No question: the current job market is crowded with job seekers from all ages, backgrounds, and experiences. How can you set yourself apart and ensure YOU get the next great break or promotion?
Being promotable (or hirable) goes beyond doing your current job well.
You must go outside the scope of your job description to acquire new skills and experiences that will fill the gap between where you currently are and where your aspirations lie. Let’s look at two employees at “Sunshine HME Specialists”, Brian and Chris. Both are in sales covering similar territories. They both seek a position in management. They have similar tenure and are extremely successful in their current positions. During their latest performance review, they both expressed their desire for future promotion. Their boss told them they were both in a position for consideration and said she would be watching their performance over the next year. This is where the similarities end.
Over the next year, Brian continues to work very hard, meeting and exceeding his sales quota every quarter. He brings in new customers every month and is on the verge of securing a contract with a large hospital network and their HMO. He is a master at networking, his clients love him, and he has won several awards for his efforts. He is an excellent team player and is often asked to take new hires out on his territory to “show them the ropes”. Brian generated a lot of business for Sunshine HME Specialists.
Chris, on the other hand, spends the next year focused on the job she has and on the job she wants. She meets her sales quota every quarter, continues to bring in new clients, and maintains the contracts she currently has. She doesn’t come close to winning the sales awards Brian does, nor does she have a huge windfall with a major HMO contract on which to brag. But Chris decided that she needed to expand her current skill set if she ever wanted to prove she could be a manager. She enrolled in the MBA program at her local university and took classes in management and supervision. She volunteered to take new hires in her territory, and even spent time in their territory coaching and encouraging these novices. When a new inventory system was to be implemented, she contacted her boss to ask if she could pilot the system in her territory. Then she volunteered to assist the regional trainers when the system was rolled out company wide. She even asked to spend a few days with the customer support team who field intake phone calls for orders from the contracts she and Brian have secured so she could better understand the entire chain of events for the customers who patronize Sunshine HME Specialists.
When a management position opens up at the end of the year, who do you think gets the job? If past performance predicts future behavior, then Brian has continued to demonstrate he is a superb salesman. Chris, on the other hand, has demonstrated a willingness to learn new skills. She has demonstrated initiative. She has acquired experience in training, coaching, and inside customer support. She has furthered her education. She did all this without sacrificing her ability to do her current job. And she got the promotion.
If you have questions for the experts at Team @ Work, email us at Kristen@teamatworkcoaching.com
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