promotion Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

02
Nov 18
4

Career Moments, Building it Inch-by-Inch

Tags : advancement career moments opportunities promotion

Careers often feel like they are a title, a spot, a position, or a place in time. They are more often the sum of many moments. What are your career moments and how much do they matter?

Inches Matter

I watched my favorite football team lose their game. They were down by one point. A field goal for three points or a touchdown for six? Field position with only five seconds remaining in the game called for a field goal attempt.

It was missed by inches. The game lost.

It is similar for the photo finish at the race track, or the basketball that goes through a hoop (or not) just slightly larger than the ball. We see it on the golf course, the ball ever so close to tumbling into that tiny hole.

Do inches matter?

Career Advancement

It often feels like your career is getting the big job, the larger salary, or special perks. It is the perceived feeling of being invited to the next level of meetings, having a role to supplement the conversation, and working with a bigger departmental budget.

All those things matter. They do make a difference. Are they really the defining moments for your career? Unlikely.

A career is the sum of many defining moments, moments added up across time.

Career Moments

Your career, just like the game, seldom goes into overtime where you have more chances for another moment. The time is fixed. Your career is finite.

The race won’t go for another lap. The hoops aren’t going to get bigger or closer. The golf ball once tapped, is on its own trajectory.

Getting the new job, the promotion, or landing in a new career may be a moment, but it is just that, a moment. One of thousands and thousands of other moments which inch-by-inch are either making a difference, or missing the opportunity.

All those moments add up to become your brand, your reputation, the view of your career.

Inch-by-inch.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

03
Aug 18
-

Getting Promoted Requires One Important Action

Tags : confidence performance promotion qualifications

You want the promotion, or the new job. You’ve put in the time, increased your knowledge, and have gained valuable experience. Are you interested in getting promoted? What are the roadblocks?

The biggest difference for those who want to tackle more and those who spring into action and get more is often confidence. Not arrogance, not being overconfident, or narcissistic, but having appropriate confidence.

Life Lessons

Since grade school we’ve likely been taught to wait to be picked. Wait for our turn. Allow someone else to go first. Be patient.

Many people apply what they’ve learned in childhood to their role in the workplace. Manners and being polite are a good thing. Regarding your opportunity to get promoted, you may need to be a bit more assertive.

Yes, some people will get picked. They’ll have what appears to be the right combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities to address a higher calling. They are noticed, visible, and are called to action.

For everyone else some choices remain. Build our confidence, take a risk, raise our hand, jump in the middle, ask, or just start doing it. What is stopping you?

The roadblock for many comes down to the fear of exposure. Exposure that we’ll make some mistakes, that we aren’t skilled with supervision, or that a lack of talent will become apparent and we’ll fail.

After all, since grade school we’ve never been the first pick for the team.

Getting Promoted

Getting promoted may begin with confidence. We need the confidence to get started and that happens by picking ourselves.

Most people don’t start a new job being over qualified. They start on the edge. The edge of being good enough to perform the work but still having significant room for growth.

Many believe the key to getting promoted is to prove what they’ve done in the past. Granted past performance is good indicator of future performance, but for the promotion no one knows for sure.

It is a bet. Start by betting on yourself.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

12
Jul 18
-

Your Best Work, Working Hard, and What Is Missing

Tags : best work emotional labor job description promotion technical skills

Employees often feel that they are delivering on their promise. A promise to provide the best value to their organization. Are you doing your best work? Is your best work enough?

Trying your best is important. It has something to do with integrity. Trying your best though may not always be enough. At least, it may not be enough of the right stuff.

Technical Aspects

Knowing how to do a spreadsheet in Excel, how to spec the right materials at the best price, or how to manage the financial responsibilities are all important.

The web designer needs to know code and trends. Warehouse managers need to know storage solutions, traffic efficiencies, and even robotics. Marketing and advertising leaders should know the digital environment, how to leverage it, and how to evaluate the ROI.

All these things are important and are perhaps technical. You may be doing all these things, but you still seem to be coming up short of the promotion, the job advancement, and career path you desire.

What are you missing?

Emotional Labor

In today’s workplace environment doing your best work is not the same as filling in all the spaces on the form, checking the boxes, and signing your name.

In my experiences I find people every day who can do all those things and still wonder why they are stuck.

Certainly, there are varied reasons and sometimes people are not at the right place at the right time. In many other cases, what is missing is the emotional labor that goes along with every job.

