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You do not get a promotion without two actions: preparing for the promotion and asking for the promotion. The first step is the preparation. Asking for a promotion alone will not secure you a promotion, even if you are a great employee who puts in the work. Employees who prepare to ace discussions regarding their future with their company get higher raises and faster promotions than their coworkers who do not self-advocate.
To self-advocate for yourself successfully, you should plan to become an indispensable employee and target goals and achievements around objectives that further enhance your indispensability with your employer. By doing so, you create job security and compelling evidence for promotion simultaneously.
Goal Setting
Months before you ask for your promotion, set work-related goals for yourself to achieve. Yes, asking for a promotion takes months of preparation, so it is prudent to make all documentation efforts outlined in this article weekly or monthly habits so you do not forget the details that will ultimately secure your promotion. This starts with documenting the goals themselves.
Some employers have a structure in place for goal setting to facilitate standardized raises. If this is true for your employer, use the structure provided by them. If your employer does not have a formal goal-setting process or structure, you may have to make your own. While perhaps more intimidating, this also gives you greater freedom to tailor your goals to match your efforts to become indispensable. When you have a provided structure, still tailor your goals to overlap indispensability objectives: Just find the verbiage to match employer requirements and your own.
Now for the details: The kinds of goals that consistently lead to promotion share similar qualities:
1. Goals are quantifiable. If your goal has no numbers, it is a “squishy” goal that is too subjective. The simplest way to make a goal quantifiable is to tie the overall goal to specific numbers(for example, “I will expand our audience by 50% in the next six months”). However, if your employer requires large, overarching goals with specific details provided after the goals themselves, the quantifiable aspect can be in the details. For example, if your goal is, “I will improve process efficiency in XYZ area,” then your quantifiable sub-goals may include achieving this goal by “writing three macros to decrease the time involved in report generation from one hour to ten minutes.” Even the squishiest goals can become quantifiable. I set some goals last year that required generally assessing opinions of folks on a certain topic. Squishy! To make my goal quantifiable, I set a goal to have three interviews/discussions with a certain type of office. If you talk to three different folks in that type of office, the goal is complete. Quantifiably.
2. Goals are achievable. I cannot emphasize this enough: Your goals should not be difficult goals that you may not obtain! When setting goals with a promotion in mind, you should have no doubt that you can obtain them over the defined time period. The sweet spot for a goal is when you can phrase it so it sounds like you are exceeding expectations but are actually just describing your job with specific quantifiable information that make it sound impressive. Never embellish what you actually achieve; just make ordinary achievements sound outstanding.
3. Goals add value for your employer. If you do not know where to start with a goal, put yourself in the mindset of your employer. Answer one of two questions:
(1) What makes their life easier?
(2) What brings them money?
If your goals can address one of those two overarching employer issues, and you achieve that goal, you will get a raise and possibly a promotion for achieving them. Your goals should provide your employer with more time or more money. If your employer has structured goal topic areas, make sure to brainstorm how you can creatively make each one of your goals also achieve one of these two objectives. Particularly with something like a self-improvement or self-education goal, pick a topic that then may create efficiencies down the road. For example, learn some technical skills so your employer no longer has to reach out to the IT help line to get answers to questions—conveniently also a goal that contributes to your indispensability!
4. Goals have confirmed supervisor support. From the moment you set a goal, you should know it is an excellent goal because your supervisor also enthusiastically supports it. Supervisor buy-in is crucial. Their support can sometimes allow you to bolster your goals with company resources. It also will keep them interested in your progress, and adding goal-update touchpoints can motivate you as well. Ideally, you should even secure confirmation that achieving your goals will result in the promotion or raise you are seeking. Supervisor enthusiasm is also important when it comes time for them to defend your promotion to other higher-level leaders debating resource allocation. If your supervisor can articulate your value clearly, you are more likely to shine in front of the larger leadership team.
Document Achievements
Once you set goals with all the right qualities, you need to achieve them and document your achievements throughout the course of the goals’ time frames. Do not wait until the quarterly or annual goal meeting with your supervisor to document! You should take time at least weekly to document any achievements towards your goals—even small steps.
The most common response I hear to this advice is, but I do not have time to document goal achievements weekly. You do have time because it is more important than any other part of your job (except for directly saving a life of course, but that is the threshold). Pay yourself first. It may sound selfish, but you are working to grow yourself first and your employer second. Carve out a quiet hour once a week to reflect on all the goal-related actions you achieved in the past week. If you can do this daily, even better, but weekly is typically a short enough time to remember everything but a long enough time that you will always have at least one goal-related action.
I personally have an Excel tracker with a sheet for each general goal and a line for each quantifiable detail under that goal. Each column heading shows the dates for that week, and I enter any actions related to the goal details in the appropriate row/column each week. If you would rather write paragraphs for yourself, that works too. Just record your goals in a clear way for you to understand all your progress.
When the time comes to meet with your supervisor, write up your achievements towards your goals as coherently and with as much detail as possible. Include as many quantifiable details as possible. Assume your supervisor does not know much about your work because supervisors usually know less about our work than we think. Be clear, detailed, and specific.
Tracking these items serves a second purpose: In the worst case, if your employer does not offer you the raise or promotion for all the efforts you meticulously recorded, your goal tracker serves as the best source to tailor your resume when you send it out to competitors, who will in turn offer you the higher salary or job title you deserve.
Save Compliments
To bolster your case and show how valuable you are at work, keep a folder in your inbox to track compliments and praise from coworkers, clients, or anyone else. When you get an email praising your hard work, intelligent insight, attention to detail, or beautiful finished product, save the message in your praise folder in your inbox. When the time comes to talk to your employer, pull all these praise documents out to show them how well your work is appreciated by others.
If you frequently talk to others on Slack, Teams, Skype, or another chat platform, screenshot chats that praise you as well. Similar to your inbox folder, you can create a folder in your documents and drop these screenshots in there as they appear. For any verbal praise you receive over the phone or video chat, write it down immediately in your weekly tracker. This is the one time I open the tracker outside of its normal hour on Friday so that I can accurately quote the praise I received.
These actions are sufficient for most day-to-day praise, but when you receive large praise or big achievements, let your supervisor know right away. I did this last year when I created a tracker that facilitated a review and created significant efficiencies that was then adopted by multiple teams, prompting me to provide trainings for the other teams. Since my solution was used to help multiple people and save hours of time across several teams, I emailed my supervisor about it and received a spot bonus. Even when successes are not precisely for your goal, they can benefit you if you communicate them.
Ultimately, that is the underlying process to prepare for a promotion: Document your achievements consistently, and communicate them clearly. If you do, you will almost always get the promotion or raise you seek. If you are one of the few employees with an ungrateful employer, your beautiful resume will still get you the raise somewhere else.
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