Growing in your career is a huge step toward new opportunities. When you take a new position, many things in your life change: status, salary, responsibilities, and how people treat you. If you always prioritize work, perform your tasks on time, and meet deadlines, one day you will surely get promoted. However, there is more.
Here are the tips that will help you get promoted at work. In each of them, we have included practical advice that you can put into practice starting today.
- Love your job
One of the keys to success and happiness is to enjoy your work. You have 2 options: do something you like or make yourself like what you do. The latter is not effective. If you pretend that you like something, you will not be able to do it properly.
If you do your job with enthusiasm and a smile on your face, you will stand out from the rest. You will create around you an aura of positivism that your bosses will appreciate. If you like your job, everything will happen naturally.
How to make your time at work more effective:
- Learn something new about your company every day.
- Be thankful for something that relates to your work. If you cannot think of anything, think of your salary and the things you can do with it.
- Make it a habit to say “please” and “thank you” when you talk to your colleagues. This will create a much more favorable work environment.
- Never stop learning
You are solely responsible for your professional career. You should know what skills are required for your next level and prepare yourself to learn them. The way to a promotion is not to be the best prepared but be the worker who is continuously learning something new.
If you learn, in a few years you will have a good competitive advantage not only compared to your colleagues but also your bosses.
Think about what your strategy is going to be from now on: acquire new knowledge every day and learn everything you can in your company.
How to learn effectively:
- Download training podcasts and listen to them on the way to work.
- Read at least 1 book every month. If you are an accountant, read books about finances. If you are a chef, read books about cooking and find new recipes.
- If you cannot understand something, do not hesitate to ask.
- Find someone who can help you. It can be your colleagues, boss, or people who have been promoted and now want to share advice with others.
- Respect your boss
Whatever your job title, think about what position you hold in the company. You will always have one or more bosses above you. In our society, it is very common to see the boss or businessman as the bad guy. Keep in mind that they are also under pressure from everyday tasks. Everyone is a human being.
You will one day understand what it feels like to be a boss. Put yourself in their shoes and think about how you would react and how you would like your employees to treat you.
Learn to appreciate your boss with the following steps:
- Start getting involved in their professional life. If you start asking questions, they will understand that you are interested in what they do.
- Help your boss. It could be anything: give them advice or help with work stuff. For example, if they need help hiring new people, you can take this responsibility. Find specialists on Indeed, Leadar, or LinkedIn. If you can do this task, you will prove to your boss that you are ready for new steps in your career.
- Invite your boss over for a cup of coffee. Talk about life and job and find common interests.
- Learn how to overcome obstacles
They pay you to solve problems. The more problems you solve, the more you will get paid. There are 2 types of workers: those who spend the whole day looking for obstacles and those who overcome them. The door is open only for those who know how to do their work effectively. If, when working, you face a problem, find a way to solve it alone or with the help of your colleagues.
Problem-solving exercises:
- With every problem in your life, look for 10 solutions. This way, you will get used to focusing on the solutions instead of obstacles.
- Be calm. If you constantly stress out about every single detail, it will be difficult to be a problem-solver. Meditate, do breathing exercises, or work with a therapist. Your mental health is the most important aspect.
- Be creative
Companies are full of people repeating the same procedures over and over again. It is normal for companies to stagnate. Do you know what businesses value the most today? Professionals who provide new initiatives.
If you have noticed, the businesses that survive are the ones with the most flexibility, and this is achieved with great gurus. Success is achieved by taking into account the ideas of workers. Therefore, be creative in your solutions. Think of new ways to do the job in less time and try to provide a better service more productively and profitably.
How to be more creative:
- Learn to generate new ideas. If you work in the sphere of teaching, understand how you can provide students with something unique.
- Journal. Every time you have new ideas, write them out.
- Encourage individuality. If you learn how to pay attention to your ideas, creativity will be born.
6. Work in a team
Of course, your promotion does not depend solely on your relationship with your boss. What counts is that you work as a team with everyone in your company: your colleagues, boss, suppliers, and clients. It is necessary to be a good professional and a good person at the same time.
The good thing about all this is that when the time comes for your promotion, not only will your bosses propose you, but your colleagues will propose you for the position as well.
What you need to know to learn to work in a team:
- Define how you would like the environment in your company to be and be the first to create that environment.
- Become the nicest person in the office.
- Mark your limits. Being nice does not mean you should let others talk about you negatively or even bully you.
Final thoughts
Promotion is one thing almost every worker dreams of. It comes with many advantages: respect, salary, and career growth. To get promoted, you need to stand out among others, be open to new knowledge, and respect the ones around you. Go for it without any fears of failure. Remember that you are a human, and it is okay to make mistakes. If you make efforts, eventually you will be able to achieve everything you put your mind to.
