One common question that troubles many of us is, "How should I ask for a promotion?" A good place to begin to answer that question is with yourself — the inside stuff. After you know what's really happening for you, it's a lot easier to address tactical issues.

The 171st graduating class of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. Promotion ceremonies are often neglected in the workplace, but they're alive and well, and more of us should use them. Photo courtesy Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.
You're more likely to secure the right promotion if you know yourself — your real motivations, your true capabilities, and how others see you.
- Your real motivations
- Is a promotion what you really want? Your chances of promotion are much greater if you actually want the job you would be promoted into.
- Perhaps you really want the pay, and not the job. If you do, there might be other ways to get it — by changing jobs, moving to a different company, or changing industries or regions.
- Your true capabilities
- Where do you stand relative to others who already occupy positions comparable to the one you want? This is difficult to answer, because it calls for almost superhuman objectivity. Are you really in their league? If you suddenly found yourself as one of their peers, and you think you'd be a good fit in that group, then your plans are realistic.
- Where do you stand relative to others who might be promoted to that job, or relative to others who might be hired from outside the company? To get a fix on this, apply for a similar job elsewhere. You'll quickly learn what your chances are, and you might even land a job.
- How others see you
- You're more likely to
secure the right promotion
if you know yourself - Is your goal consistent with management's view of you? Would your desire for a promotion come as a complete shock to management if they knew about it? Or has someone suggested that you pursue a promotion? Two very different situations.
- Here are some useful indicators. Do people at your supervisor's level consult you? Have you ever represented your supervisor's organization for cross-functional task teams? Have you been asked to mentor new employees? Are you recognized for expertise that would be valuable in your new position? Would your peers in your new position advocate for you if you asked?
If you find some red flags when you examine your real motivations, your true capabilities, or how others see you, you could give up on a promotion, of course, but that's not a very satisfying outcome.
Instead, address the issues you found. If you want the pay but not the job, widen your view and look for jobs you do want. If you're missing some skills, you can take courses, find a mentor, or get a coach. If others don't see in you everything you'd like them to see, work on relationships and find ways to be a real contributor.
It's hard work, but if you really want a promotion, you'll find a way to get it done. Top
Next Issue
Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info
For more on promotions, see "How to Get Promoted in Place," Point Lookout for August 23, 2006, and "How to Get a Promotion in Line," Point Lookout for September 13, 2006.
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
Why Others Do What They Do
- If you're human, you make mistakes. A particularly expensive kind of mistake is guessing incorrectly
why others do what they do. Here are some of the ways we get this wrong.
Failure Foreordained
- Performance Improvement Plans help supervisors guide their subordinates toward improved performance.
But they can also be used to develop documentation to support termination. How can subordinates tell
whether a PIP is a real opportunity to improve?
How to Deal with Holding Back
- When group members voluntarily restrict their contributions to group efforts, group success is threatened
and high performance becomes impossible. How can we reduce the incidence of holding back?
Influence and Belief Perseverance
- Belief perseverance is the pattern that causes us to cling more tightly to our beliefs when contradictory
information arrives. Those who understand belief perseverance can use it to manipulate others.
Narcissistic Behavior at Work: II
- Narcissistic behavior at work threatens the enterprise. People who behave narcissistically systematically
place their own interests and welfare ahead of anyone or anything else. In this Part II of the series
we consider the narcissistic preoccupation with superiority fantasies.
See also Workplace Politics and Workplace Politics for more related articles.
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- In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we try, in whatever way we replan, we just can't make it work. We're working in a plan-hostile environment. Available here and by RSS on April 23.
And on April 30: On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: II
- When we finally execute plans, we encounter obstacles. So we find workarounds or adjust the plans. But there are times when nothing we try gets us back on track. When this happens for nearly every plan, we might be working in a plan-hostile environment. Available here and by RSS on April 30.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group