How to Get Promoted (Part 1)

Right. It reminds me of the book. Swallow the frog. Eat the frog. Yes. We do need to swallow it. So maybe that's the SQL grouse. Yeah, Hey there, friends and welcome to becoming a boss where we take some time each week to talk about a specific situation at work. I'm your host, Megan. And today I'm back with my wonderful husband, Justin. Just like to say hello. I'm the husband. So our question for the people today is simple. Do you want to get promoted? Yes. Do you want to get promoted? Because if you do, this is going to be very helpful. Here's why Justin and I have both been promoted a bunch of times, and I haven't turned down a couple of promotions, many. Many. Yeah. For the same job, they just kept asking you to get promoted. You didn't want to do it. Sometimes that's the case. That's true. I didn't know. That that was the case for people in the world. I thought just everyone wanted to get promoted. Until I didn't want to get promoted. Yeah. Maybe we should leave that for the end. Story story story. Okay, well, either way, we're going to give you some practical handles, if you want to be promoted. And just to give you an idea, I've already Googled it. So I've done your research. And I got to tell you nothing good is in there. Okay. It said, um, be creative. That was. Legit. It's a creative answer. Dude. No. How do you be creative? Like it's so. Yeah, Nope. what was something else they found? Oh, the Goog said. Don't be a squeaky wheel. Could you be. A little more unclear, possibly if you tried. All right. Sounds like it's, don't complain. But still that doesn't, that's not helpful. That's not something that you can do it just right. And then there's time the worry you should speak up. In fact, we'll get to that, but it's on the list. Okay. Because speaking up as a gift. Yeah. All right. Go anyway. So there are a total of 12 practical things that I want to give you. Which is kind of what, so we're going to break it up into two episodes, one through six, seven through 12, you get the idea. we want to be able to give you the context for each of the steps. Don't sound like the Google. And say something like. Be creative and not allow any color. So. Before we go into the first six though. I just want to say. We're all in different walks of life and in different stages of our careers, but just generally speaking. When you get hired, you should probably give it. A few months to learn your job. Well, yeah. And maybe even teach other people how to also be good at their job, just, you know, Disseminate the knowledge, right. At least figure out the bare minimum. What are you being asked? What are your expectations then do well there because you gotta get, you gotta get your bearings right before you start leading people. All right. So that being said, Ooh, wait, you brought up a good point. You said before you start leading people, but promotions do not. Always mean that you get to lead people. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean the whole premise of becoming a boss is that you're always leading. Okay. with or without the title. So maybe I should've corrected myself. Okay. Just saying. People are watching you. That's true. do you ever have a boss tell you. You're being interviewed for your next job every single day that you come into the office. Never. You've never heard that. No. I thought that was common. Yeah. Because they're always trying to tell you to wear a suit to work. I'm kind of showing my age, maybe a little. They told you to wear a suit to work? Yes, that's what we were told. If you want to get promoted dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have. I've heard that. Okay. So not alone. No. Well, I mean, I heard that phrase, but I never heard wear a suit to work, except I worked at a bank, so I had to wear a suit to work regardless. It was just dress code to get hired. Yes. Common knowledge. And then every place you need to see to where. Well, yeah, that's how I took it. Okay. Wear a suit every day. okay. I took that advice. Like I take most advice. Threw it away. Just kidding. No. I mean, I wanna, I'm gonna think it through, but I also am going to make my own decision. True. Because have my own experiences. Right. Yeah. So I take my own experiences. Listen to what somebody's saying, determine if it's viable advice. Yes. If this sounds reasonable. Try it. Yeah. Try it yourself. So, What are the six that we're going to be going through this time? Well, I mean, I kind of want to get your idea. Okay. I've already. Got 12. In front of me. And I was just going to ask you, what do you think are your most important points? If you were trying to tell somebody how to get promoted? If I were to tell somebody. How to get promoted. I would say. Start by figuring out. Your boss has biggest problem. Ooh, that's on the list too. Cool. Nice. Fist bump this bump. All right. So yes. now, why don't you expand upon what you just said before? I just jump in. Yeah. Sure. Bosses are trying to solve problems that we don't even know about. And so if we know about them, we can actually support them and be extra helpful. Again. We want to be able to show that we have capacity, we can take care of her current job, figuring out what their problem is, and then give creative. Ooh, we can be creative. Oh, my word. We can be creative with the