We touched on this topic briefly last month in my post ‘Could A Promotion Be Imminent?’ in which we discussed your Performance Reviews and the Performance Review Panel’s decision on your listed goals for your firm’s next period.

Today, I would like to share some tips on how to ‘Prepare for a Promotion’ by providing some steps you can follow to encourage a successful outcome in your quest to move up the corporate ladder.

We all know that when a firm has an open or newly created position, they will look from within their organization first before advertising, or seeking out the services of a professional placement agency for assistance.

In order for you to prepare yourself effectively for a challenging new role, you must first be ready from a psychological standpoint, as this is a crucial stepping-stone in your career advancement. You do not want to be coming from an ‘emotional’ state of mind when contemplating this move. To avoid any misgivings, or feelings of insecurity and uncertainty, it is important you ‘research the role’ you are interested in, whether within your firm, or making a fresh start elsewhere. For the purposes of this post, we will assume that you are going to embark on this new role from within your firm.

The first and most important task you can begin with is establishing clarity by sitting down in a quiet area with pen and paper and analyzing what you think you want, what your expectations are, and how ‘prepared’ you truly feel about this move. Do you really have what it takes on the ‘skills’ side, what about  your ‘communications’ style and personality profile’ - list all of the ‘pros and cons’, as well as any and all thoughts that come into your mind.

It is important to take as much time as you need to work through this process of ‘self-analysis’, be gentle with yourself, and very honest and 'realistic' about what you can bring to the new role. The good news in this scenario is that you are in control of the time-line, so there is no rush or pressure to make your decision. When you feel convinced that you are ready to move forward, you may want to consider the following steps:

Make sure you keep up-to-date on company activities that include potential mergers and acquisitions, and research accordingly;

• If you are ‘replacing’ someone in another division, OR, ‘joining’ a new division, be sure to seek out as much information on the division as possible - once again the company portal should assist you with this;
• In the case of replacing an employee, ask the departing party out for lunch or at least a coffee or two, and ask direct questions relating to the job requirements, staff, expectations, etc.;
• If you are ‘joining’ a new division, ask one of the staff members out for lunch to talk about their role in the division - you can learn a lot from this meeting;
• Research this new role by job title on the Internet and learn the functions of this role in other companies;
• To make this process even more interesting, you could conduct ‘informational interviews’ with individuals in the position you are striving for;
• If you learn the new division uses applications that you are not familiar with, find free training courses to take at home, or if not possible, use a few of your lunch hours to work on them, or perhaps stay behind after work hours;
• Do NOT discuss you plans with anyone - not even a ‘buddy’, inside or outside of the office;
• Keep your own information on the company portal up-to-date, adding new projects you have completed, new programs learned, new corporate memberships, volunteer work, etc.;
• Attend as many meetings and join Committees hosted by the new group as time permits;
• Remember to take full advantage of your company portal, and look up staff Resumes on your target group; this will give you an edge, as you will know individual career and educational backgrounds. The document database holds proposals and other documents the division in question have submitted, along with client lists, etc. Review as much material on your own as possible - this is ‘your due diligence’. Assuming all goes well, your efforts will be applauded in the not too distant future.