Welcome back to another episode of Maximize your Career with Stacy Mayer. We are only 5 episodes in and already the feedback I am receiving is so good. I am thrilled that this information is useful and I want you to keep receiving it. So if you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button. It’s super important so that not only you know that a new episode is coming out but so that others can find this podcast as well and help advance their career.
You might not know why I do the work I do. So before I get into this episode and the details about creating your own promotion blueprint, I want to share with you my vision for my business and the reason I coach clients to get a promotion and the recognition they deserve.
My vision is to get 1000 managers promoted into leadership positions each year. And these are not your run of the mill managers who make shitty leaders. I am talking the cream of the crop. Humble leaders, kind leaders, strategic leaders, visionaries, leaders of the people. Managers who are attracted to me and my work are not driven by ego or power. They are driven by a strong desire deep down inside to do more. A desire to make a difference.
People who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the only ones who do Carol Dweck “Growth Mindset”
Do you believe that it is actually within your power to influence your organization? Do you feel underutilized? That your opinions don’t really matter? That you could do more if only you were in a better position?
Or someday,YouI’ll make an impact and have influence at work?
What if you were just crazy enough to believe that YOU, just one person could change an entire organization JUST by being on the leadership team.
I not only believe that you can be that change for your organization but I know deep in my bones that coaching is the solution to help you get there.
Coaching will not only help you strive for more in your career. But it teaches you how to be a better leader in the process. Imagine if your company had you at helm. It may feel scary but that’s just because you have never done it before but go with me. What if you truly were great?
This is not fluff. This is real. You really can have fulfillment both at work and in your personal life. You really can have more impact at your organization. And coaching will 100% help you get there.
I coach managers to get promoted into leadership positions.
And how do you get that promotion? Well, that is what I am going to talk with you about today. How to create your own promotion blueprint. Once you have this promotion blueprint then you will be able to take the steps necessary to make forward progress. To know that you are moving in the right direction. To keep going. And to have success once you actually get there.
Now if you feel like your desire for getting a promotion has been there for a long time but you just aren’t making forward progress. This is super common and it’s why I feel confident that there are easily 1000 managers out there ready, qualified and able to be promoted and they just aren’t getting there.
I thought about it this question of why otherwise high achievers just aren’t able to get the promotion and recognition they deserve? And while each person has a unique situation or circumstance, really it keeps coming down to the same two problems. Let me know if you can relate.
You are stuck in your immediate situation or You are stuck in indecision.
It’s one of those 2 things. And once you get past whichever is holding you back, that’s when the solution presents itself, that’s when you know what to do next and that’s when you create your promotion blueprint and move forward.
Let’s start with feeling stick in your immediate situation. What are all the lies you are telling yourself? I know they don’t FEEL like lies to you. They feel very real.
Here are a few of the lies I hear almost daily from potential clients.
- You work for a small company so there is no clear promotion path.
- Your boss doesn’t seem to care about your professional development OR worse she is actively blocking you from getting promoted.
- You have to stay at that particular role for at least 2 years.
- You are tied to this department because of your expertise or experience.
- Leadership promotions are based on tenure.
Notice I said potential clients because my actual clients are the ones who are willing to let me poke holes in their lies. To challenge them and SOME of them do end up being true. But it’s so important to have that willingness to challenge it first.
So ask yourself, am I 100% certain that this is true? If there is any doubt whatsoever that is just something to note.
For instance, I have a client who’s boss is blocking her from getting a promotion. That was the initial situation she shared with me. I don’t know what to do if my boss won’t support me. So I coached her to have a conversation with her boss about it.
I have this very unique communication method that I walk all of my clients through to begin to have better conversations at work. So she listened and did what I said. Turns out she had never actually ASKED her boss why she wouldn’t support her to move up into the next level of management. And when she asked in this way her boss told her WHY. So now we have information.
It wasn’t that her boss was mean or that she was out to get her. And turns out the fact that felt so hard and solid that her boss was actively blocking her from getting a promotion wasn’t even true.
So once you can get out of feeling frustrated and stuck in your immediate circumstance - even if it does turn out to be true - then you create a path to move forward.
And the second reason why you are stuck and unable to create your promotion blueprint is because you are stuck in indecision. You will know this is you if:
- You have been talking about “doing something about it” for awhile now (six months or more)
- You complain to your spouse regularly about your job but don’t actually take steps to improve it.
- You live for the weekends. You can’t wait to get home from work. You never want to think about it once you walk out the door.
- You tell yourself that you’ll do something about it at the next performance review.
- The most common excuse you give yourself is “I just need to make a decision.”
If this is you, do me a favor and decide with me today. Just make the decision to move forward, even if it’s something small. Say OK Stacy you got me, I need to do something different. And I am about to give you FIVE ways that you can start crafting your promotion blueprint. So just pick one. After you listen to this episode, ask yourself which one do I choose? THAT is your promotion blueprint. You are welcome my friends.