Best Work

Organizations want to hire people who fit in. They have a hundred or more resumes of people who fit the technical specifications. Who is the one person who will fit the best?

Often it is not about your technical skills, you’ve checked all the boxes, your card is punched. Perhaps you should consider all the soft skills required.

How you communicate, overcome adversity, navigate generations, and your emotional intelligence is all part of your job.

It may not be a check box on your job description, but it may mean that you are the best fit.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect,Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

06
Jul 18
4

Overlooked, Why Fitting In May Leave You Out

Tags : career hire job overlooked promotion

It starts with the job offer. The day your employer decides to extend you a job offer may be the first moment you become stuck. Do you feel like you are being overlooked for advancement? Are you wondering what you can do now?

Not everyone is trying to build a respectable career, some only want to supplement the family income. The truth is that most organizations need some of both types of employees.

Point of Hire

When you ask the hiring manager for the behind the scenes honesty about job applicant choices it probably won’t be long until they use the word, fit. Employers are looking for the best fit for the current job opening.

Both potential candidates and employers struggle with finding the right balance of fit versus satisfying future needs.

But you got the job. Six months ago, or ten years ago, and you’re looking for the sure-fire method to advance your career.

Seeking Advancement

There are really only two answers for this situation. One is that this employer is not where you should hang your hat and you should seek a new employer. The other is, that you need to be the best choice for advancement.

Neither answer may be easy, but from my experiences those are the cards you hold in your hand.

Assuming you want to stay with the current employer you must become the best fit for the new or advanced role. That typically occurs with proof.

Proof that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities, or that you are prepared to get them. It also means the right attitude and continuous demonstration of commitment.

Overlooked

For the organization, perfect employees are often hard to come by, but perfection is usually not their goal.

Prove that you are the best fit and you’ll succeed.

If you are certain that you’ve been crossed off the opportunity for advancement list and that you may be overlooked forever. You probably should consider doing everything you can to continue to fit, but privately you should consider seeking a different employer.

It starts at the point of hire. If the fit is exactly what they need and that need or additional opportunities do not develop across time, fitting in may leave you out.

Out of what? Out of opportunity since you are the best fit for the [current] job.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

24
Apr 18
-

Is Attitude Everything or Just Something?

Tags : attitude career leverage promotion skills

Recently someone asked me what makes an employee special. The conversation was centered on a particular employee known to both of us and how he, or why he, was promoted. My suggestion was that his attitude made the difference. Is attitude everything or just something?

Skills and Attitude

Skills are important and nearly everyone focuses on skill building. Is attitude a skill? We know that hammering a nail requires a little skill and a little energy and there is labor involved. The same is true about attitude. We often just don’t understand the aspects of emotional labor.

Most jobs require specific skill. Therefore, nearly everyone has demonstrated that they have acquired the skills necessary to do the job. You don’t have to look far to find someone who has more experience, a different or better education, and perhaps even some natural talent that sets them apart.

Leverage and Labor

Recently, I was asked to speak to a small group about entrepreneurship. One of the underlying principles of my talk was about leverage. In my business, leverage is everything. Most of the work, the marketing, and the building of intellectual property, it is all leveraged.

Leverage and your emotional labor are what sets most people apart.

People pursue the degree, not a bad choice.

People work hard and for great lengths of time, which is reputable, respected.

In the workplace, people with the wrong attitude are seldom promoted.

Your knowledge, skills, and abilities are only the minimum requirements. Consider the decisions and choices that people make throughout the day, for many days, for the time that some people will call a career, this is what makes the difference.

Is Attitude Everything

When you endure the emotional labor, you’ll create something.

Prove you have the ability to navigate the political currents, adjust your habits, set your ego aside, and work to help not just to finish. Most of all, when you bring your energy, demonstrate resilience, and show up better than the rest you’ll have leverage.

Is attitude everything? Your attitude is not just something. When attitude is what you stand for, you’ll stand out.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

14
Aug 17
-

3 Common Fears Holding Back Your Career

Tags : career confidence fear job promotion

Many people work hard during their career. Some believe that they are focused and committed to achieving more. Some believe they are creating their own legacy. Others feel stuck or stalled. Which one are you? What is holding back your career?

There is always a lot of chatter about fear and what holds people back. Some recognize their fear, look it in the eye, and overcome it. Still there are others, unfortunately, who claim to be the victim of wrongdoing, tough breaks, and unfair treatment.

