Word-Of-the-Week #690: Promotion

October 26, 2017 by  

Promotion – being raised to a higher position.

Are you working for a company that you want to stay with? Is your ambition to move up to a higher position? What are you doing to achieve that?

This week is Part 1 of the Baltimore Sun article by Jeff Haden Inc. Magazine Path to Promotion: What one co-founder looks for when promoting employees.”

One of the most common questions that ambitious employees ask their boss — along with “Can I get a raise?” — is “What can I do to get promoted?”

For some bosses, the answer to getting promoted is obvious:

Complete important tasks, 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. When it comes to getting promoted, Shah 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.

Shah’s criteria have validity outside his company. Here’s what he wants to see employees do:

  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.

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.

  1. Be humble, not arrogant.

Arrogant people think they know everything; 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 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.

  1. 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.

Best of all, optimism is infectious.

This week’s focus is on promotion. Are you a good team player? Are you willing to take on any job? How would your teammates rate your energy and optimism level?

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