Dear Fairygodmentor®,
My Manager Keeps Saying “We’ll Talk About Your Promotion Later.” How Long Should I Wait?
-Patiently Waiting
Dear Patiently Waiting,
We’ve all heard the saying “Good things come to those who wait.”
I’m sure you’ve also heard the saying “Closed mouths don’t get fed.”
I’m sure that you’ve been very kind in giving your manager the space and grace to make this promotion happen. But I’m going to hold your hand when I tell you this: this isn’t at the top of their priority list. And it’s not because of your performance; it’s because managers are doing their jobs too and your promotion may have slipped their mind.
I’m going to teach you the fine art of being Professionally Persistent.
I need to add my version of a Surgeon General’s Warning and share that no careers were harmed while I was being Professionally Persistent. In fact, it was welcomed. It’s how I moved from a call center representative to ultimately being the manager of learning and development, helping over 30K employees grow in their careers.
How do you do it?
1. Stay top of mind: It’s important to remember that you are in the driver’s seat
of your career. Your manager is the GPS. It’s up to you to enter the address of where you’d like to go, and if that address (aka, your goal) changes, you need to share it with your manager so they can “recalculate” the route. One of the best ways to stay top of mind is to schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your manager. “Oh, but they’re too busy!” This is what you’re probably thinking, right? A manager’s role is to lead their team to be productive and successful. This benefits the organization. By regularly meeting with your manager, you can keep them apprised of your projects, performance, and career goals— especially if you’re seeking a promotion. I always had an agenda prepared. Career goals and development were always on this list. How will your manager know where you want to go if you aren’t making it a priority? This promotion will allow you to continue lending your skills and talents to benefit the business, right? Well, we need to make sure your manager understands that this leveling up will benefit everyone and you need their help to make that happen.2. Keep Receipts: I will keep saying this until time stands still–make
sure to track your accomplishments in your DIG Folder (DIG = Damn I’m Good). This is where you will log your results-based accomplishments. It’s one thing to know your value; it’s another thing to show it.3. Use the Half-Pager Approach: You may need to bring receipts to illustrate why you need a promotion. When I was 6 months into my role as an administrative assistant, I realized that I was doing a whole lot more than what I was originally hired to do. And I mean a whole lot more, not just a task or two. I put pen to paper and referred to my DIG folder, and wrote out the responsibilities from my job description at the top of the page. I drew a line down the middle of the page and listed ALL the other responsibilities that I was doing outside my role. It took up three-quarters of the page! It was a literal visual representation that I was ready for a promotion. My manager agreed that it was time to promote me to an analyst role. At my job, a Job Evaluation Committee had to review the request, and then once approved, the promotion would be initiated.
4. Follow up: Before leaving your one-on-one meeting with your manager (or in any conversation where someone has an action item), don’t leave that meeting without getting a status update! It could sound like: “Thanks for meeting with me today. When can I expect an update from you? Would two weeks be sufficient to follow up? Is there anything I need to do on my end to expedite things?” In my case, he shared it would take up to two weeks to hear back from the Job Evaluation Committee. It wasn’t lost on me that those were also my initials. This promotion was meant to be!
5. Follow up again: If you don’t get closure, you continue to make this a line item at your one-on-one meetings. Ask for specific feedback for any delays or reasoning. If there are budgetary reasons for the delay, keep aiming for a timeframe on revisiting the request. If you feel that there may be no more funds to support this move, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to move on or stay put.
Patiently Waiting, you’ve got so much amazing talent to share with this organization. It’s up to you to highlight why this promotion is a priority. Remind the business that you have a ton of talent to share, especially while being professionally persistent. Best of luck to you!
You got this!
Sincerely,
Your Fairygodmentor®
Joyel Crawford is an award-winning career and leadership development professional and the founder of Crawford Leadership Strategies, a consultancy that develops empowered, results-driven leaders through engaging leadership development coaching, training, and facilitation.
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