solutions that we suggest. So now we know what Griggs meant. Yes. All right. We're crossing over into actually two of them, because one of the things that I had is two. Eliminate problems. I found it. All right. So it's, it's pretty far down on my list. I thought it was a little higher up, but solve problems. And what solving problems has done for me personally, because I'm always speaking from my own experience. Is that. It helps you to get noticed. When you're going around eliminating people's problems. And how people. See, the problems are being removed. They see that you're the one doing it. And it's a good book. Yeah. The other thing it does is I actually learned this recently. And helps to build your resume when you're going around solving problems. Hm, my resume was pretty basic. I don't usually use it. I usually stick with the same company for a long time. Yeah. But it just so happened that I was updating my resume. And I took someone's advice, which was to take away the basic responsibilities. Because if you're a manager, you don't need to say that you leave people. We get it. You're a manager, managed lead people, blah, blah, blah. So not to say that. Okay. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, the advice was to take away the basic responsibilities and focus only on listing what you've done that was above and beyond. when you're solving problems, this is above and beyond and you can list it if you let a project, or if you. created a training. You deliver training. You can put this on your resume. Sure. It's a resume builder. Yes. And it gets you noticed, right? Not that you're doing it to be noticed. But if you want to get promoted, You're going to have to get notice before you get promoted. Yeah. Okay. What else he got. Figure out what you're good at. No, I didn't have that. Oh, Well, tell me what you mean. Maybe I do have it and it just sounds different. Well, I would say with the last one that figuring out what you're good at is also going to be important because if your boss has a lot of problems that you don't want to solve, that's just overwhelming. You're going to need to be able to get creative with using what you are good at to be able to help them in a different way. So if one of their problems is that they need to be checking on a lot of coworkers. maybe there's something that you figured out at your job that will help the other people that are working alongside you. Making your boss, or superiors load lighters that they can focus on the tasks that they have at hand. They will feel like they don't need to check in as much because you were helping. Stepping up in a leader capacity, even if you don't have the title of leader. I'm going to put that under a problem-solving still. Yeah. But in life generally. It's a good idea to know what you're good at. And also what gives you joy? Do not make me jump into working genius. I feel like every conversation is a secret ploy. To make me talk about WG. It is. I just love it. Yeah, me too. You should know what gives you joy? Yes. Because your whole life you're at work 8, 9, 10 hours a day. Every single day. Please. Jesus. Yeah, you should find out what gives you joy. Give us joy in our drops. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to give you a trick. Okay on my list. Answer your bosses emails right away. That's a good trick. It's a good track now, whether or not all bosses need their emails answered right away. Is aside the point. However, I accidentally learned that my boss wanted his emails answered right away. And since I learned that lesson, I just treated all my bosses that way. It's funny. And you do get a lot of email. Maybe not everybody, but I get a lot of emails typically in my roles that I've had in the past. And I put a little chime on there. I know when it's coming in and I answer. Immediately. And how did you learn that your boss wanted you to respond quickly? Because he would come and hover at me over my desk. After he sent the email. Right after. Yeah, he would just come out and hover. Yep. I learned that. Okay. But since then, I have just always made it a habit. And I think that it's made. An impression. Yeah. People appreciate it. People appreciate it. See, it's a priority. It is. And when you think about how many emails we get in in a day, and that you are prioritizing your bosses emails, I think that it means a lot. Yeah. And from my own perspective of being in the boss's seat, I do appreciate it when my emails are answered. Right away, not expected. but it's appreciated and especially sometimes it's urgent. Yeah. So, yeah. Anyway, I have another one. Okay. I don't know if it's on your list. Let's see. Being the first. To arrive. Okay. So it is, and it isn't, I'll tell you what I have. Be in the top 10% of character. Okay. this is probably the hardest thing on my list. If you're already not practicing. But to have good character, I know is a generalization, but for example, Being on time is one of them. Yes. Another one is to be kind to other people. Another one is to do what you said. You're going to do. These are, this is the speed of trust right now, commitments. I think I heard it in the speed of trust, where it talks about do what you say you're going to do. Being on time to work is also a part of keeping commitments because. As you said you were going to be there. Yeah. So