At any point in your career, you should always want to get promoted! No matter where you’re at on that ladder, the best practices to get promoted remain the same. To take your career to the next level, knowing how to ask for a promotion is a great place to start. Top Applicant’s experts are here to help by drawing from their decades of experience promoting professionals.
Do Your Homework
Before you make that ask, you’ll need to decide where you want your career to go. To discuss your ideal position, knowing is half the battle. Here are 3 things to consider when transitioning into a higher role:
What to Expect
With higher roles come more complex tasks, larger projects, and possible management responsibilities. This means you’ll need to build and showcase your decision-making, problem-solving, and prioritization skills. Before you navigate how to ask for a promotion, you should always carefully consider the overall impact the promotion will have on your life.
Money is an important factor in many career decisions. However, it’s not the only thing you need to be concerned about. When asking for a promotion, don’t lead with a desire for a higher wage. Instead, find your passion for a higher position as you build up to the big ask.
To understand your potential market value, we recommend looking into your company structure instead of national or regional statistics. If you’re not looking for additional responsibilities, but need more money, don’t keep it inside! Read our related resource to land that pay bump.
Career Outlook
When you take on additional challenges and demands, you’ll be tested to your limits as you learn and grow professionally. To share that you understand this, when asking for a promotion, focus on the valuable experience and new skills you feel will benefit your career. After that promotion, you’ll likely have a bigger voice within your company. So, make sure your employer feels comfortable allowing you to influence decisions and lead projects. Confidence is key before, during, and after your promotion.
Some of the most important skills to build are strong communication and interpersonal relationship management. Your relationships with your current colleagues will likely change as you grow your career. This is why we recommend fine-tuning your communication style. It can be difficult to make that transition if you’re not ready. To make things easy on everyone, ask for mentorship and guidance from colleagues and supervisors.
Additional Responsibilities
Even Spider-Man knows that with great power comes great responsibility! So, keep in mind that your promotion will likely mean longer hours, higher expectations, and additional pressure. It’s your responsibility to have effective time and stress management skills before you get promoted. This is where discussing expectations frankly with your managers is crucial.
Before you decide how to ask for a promotion, make sure you’re personally ready for it first. Be mindful of changes to your work-life balance to mitigate the possibility of burnout. Remember, your company shouldn’t want to run you into the ground. It’s much more profitable to keep a great employee like you happy!
Picturing Your Promotion
Clearly understanding your desired role’s expectations and responsibilities is important when asking for a promotion. This is why you should start getting comfortable asking questions and getting clarification from your manager. It may feel awkward at first, but as you discuss the promotion, you’ll want to have as much insight as possible before making the big ask.
This means actively connecting with higher-ups to further understand the roles ahead of you. While talking with managers and supervisors, remember to build trust, rapport, and strong collaborative relationships. Share your vision and your excitement to help the company as you discuss these details. The right tools and conversations can take your career a long way!
The people you trust to help you picture your new position are your best bet to grow into the next level of your career. So as you talk to them, be open to feedback, mentorship, and opportunities to learn new things. Whether you get that promotion or not, stay proactive in your professional development and adapt your strategy with each discussion.
Talking Shop
To adapt your communication style to your new role, prioritize clarity, transparency, and timelines. These are the priorities of managers’ communications to each other every day. Even before the big ask, make your communication skills better every day to make the right impression. Knowing what to say is half the battle when it comes to determining how to ask for a promotion.
Build Your Case
The second part of any successful promotion is an ironclad case in your favor. Schmoozers are a dime a dozen, but people who prove they deserve that promotion are few and far between. So which one are you? To prove you’re ready to move up, here’s what you’ll need before you plan how to ask for a promotion.
Data
It’s one thing to celebrate your success, it’s another to prove how successful you truly are. The specific data that matters most will vary depending on your industry, company, and the specific promotion you’re aiming for. However, hard proof should focus on one key data point that can help demonstrate your worth and ultimately increase your chances of getting that promotion.
Every company has metrics designed to track their employees’ performance data. These metrics can include sales targets, efficiency, number of errors, or projects assigned. To build your case with effective data, use these metrics to prove that your performance goes above and beyond.
If you’ve consistently exceeded sales targets, increased efficiency, reduced your errors, and taken on more projects, include those metrics in your discussion! It’s also important to include positive feedback from managers, clients, or colleagues to prove your contributions beyond the numbers.
Character
When figuring out how to ask for a promotion, never overlook the importance of your character! Build your case by sharing your continued commitment to improving and learning new skills relevant to your desired promotion.
As you discuss that position with your manager, you’ll be highlighting experiences that showcase your versatility and adaptability. So, always be up for opportunities that demonstrate your potential for taking on more responsibility! Then track and tailor that data to meet the criteria of your desired position.
