Along with, "How do I get a raise?" one of the most common questions that even exceptional employees ask their boss is, "What can I do to get promoted?"
For some bosses, the answer to getting promoted is obvious: Complete a specific task, gain a certain amount of experience, or simply be the next in line.
Other people, like HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, take a different approach. Where getting promoted is concerned, Dharmesh focuses on the employee's attitude.
His reasoning is simple. Attitude informs action. Attitude informs behavior. Attitude is the driving force behind every achievement, accomplishment, and success.
Attitude, where performance and therefore advancement is concerned, is everything.
So according to Dharmesh, if you want to get promoted:
1. Be a servant of others, not yourself.
People never accomplish anything worthwhile by themselves. That's why great teammates make everyone around them better.
Take an unselfish basketball player: He makes his teammates better by delivering pinpoint passes in space, boxing out, setting solid screens, and rotating on defense, all the things that don't show up in the statistics but definitely improve the performance of his teammates.
Great leaders provide the tools, training, and culture to help their employees do their jobs better and achieve their own goals.
Great companies serve their customers first; they know that by serving their customers they ultimately serve the interests of their business.
The employee who's only in it for himself will someday be by himself. The employee in it for others may not get all the limelight, but the right people definitely notice.
2. Be humble, not arrogant.
Arrogant people think they knoweverything; humble people are always learning. Humble people ask questions. Humble people ask for help.
Humble people automatically share credit because they instinctively know that every effort, no matter how seemingly individual, is actually a team effort.
Humble people are willing to take on any job, no matter how menial, because no job is beneath them — and in the process they prove that no job is above them.
Ultimately, success is not limited by how high you can stretch but by how low you are willing to bend.
3. Be optimistic, not pessimistic.
Optimists add energy; pessimists drain away energy. Optimists try more things and take more (intelligent) risks simply because they're focused on what can go right.
Pessimists never get started because they're too busy thinking about what might go wrong.
Optimists don't feel they need to wait — to be promoted or accepted or discovered — they feel if they work hard they can accomplish almost anything.
Best of all, optimism is infectious.
4. Focus on execution.
Planning is important, but too many shelves are filled with strategies that were never implemented.
The best employees develop an idea, create a strategy, set up a basic operational plan, then execute, adapt, execute, revise, execute, refine, and make incredible things happen based on what works in practice, not in theory.
Success starts with strategy but ends with execution.
Employees who advance are certainly good at planning, but they are awesome at execution.
Source: Business Insider UK
For some bosses, the answer to getting promoted is obvious: Complete a specific task, gain a certain amount of experience, or simply be the next in line.
Other people, like HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, take a different approach. Where getting promoted is concerned, Dharmesh focuses on the employee's attitude.
His reasoning is simple. Attitude informs action. Attitude informs behavior. Attitude is the driving force behind every achievement, accomplishment, and success.
Attitude, where performance and therefore advancement is concerned, is everything.
So according to Dharmesh, if you want to get promoted:
1. Be a servant of others, not yourself.
People never accomplish anything worthwhile by themselves. That's why great teammates make everyone around them better.
Take an unselfish basketball player: He makes his teammates better by delivering pinpoint passes in space, boxing out, setting solid screens, and rotating on defense, all the things that don't show up in the statistics but definitely improve the performance of his teammates.
Great leaders provide the tools, training, and culture to help their employees do their jobs better and achieve their own goals.
Great companies serve their customers first; they know that by serving their customers they ultimately serve the interests of their business.
The employee who's only in it for himself will someday be by himself. The employee in it for others may not get all the limelight, but the right people definitely notice.
2. Be humble, not arrogant.
Arrogant people think they knoweverything; humble people are always learning. Humble people ask questions. Humble people ask for help.
Humble people automatically share credit because they instinctively know that every effort, no matter how seemingly individual, is actually a team effort.
Humble people are willing to take on any job, no matter how menial, because no job is beneath them — and in the process they prove that no job is above them.
Ultimately, success is not limited by how high you can stretch but by how low you are willing to bend.
3. Be optimistic, not pessimistic.
Optimists add energy; pessimists drain away energy. Optimists try more things and take more (intelligent) risks simply because they're focused on what can go right.
Pessimists never get started because they're too busy thinking about what might go wrong.
Optimists don't feel they need to wait — to be promoted or accepted or discovered — they feel if they work hard they can accomplish almost anything.
Best of all, optimism is infectious.
4. Focus on execution.
Planning is important, but too many shelves are filled with strategies that were never implemented.
The best employees develop an idea, create a strategy, set up a basic operational plan, then execute, adapt, execute, revise, execute, refine, and make incredible things happen based on what works in practice, not in theory.
Success starts with strategy but ends with execution.
Employees who advance are certainly good at planning, but they are awesome at execution.
Source: Business Insider UK
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