it'd be there. Five minutes late means you broke your commitment. Yeah. And. Although being late one time out of a year is not that big of a deal. Being consistent with keeping your commitments is a big deal and people do notice. And. I will tell you what else they're going to know. I'll tell you what they're going to notice first. When you're late. Yep. Don't notice when you're late. Yeah. The meetings. To the office. They're always the person that's five minutes late and then sends a text message that says, sorry, I'm late. I'll be there soon. I mean, I've done it. But also building the consistent. A habit. Being on time. It just gets attributed to your character and people remember that when they're considering who's going to get promoted. I definitely consider it because I lump it in as part of your character, if you can't be on time, which is kind of a basic expectation, right. Then are you going to submit the report in time? Right. It adds into, can I trust them? Exactly. And I got to tell you, I don't trust people. Okay. I've got trust issues. You trust your husband. I trust you because you do the speed of trust. Yeah. You have great character. it's a short list, but you're on it at the top chef. I now think goodness. We made it. Okay. I've never won and probably all of these are going to be on the speed of trust, Don't talk badly about people. Yep. In fact, oppositely to speak positively about people in front of their face and behind their back. Yeah. Do both. Yeah. Because. You want to be the type of person. That. Has more positive things come out or mouth than negative. That's the type of person you want to. Emulate. Yes. Okay. And the last thing I had for character. Okay. Volunteer for things. Ouch. So like for my dog shelter. No. I mean at work. Okay. ' cause a lot of times at the office stuff comes up. I think we can say pretty confidently, no matter what your job is, 98% chance you work in an environment where. Stuff comes up. It's not planned. We didn't know it was coming. Surprise. Yeah. So, because we know that stuff is going to come up. And because most people. Fear change. They will avert. I don't know if that's the right word. Avoid. They will avoid. Yeah. And so one of the things that can help you to stand out is when you. Volunteer for things and embrace the change. Embrace the change. It's one of the things, one of the few things. Yeah, that is inevitable in life. Hmm. It is going to happen. Yeah. So you might as well hug it. You don't have to love it. You have to hug it though. Yeah. And make sure it gets taken care of. Which leads me to okay. This has to be on your list. Number three, practice accountability. Um, let me see. Hello. Extreme ownership. These are all book titles. Yes. It's actually, it's not exactly on my list. Here's what is on my list. Being the top 10% of all performers. Okay. you can't, I don't think be in the top 10% of. Performers without. Being accountable, maybe you can holding yourself accountable. Um, Kevin keep commitments between keep commitments and be in the top 10% of performance. Hm. But I like it. We can add it to the list. Number 13. The same number of speed of trust. So what would you say. how would you articulate the importance of that? If you want to get promoted, I think we need to be able to first hold ourselves accountable. Yeah. So. Not just doing the job. But doing the job well, doing it on time. Figuring out what the expectations are. Things are unclear, understanding completely and not just expecting everybody else to tell us what we need to do all the time. Taking initiative. So you said so many things. But all of it, I think is under ownership. But could you just put it under commitments though? Keep your commitments. No, because I didn't commit to hold myself accountable. I had a mom and a dad. To be mature. And become a leader. You need to be able to hold yourself accountable before you're going to expect yourself to hold other people accountable. Okay. All right. Number three. What is number three? Well it's whatever you say. I mean, I have a lift. I'm expecting you to just know what's on the left. I'm not looking at your list. I know you're not looking at that's the funding. Okay. Okay. Eat lots of ice cream. No. Alright, I'm going to go next. Okay. Prioritize your bosses. The requests slash goals. Makes sense. this kind of goes along with answering the boss's emails right away, but the boss is going to also probably give you goals and requests. And my. tip is. To address those. Our quests and those goals quickly. To prioritize them above the other things. Makes sense. Okay. Don't mess around. Yeah, and get it done quickly. Deliver results quickly. Yes. 