So how do promotions really work in corporate? fair question? Well, there's going to be a few things that I want to share within this context. The first one is, you are in charge of your personal development and of your career. Don't expect your manager or anyone else to be driving it for you know, if you want to be successful, you take 100%, full accountability for your career, and you drive it proactively. Remember the previous lesson where you always need to ask yourself the question, How can I go beyond and add more value?

Start with yourself? How can you focus better on your career and on your personal development, so that you can learn quicker and you can progress faster than your colleagues? That is the number one thing you own your career. Now, the second big principle I wanted to talk about is it in the corporate world, it may sound frustrating for some people. But if you want to be promoted, you have to already be doing the job. Yes, let me explain.

If you are currently working as an individual contributor, and that you want to step up and be promoted to a manager, you have to demonstrate that you can work as a manager in your current role. So many, many people ask me, but how can I do this when I don't have people reporting to me? I'm not a manager, how can I demonstrate that I can manage? My response is always the same. You don't need to have people reporting into you to behave as a manager and to lead people. Learn how to lead without the authority and show how you can influence others, your peers, your colleagues, your teams and people who are even in levels below you and how you can inspire them to do better work and how you can influence them.

Decision making process. This is being a manager, you don't need to have a title, you don't need to have a team formally to be recognized as one. So just an example of actually already do the job that you want, and demonstrate that you're able that you've got the skills and that you're ready with the right mindset. There's also an advantage of this, the day you're promoted. You're a parent or professional from day one, because you already know how to do the job. So let me give you an example.

At some point in my career, I wanted to become a business partner. It was a point of yellow liaison between it and the business. At the time, I was a program manager and there was no way for me to demonstrate how to be a business partner in my current job, or so was I thinking, so I sat down with the head of the business partner division and we discussed About what a business partner do in detail. And I realized that most of their work was around defining roadmaps of the potential opportunities and solutions that could be added into a business so that they deliver their results. So I went back to my Problem Management world and I realized I could actually do exactly the same, just converted this into my own world. So I developed a roadmap for my problem program management office, and I aligned with the key stakeholders just as a business partner we do and wrote showed this roadmap and agreed on the future plan for my project management office.

I presented this back to the head of the business partnership division, and some of my ideas got incorporated into the ways business partners were working themselves. So there was not a business partner and give advice and being helpful and adding value to the team of business partners. So ask yourself, How can I demonstrate in my current role, skills and mindsets that are necessary and required for my future role? How can I already prove right now that I can do it? This is the second principle. Always do the job before you get it.

And then lastly, something that is so important in corporate and I see so many people who don't get it, and who don't want to play by the rules of corporate. Now, if you imagine that your career is like playing a game, you have to learn the rules and then you have to play by these rules and master this game in order to win. So the third rule is visibility is key. Think about it corporate is a huge environment with hundreds and often thousands of stakeholders. So what's essential for you to be successful in your career is to have the visibility meaning that people know who you are, and how you add value into this corporation. And it's not as difficult as it may seem, because it's actually only taking one or two things to be known for a certain positive contribution that you brought to the company.

Now, let me ask you a question. How many colleagues do you know who are highly competent and who do great work and deliver great results and don't get promoted? I'm pretty sure that there is an 80% chance that the reason why they don't get promoted is because they resist against this role of being visible enough to senior leadership and being recognized for their work and their results. It is essential, and I know it may not please all of you just accept that this is something you have to Now let me reassure you, when I say visible, I want you to be very, very careful on what it means. Because it's not at all about bragging, it's not at all about being arrogant and show off. It's about making sure that whatever your results are, and when you deliver great things, people know that you did it.

So take credit for the great work you're doing. Make sure that the difference you're making in a company is being recognized is being noticed, and that people associate it with you. Let me give you a few ideas on how you can do this naturally, so that it comes to you without having to force it or without risking to be negatively interpreted. I believe that what's key in being successful in corporate is bringing your authenticity, your own story. In work, so I like to encourage people to bring a part of their out of work life in their work. Let me explain myself.

