds a lot of influence all by itself.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Others will come to you to help them influence their stakeholders, which in turn further increases your influence.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: None of these routes to building influence rely on a position and the authority that comes with it.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Social, relationship, reciprocity and putting the group first, based influence, in my experience, all create more influence than positions in the company would.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can multiply your level of influence when you combine multiple ways of influencing others, if, for example, using relationships, reciprocity and your position.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Demonstrate you can influence others without the authority of a position to get promoted.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Third, for how high performers get promoted, build a reputation rather than just focusing on delivering results.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Deciding who to promote and who not to promote are collective decisions.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Senior managers or the leadership team decide, not your boss nor a single person.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: When those deciding on promotions feel they know, like and trust you better than your peers, you are a lot more likely to be promoted.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: A great way to build that feeling of knowing, liking and trusting is to focus on building a reputation.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: You gain a promotion ready reputation by firstly being consistent in your approach, actions, decisions and behaviour so people know what to expect from you.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be a team player, like bathers and make yourself easy to work with.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Third, put effort into making the best decisions you can to support the short and long-term success of the business.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, be a low drama, calm, collected individual with a positive can-do attitude.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, focus on creating solutions to problems rather than just highlighting problems.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Take responsibility for leaving things better than you found them.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your reputation is built over time as people get to know you, see you in action, and then talk about you to others.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders and decision makers pick up on your reputation from others and get to know you through them.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: A good reputation means other people help you get promoted.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: In parallel, work on building direct relationships with those deciding on your promotion.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Direct relationships dramatically speed up the no like and trust process.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, an incredibly important action for how to get promoted at work is to leverage your time to create more value.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: You only have a set amount of time, same as everyone else.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is what you do with your time that really matters.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can work longer hours to a point.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: These three actions don't have an upper limit.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard at these and you can increase the value you create 10, 20 times and more.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Create more value aligned to business goals than your peers, and you will get promoted ahead of them.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Bosses will be crazy not to promote you to further leverage your skills and ability for their gain.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, is leveraging the time and efforts of others.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: This can be a massive multiplier to the value that you can create.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: The easiest way to do this is to go into management and lead teams well.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: You leverage your time through the number of people you manage by working to help all your team members deliver more value with their time.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: The better you can leverage the time and skills of others, the more people you'll be given to manage and the more often you'll be promoted.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: The second way to leverage your time to get promotion is to solve problems that stop others creating additional value.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Solve problems and you help two, six, two hundred people work better, smarter, easier, faster, or using less resources to get the same or better results.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Solving problems that move teams and businesses closer to goals is a high value way of using your time.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: The third way to leverage your time is to improve your decision making so you create improved outcomes.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Keep improving their outcomes and you'll be given decisions to make with bigger and bigger impacts, i.e., promotion into more senior, better paid roles.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is no way that I would have got half of my 13 promotions without understanding each of these three ways to leverage my time and working to put each into practice.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: The most important action you can take is to start.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pick a problem affecting others and solve it.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, to get promoted at work, ask for what you want.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Signal your promotion readiness if you like.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't ask, you don't get.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is true for promotions.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, it is super important to start talking to your boss about the next move and opportunities available within the business.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: The timing of this conversation matters.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Start these conversations when you are delivering in your current role at least as well as your peers doing a similar role.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, you want to be in the top third, and then asking for a promotion feels a logical, sensible and expected request.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I personally won't ask for promotion in the first year of a new role.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you speak to your boss about the next step, firstly, they are effectively put on notice that you feel ready for your next move.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is important so if you leave, it is not a surprise to them and you don't burn any bridges.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, your boss is much more likely to put in the time and effort to think about an action development steps to keep you happier.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Third, your boss can keep an eye out for opportunities within the business on your behalf.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, you can get feedback, tips, and a realistic assessment of what you need to work on to be better placed to win your next promotion.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, you can judge how much your boss will support your promotion.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You need their support for internal promotions.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: So ask your boss for a development chat.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ask your boss for their assessment of your readiness for X role.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Get specific and honest feedback from them.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for input and advice on building the skills and experience that you need.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for opportunities to help you demonstrate that you have the skills and expertise needed.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for activities or projects to close any experience gaps.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Start by asking for development chats.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: As time passes and as you can demonstrate that you are or can do most of the next role, start asking directly for a promotion.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Also consider looking externally to increase the options you have available to get your next promotion if opportunities are limited internally.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Keep asking for development opportunities and promotion.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, in summary, I hope you understand why hard work doesn't get you to the top and much more importantly, what to do to get promoted.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: The more of the actions that we have discussed that you can put into practice consistently week after week, the more likely you'll get promoted months if not years quicker.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you are a middle manager or hire, every extra month it takes you to get promoted costs you thousands because you are on a lower salary for longer.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: To get promoted months, if not years quicker, I invite you to book in a call to explore a promotion coaching program with me.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Links are in the podcast description to book in a call or go to enhance.coach and select promotion coaching from the menu.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on why hard work doesn't get you to the top, what to do to get promoted, please email me at support at enhance.training and I will get back to you.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.