'cause then. Cause what you're doing is you're building trust. You're building trust that you can deliver results, that you can keep your commitments, that you can be accountable, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all things that you need in order to. Really lead people effectively. Yeah. And so we're going for get promoted work. Probably expecting that at some point. You're going to be leading people. If you keep getting promoted. Right. It reminds me of the book. Swallow the frog. Eat the frog. Yes. We do need to swallow it. So maybe that's the SQL grouse. Yeah, that means do the hard thing first. Yeah. Do the hard thing first, it's very easy to just do our day-to-day job and just be like, I gotta get, I gotta take care of the things that I need to do, but also if there's an urgent request from the boss and they give you an opportunity to be a part of it. Even if they don't give you an opportunity to be a part of it offering to help. Knowing that you can take care of solving that problem and taking care of your own things. Prioritizing everything first. This. most of the time, it probably the way to go. Yeah. Yeah, cause it's easy to just check things off of the list. It's easy to check my own things off of the list that I'm familiar with. That I'm good at it. But to be able to prioritize my boss's problem and figure out something that I don't know. Can show initiative Well, I was going to say, so you also mentioned ask what your boss ask, what you could do to help. And so I had that on there as number three. Oh, okay. Ask your boss. Well, what can you do to help and to check in often. I had a one particular Ross. Was really good at keeping us one-on-one meetings. And during the one-on-one meetings, we're going through all the things and all the time at the end of it, I would ask, how can I help? What else can I do? And side note, if you listen to your boss carefully. I listen for intent. Listen for. Expectations that they may not say out loud. Maybe they're hinting at it. Just pay attention, pay attention to their expectations either. Spoken clearly or. They may not even know that they have these expectations. They're just back there in their subconscious. So listen carefully for what they need for what they want for what their expectations are, how you can help them. And look for a place. So this is kind of what you said earlier. Whatever that area is that gives you joy. That is. A strength for you. Look for ways to utilize that scale. To solve. Problems. Yeah. That may come up. From your boss or otherwise, right? Because it gives you joy and it solves problems. Yeah. It's reminding me of. When I was working in the banking world. How it was helpful to also listen to the. Problems that other people were having. But then also what the boss would say about the problems they're facing with the whole department or third-parties. So it's easy to just talk about how things are going well. That would come out first. So if you ask questions about what's not going well, you'll get. breadcrumbs to what their biggest problem is. maybe you notice a pattern of your boss seems to be feeling very agitated by something. Asking questions to dig a little bit can give you like, you can decipher. Oh, Maybe I should fix this. So it can be self-reflective, or it could be anticipatory. where you can make sure that if you notice something is happening, that your boss wouldn't like, whether in yourself or in a coworker, you can work to make it better. With that and take initiative to help. Fix that problem. Yeah. Wow. I know that was a lot, but you said it right. Okay. I look out for ways. That you could be better or. Avoid certain things. Fix problems. Identifying tent. Yeah. All right. So here's where we got so far. We've got. They're out of order for me. So just hang in here. So we've got solved problems. Being the top 10% of performers being the top 10% of character. We went over a bunch of those. Answer your boss's emails right away. And also to prioritize. your bosses request slash goals. And the last thing was, oh, we actually went over the next two, which was ask your boss what you can do to help ask frequently. Yeah. And also to listen closely to your boss. You're not, you're looking for their intent, their motivation, their expectations, because they may not come right out and say it right. All right. So that's it. We did great. Awesome. One thing I might mention if you're feeling overwhelmed right now. So this is you, you want to get promoted, but you're feeling overwhelmed. And we only went through half of the list. Nailed down. Two or three that you can do. Easily get some quick wins under your belt. It'll give you that momentum to be able to move forward and get onto the next two. Okay. remember the best place to start is where you are. Yeah. And if that's as easy as. Asking your boss. So, what can you do to help? It is because if you don't know where to start, just ask them. Right. So hopefully we got you a good runway to get started. We're going to do one more episode to talk about the back half of this list. And we'll dig in more. Maybe you'll come back. Maybe it'll be. You don't know, maybe we don't know who's going to be. there'll be surprised. Well, hang in there. Just like one day, you're going to get surprised, promoted. So it won't be a surprise. They've done the prep work. That's true. Okay, well, anyway, thanks for listening today. And Hey, do you want to be a part of the show, call or text us (864) 619-1683. To share your story and we will get into it about all the things that went wrong. Also would you share the episode with a friend or tell us the story of your own. One more thing. do you have any ideas type in the YouTube comments and tell us what you want to talk about and listen, friend, we know it's not easy about, remember that, whatever it is you're walking through, you're not alone and together we can make the world a better place to work. Thanks for listening team take care. And see you next week.