Promote Yourself!

One of the easiest ways to get promoted is to create a job for yourself in your organization that needs to be done. It needs to be one you would love to do and feel passionate about doing. To do this, you need to do a bit of brainstorming. Get your pen and paper and write down anything that comes to mind. Don’t think about what is possible and what is not, If something comes to mind, write it!

If you did this job, what problem would you solve for your company? What pain would you fix? A software company, that will we refer to as XYZ, has an employee by the name of Kevin. He has been a Project Manager on a Software Development Team. His company has their own email system and it is a bit clunky. Kevin recently realized that if they developed a software tool, the e-mail would run smoothly. This is the problem Kevin wants to solve for his company.

Once you have figured out what problem is that you would solve, you need to determine what the job would look like. Can you visualize the job in your mind? What would the job responsibilities be? If you did the job, what would you do? What would the title of the job be? Kevin of XYZ Company determined

A software company, that will we refer to as XYZ, has an employee by the name of Kevin. He has been a Project Manager on a Software Development Team. His company has their own email system and it is a bit clunky. Kevin recently realized that if they developed a software tool, the e-mail would run smoothly. This is the problem Kevin wants to solve for his company.

Take a minute and think, what would this job look like. company look like? If you did the job, what would you achieve for your company? Envision it in your mind. What would the job entail? How would it be done? Write this all down. Is there any training you would need to be able to do the work? As you look at this "new job" are there pieces of the work that you can start doing in your current
job? Once you have determined what the job will look like, it is time to create a proposal to take to management. There is more coming on writing the proposal. Stay tuned…

"So, How About That Slacker"

Have you ever been frustrated that there was a “slacker” on the team you worked on? Often on a team, there is a slacker! Everyone on the team usually knows who they are. A manager I was coaching mentioned that one of her employees told her that she needed to be harder on someone on the team who was not “pulling their weight.” The manager was caught off guard when her employee brought this up and was not sure how to respond. She did say though that she was constantly working with “the slacker” behind closed doors. She did not like to discipline in public. Great managers praise in public and discipline in private. If you have a great manager, you won’t know even know the “slacker” is being disciplined. It will all occur behind closed doors. Next time you think your manager is being unfair and allowing the slacker to get away with a lot, take a moment and remind yourself that perhaps you have a great manager that helps people make corrections and changes behind closed doors! In addition, stop thinking about others and concentrate on your own career. If you are concentrating on what they are doing, you are not moving yourself up! What steps can you take to better yourself?