It seems that there might be plenty of all of that to go around. Are there fears holding back your career?

3 C’s of Career Stall

Here are three common fears that hold people back:

Competition. Competition motivates many people and that is a good thing. Other people really don’t want to compete. It might be easier or safer to hold back, to not face the risk, and just move along. Recognizing competitors is exactly what many career stalls need to get jump-started.
Critics. If you are doing anything, achieving anything, making moves and getting noticed you’re definitely going to have some critics. On the highest level, it may be worth listening to a few of their comments, just to keep you moving in the right direction. However, much of it should be left behind or sent to the curb with yesterday’s garbage.
Change. Stable, normal, the same—are all within our comfort zone. Change makes us uneasy, nervous, and afraid. You might always order your favorite dish at your favorite restaurant, and that is OK. In order for you to really reach for something more you’re going to have to give up something you’re comfortable with and replace it with something new.

Holding Back Your Career

Honestly, fear more than anything else holds people back. It isn’t a lack of talent, intelligence, or opportunity, it is fear.

We might convince ourselves that we aren’t worthy. The timing might be wrong, the situation not quite right, often it is our own narrative that holds us back from progress.

Let go of any negative fantasies. Use competition and critics as a motivator. Be willing to give up something that you are holding on to.

Cut the cord, break the chain and unleash all that you have.

Stop holding back.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

05
Jan 17
-

Gambling On Getting a Promotion?

Tags : career persistence promotion

Getting a promotion, a new job, or somehow advancing your career is something that many people wish to achieve. Are you gambling with your future?

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Is it your exercise program, getting your children off to school, or your excitement to get to your job and start your day?

Certainly there are many possible reasons, and sometimes the drudgery of the day-in day-out grind at your job can take its toll on anyone. However, there are many people who are very stimulated by their work and are eager to get to it, they can’t wait to get started, and they really want to make things happen.

Their ultimate wish is to move up the ladder, to perhaps increase their salary and continue to advance their career.

In some cases people are waiting on luck or fate to step in. Sure they work hard and put in their time, but they might believe that without a stroke of luck or the sudden unexpected exit of their boss they are stuck.

Others believe that perhaps it just isn’t the right timing. You haven’t paid enough dues or it just isn’t your turn right now.

What often follows this kind of thinking is that the more time that goes by, the more times you’ve been overlooked for a promotion, or the harder you work will mean that you’re increasing the probability for a big payout. This idea of luck is what is sometimes known as the “gamblers fallacy.”

Just like in gambling the odds of your promotion or new job opportunity developing because you have been passed over numerous times and as such you are now due, well, don’t hold your breath. And the more you work, the harder you work, doesn’t necessarily mean your chances will increase.

Leave Nothing To Chance

Gambling might occasionally pay off big for some people, but you would be smart to not leave your career to chance.

If you are serious about striving for a promotion or a new job here are a few things that might help.

Increase your visibility. I’m convinced that there are plenty of very good people in the workforce who simply go unnoticed. One of the best ways to increase your chances for a better job is to increase your visibility (tips).
Stop waiting. If you’re waiting, stop. You’re going to have to be proactive in your approach. When you don’t have an opportunity, create one. No luck? Create your own.
Build your network. People recommend other people. Sometimes because they are impressed and other times because you’ve mentioned that you are open for new opportunities. Your network is one of the best ways to increase your luck.

Certainly the gamblers fallacy works effectively in our mind, the idea that if we just keep working really hard there will be a big payoff, but statistically not so much.

You’ll need to work hard and smart. You’ll also need to be proactive in your approach.

Perhaps the only luck you can count on is the luck that you create.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: promotion

Nov 18

Inches Matter

Career Advancement

Career Moments

Aug 18

-

Life Lessons

Getting Promoted

Jul 18

-

Technical Aspects

Emotional Labor

Best Work

Jul 18

Point of Hire

Seeking Advancement

Overlooked

Apr 18

-

Skills and Attitude

Leverage and Labor

Is Attitude Everything

Aug 17

-

3 C’s of Career Stall

Holding Back Your Career

Jan 17

-

Leave Nothing To Chance

Search This Website

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Blog (Filter) Categories

Follow me on Twitter

Assessment Services and Tools

Recent Posts

Email Signup

Subscribe to newsletter

Contact Info