Alright, I have talked enough about why you are so resistant to creating a promotion bl;ueprint. Hopefully by now you are a little bit more on board to actually doing it. Now I am going to show you exactly how to create a promotion blueprint.
There are 3 main elements to any promotion blueprint:
- What you want
- Who can help you get it
- By when
Now I’ll break it down a bit. The first is knowing what you want. This is the part where most people get stuck and don’t even start. Like I said before, you are in indecision. Now I am going to invite you to just decide. That’s it. It’s super simple.
Start with a title. I want to be Vice President. I want to be a CFO. I want to be the head of diversity and inclusion. Dream big. It should make you giggle a little. It probably feels ridiculous. That’s a good thing.
I spoke with a woman yesterday. She recently took a demotion, a step in the backwards direction. She went from managing a team to managing a project all because she moved away from the headquarters. 2 years ago this was the right thing to do. But lately it’s been weighing on her. She is now stuck in her immediate circumstance. She can’t get over the fact that their are no remote management positions where she is living right now. But I DID get her to admit that she wants to be CFO someday.
Yes she laughed hard! She even said, “who am I to be CFO?” I said, “Who are you NOT to be it.” Now she had something to work with. It immediately jolted her out of the present situation and now she knew where her work was. If she wants to be CFO someday, she had better stop wallowing in the fact that there are no opportunities where she is currently and get out there and MAKE a new opportunity for herself, even if it’s someplace else.
So ask yourself, what do I want? Just decide. And then you can start creating a promotion blueprint to get there.
The second step is who can help me get it? I spoke about this quite a bit last week. So if you haven’t listened, go back to episode 5 “How to Build Your Own Personal Board of Directors.” I show you how to build a better relationship with mentors and sponsors and what questions you should ask them.
But here I want to take a slightly different approach. I really want you to understand who the influencers are at your company. Who are the people at your company who are actually responsible for getting you a promotion? In general, it’s your boss. That’s an easy one BUT there are 2 very important things to remember, again I am trying to get you out of “being stuck in the immediate circumstance.” Yes your boss is responsible for recommending you BUT they are not the only one responsible, especially if you go outside of your department or organization. And second even if they DO recommend you their hands may be tied if you don’t have a relationship with the leadership team.
So make a list of ALL the influencers at your company. This could be anyone from the chief of staff to the CEO. Think hard. Does this person ACTUALLY have influence. And the I want you to create a bar graph. On one axis write influencers and the other write titles. Then place your influencers somewhere on this graph. Remember I said someone could have influence like an assistant but their title doesn’t match. So they may not be able to get you a promotion. OR someone could have a really great title like the CEO but are they really able to or interested in getting you a promotion? Depending on the size of your organization, maybe not.
You should have about 10 names on this graph. And only ONE of them is your boss. Your boss doesn’t actually carry more weight than other people. It may feel like it to you right now BUT if you can realize that there are other people at your organization with equal influence and power/title that gives you something to add onto your promotion blueprint.
Now you can go back to ep[isode 5 and learn how to get those people on your persona; board BUT for now we are just noting those people.
And the last and final step is putting a timeframe on it. When we did step one, I asked you NOT to put a timeframe on it YET. That is because we are soooooo stuck in either indecision or our immediate circumstance that we can’t clearly think how to get there when there is a timeframe. Just like the woman I spoke with yesterday. While CFO sounds fun, when she thinks about creating that in the next three years, it might feel overwhelming.
But stick with me and TRY to put a timeframe on it. Do you think you could realistically become CFO in 10 years or 5 years or maybe you’re even closer and it’s 1 year? Whatever that is for you write it down.
Now whatever that timeframe is, 5, 10 or 1, I want you to cut it in half!!! What???? Let’s say it’s 5 years and we cut that down to 2.5 years instead. What would you need to do NOW, TODAY, THIS MINUTE if you were truly going to become CFO in 2.5 years.
- How would you dress?
- What skills would you have?
- Who would you know?
- How big would your team be?
- How would you be managing your time?
All of these things are exactly what you need to do NOW to get you to that place in a shorter period of time. Now you just need to start checking them off.
And That is YOUR PROMOTION BLUEPRINT.
- What do you want?
- Who can help you get there?
- And by when?
You no longer have to say I don’t know what to do? Or I don’t know what I want? Or feel helpless or paralyzed to get there.
Remember the quote I shared with you at the beginning of this episode? People who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the only ones who do.
I challenge you to create that promotion blueprint and go for it. Because truly the organization NEEDS you in that leadership position and without going for it you are doing yourself and everyone around a disservice.
Thank you for listening and I will see you next week!