When discussing how your work directly translates into positive results for the company or team, focus on projects where you identified and solved challenges, implemented new ideas, or improved processes. Any formal recognition you’ve received for your work can serve as further evidence of your value. So when talking it over with your manager, create a compelling narrative that demonstrates your impact and potential.
Forethought
This is a key aspect of a promotion proposal that can make or break your ask. As you craft your strategy for how to ask for a promotion, keeping the future in mind is crucial. Ultimately, you should be focused on how your work will benefit the company even further in a higher position.
To put your forethought on display, you’ll need to come up with specific examples that you can back up with real-world data. This is where your discussions with your colleagues and managers will come in handy. Use the strengths and opportunities you’ve identified in your company to share how you can make a positive impact. To structure your examples, we recommend using a variation of the STAR method:
Situation
Reference a specific situation that your supervisor is aware of. This should only take up 10% of your conversation. For our example, let’s say you’ve noticed a drop in profit during a certain period.
Task
This is where you’ll want to reference a specific time that you’ve taken on responsibility for addressing something similar to the situation at hand. At this stage, you’ll only want to take up about 20% of the time you have. Keeping with our example, you’ve brought up your sales in Q2 by reworking your outreach strategy.
Action
This stage is where you’ll want to show your work. Now’s your chance to describe how you brought up those sales. Dig into your strategy, how you devised it, and the lasting effects of it. Data and methodology are very important when it comes to this stage of the STAR method. So you’ll want to spend about 60% of your time discussing this and expect questions at the end.
Result
Finally, you’ll arrive at the result. When tailoring the STAR method for how to ask for a promotion, you’ll need to tie your action to your situation. This will help you clearly show that you have a clear plan of action after your promotion.
We understand there are many intricacies to company structures and situations. But by using this as a highly simplified example for your template, you’ll be able to prepare your pitch with a clear roadmap.
Practice Your Pitch
Before you make that ask, start by tailoring your pitch to the job description, responsibilities, and desired skills for the target position. This is your chance to show how your existing skills and experience relate to the requirements of your desired position. Here’s a brief look at what your initial ask should look like:
- Start Strong by introducing yourself, showing gratitude for your job, and expressing your interest in the promotion.
- Dive in by focusing on solutions and your hopeful contributions. Don’t just dwell on problems; display your ability to identify and solve them effectively.
- Make a plan to talk about the promotion and reiterate your gratitude for your opportunity.
With these 3 steps in mind, you can create a compelling call to action to increase your chances of securing that well-deserved promotion! Crafting the perfect pitch in your mind is one thing, but to fine-tune your ask, you’ll need to talk about it with others.
Get a Second Opinion
Talk to trusted mentors and colleagues to figure out how to ask for a promotion effectively. Rehearse your delivery with them to refine your message and ensure clarity. Ask for constructive criticism to better share your communication, teamwork, and leadership qualities. With some help from your connections and a little fine-tuning, you’ll be ready to make the big ask confidently!
Take Action
Don’t wait around for the perfect opportunity—build your strategy to make it happen! By having proactive discussions, you’ll demonstrate eagerness, ambition, and vision for your future. Good managers are always happy to talk about adding value to their company. But there is a time and a place for everything when it comes to building your career.
Find the Time
If your job has an especially busy season, you should avoid initiating the conversation when your company is swamped with deadlines and major projects. Instead, choose a time when they seem relaxed and open to discussions.
Most jobs have regular performance reviews. This is a perfect opportunity to schedule your talk around review periods when your metrics and goals are fresh in your manager’s mind. However, before discussing your promotion, you should be mindful of big changes, like mergers or restructuring.
We suggest gauging your manager’s demeanor and workload during daily interactions. If they seem stressed or unavailable, maybe time your pitch for a more opportune moment. You don’t want to add extra work to your manager’s already full plate. When you decide to ask for a promotion, you should be able to go into it with just as much confidence as your manager.
Ask With Confidence
To tailor your conversation for success, start by showing genuine passion and excitement for the opportunity. Be straightforward, and avoid any additional topics or jargon. Instead, focus on delivering your message with the right language and style to resonate with your manager.
Anticipate potential concerns and have clear, detailed answers ready. When asking for a promotion, managers appreciate in-person talks, but you should always follow up with a thank you email. This makes sure you stay on their mind while thanking them for their time in a more formal way.
To Be Continued…
Your career is about to get a whole lot more exciting! Now that you know how to ask for a promotion, landing it is a whole different animal. Read on to learn how to get promoted from the hiring experts that have been promoting professionals for decades.
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