These 7 simple things will improve your chances of being promoted

One of the most enjoyable experiences of any technical leader is promoting one of your team. Having personally promoted hundreds of technologists in my 26 years career, one of the most frequent questions asked is “why did so and so get promoted and I didn’t?”

In my experience, there are common traits that technologists who get promoted have;

• Positive, enthusiastic, can do attitude – sounds obvious but all leaders want positive energy in their teams and anyone being promoted is really reinforcing the attitude and behaviour the boss is looking for. I would never have promoted someone without a great attitude!
• Solutions led and commercial acumen – there are 2 types of technologists; firstly, the one that points out all the issues and problems and thinks they sound clever and secondly the technologist who always looks for solutions and suggests commercial options to deliver the desired outcome. Thankfully, I learned this lesson early on in my career, as a Trainee Technologist I pointed out to a menacing Merchandising Manager that I was rejecting a fabric for being off shade at which point he replied, “I could have told you that, what the **** are you doing about it, I want solutions not problems !!”
• Customer focus – always thinking about what it means for the customer. We often work in a subjective world and it’s very easy to get distracted and inward looking. Technologists that stand out from the crowd always present and talk about what they’re doing from a customer perspective.
• Simple communication – explaining complex technical information using simple language without technical jargon, that might sound impressive to you, but is a turn off to the commercial team. Always ask yourself – how would I explain it to my Mum, your kids or a customer!
• Team player – technologists work as part of a wider team with different skills, views, and ideas. Team players respect differing views even when it might feel like they’re telling you how to do your job. It’s very hard to make a case to promote someone who is seen as being disrespectful to other functions and is perceived to be a bit of a trouble maker.
• Big Picture thinking – Often it’s the technologists that go above and beyond their day job that stand out. They can see the bigger picture of what’s “really “important to the business and customers. Not only do they see the bigger picture, but they try and do something about it by influencing their bosses, volunteering to head up an initiative/project across the business or simply raising it in team meeting or away days. Remember your business, your bosses don’t have all the ideas and solutions; they are looking for individuals in their teams to help them shape the future.
• Being assertive – when promoting technologists at any level you want to know that will stand up for what they believe in – particularly in difficult situations; no senior leader in any function wants a yes man/woman. However, it’s a very tricky balance between standing up for what you believe in versus being accused of being stubborn or defensive. Being assertive when you understand the bigger picture, explain your technical concerns simply  (without using jargon), offering alternative solutions/options with a clear customer perspective but being respectful of other colleagues views is much more likely to get the desired outcome that simply thinking that as it a technical issue you know best.

As you can see a lot of the traits are the softer skills and that why it’s often difficult for a manager to clearly explain why someone got promoted and you didn’t. Often you may well have the same technical capability or sometimes even better, but the technical skills alone are not what makes the difference when being considered for promotion!