If you have a passion, if you have something that you do that outside of work, how could you make it beneficial for other people at work for your colleagues? How could you contribute through your passion? For example, say that you love running and that you're actually quite skilled at it. And you know how to develop a running program? Well, why don't you organize a running group within your corporate office? And why don't you set up running sessions after work?

If you like cooking? Why don't you set up optional cooking classes for your colleagues where you're sharing your passion with them, or where you can cook all together for a corporate celebration. If you have a passion for photography, or website design or whatever it is, you get my point? How can you share it with others? How can you initiate something from your own, where not only you show skills, which will increase your visibility, but also contribute, which will be highly recognized and appreciated in the corporate event. any activity that connects people together, and any activity that enriches the skill and the engagement of employees will always, always be positively received.

Yeah, then it's just a matter of how you do it. Of course, you know, I would always be very careful to get the right endorsement before going ahead. So talk about it with your manager and with the site leaders and the leadership team. And just probe them and make suggestions in a soft manner about the few ideas you have and you thought you know, that might be helpful and beneficial for them. And you would be surprised about the results you're going to get. In my very early days in my career, I was fresh out of uni.

And I must confess, I was a bit, a bit of a party animal at the time, and I still was enjoying the life of going out sometimes even on Thursdays during the weekend. And I still enjoyed going out. And one thing I noticed is my colleagues and even sometimes managers and you know, people much older than me. were enjoying this and, you know, they kind of appreciated that I was celebrating my life and having a lot of fun. So what I thought I would do is at the time is organize a celebration for my work, and I organized my site celebration days. At the beginning, my idea was Let's celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.

So I sat down with decided Either and I made my suggestion. And I said, Look, I could put near the coffee area on the fridge just just a sheet of paper every month where we celebrate people's birthday and neighbor anniversary. This idea got accepted. We created a simple database. And every month, we know which day is whose birthday. Then we went on to theme days.

So I thought, why don't we organize a theme day, once in a while where people come dressed up or where people share some pieces of their authenticity with the rest of their colleagues. So we did a holiday we did a summer day we did a sports day. You get the point. We organized something special and funny, that engaged everyone and help people to interact with one another. Remember, if the activity is allowing connection and networking between colleagues, this is great and appreciated. It worked fantastically.

And I assume was at the origin of a total engagement group where celebrations were what was one stream that then we went down to sustainable development and innovation and new Peters that went beyond me. But I was at the start, and my name was attached to this engagement focus that I brought to the site. So what can you do in your site? How can you contribute to either what's already existing or something that is not existing, look for your passions, look for what really excites you and where you're naturally good at, and then seek for ways to integrate this with your work. This will be highly appreciated in corporate. So remember, look beyond your current job.

And then make sure that you take accountability for your career. Remember, that visibility is highly important in the corporate environment, and that you must be known For the results you deliver. And finally, seek for ways to bring your passion and your talent into work, even if they are not work related. This is a big part of how you can bring your visibility to life naturally, without forcing it without becoming fake or without having to act in any way that is inconsistent with your integrity. As you can see, this training is probably telling you things that you were not expecting, and I hope it's the case because I think so many people have made the very basic assumptions that to be promoted. You just have to work hard and do your job and do it in an excellent way and deliver amazing results and then you will get promoted.

And that may well work in some companies but in most corporate environments, it is not this is not the way Yes, because actually they are only focusing on one third of their real perform What do I mean? I can tell you that when we look at people's performance and when we look at people, ability and readiness to be promoted, what we focus on is three key pillars, the three key pillars of success. And they are, first, what? What do you deliver? So what are your results? And believe me, it is absolutely fundamental to deliver great results because they are your track record.

And they are the facts that bring to life your skills and capabilities. But that's only a third. The second third is how you deliver. So what are the behaviors? What were the relationships and what was the impact of how you deliver what you've delivered? And it's as important to deliver in the appropriate way with the right behavior.

Inspire others. And that can be used as a role model for anyone else in your corporation as it is to deliver. But that's only to third, what is the last pillar of success? It's your personal development. How do you take action everyday at work, to grow and learn and become a better leader, a better contributor every day? How do you proactively work on your self development?

This is what we're going to see in the next lesson.