The end of the pandemic is within sight, and organisations are finally talking seriously about permanent hybrid and remote working, but what does this mean for your promotability? Sinead Smith explains.
Remote working has its perks, but one of the most challenging elements to replicate when vying for a promotion is ensuring that your efforts, impacts, and successes are seen and noted. Under normal circumstances, your manager will see you staying later, being proactive, or going the extra mile. This will all contribute to a positive outlook for a possible promotion. However, when that front row seat to your work is taken away, it can be hard to feel like your input is being valued and counted.
Now, with more businesses adopting fully remote or hybrid working policies, it is essential to find ways to stand out if you want to progress. Small changes to how you work and developing a more intentional communication style can go a long way towards ensuring that your contributions remain visible, valuable, and measurable.
Be visible, stay engaged
Despite the distance, take every opportunity to connect in person. Keep your video on during calls so that participants can note your presence. Be engaged during those calls – speak up, ask questions, answer questions, provide suggestions and solutions. Similarly, try to opt for a phone call over an email when appropriate. Any way you can get your face or voice in front of key decision-makers will help ensure that you are thought of and talked about when promotion season rolls around.
Another subtle way to stay visible is to copy the relevant people on emails that are pertinent to them – just don’t overdo it! In looping key stakeholders in, you demonstrate that you understand what your superiors need to know (extra important in a remote set-up), which shows commercial and operational acumen while also guaranteeing that they can see the work you are doing. Alternatively, send the key person(s) a weekly update email – this should be a short, snappy outline of what you achieved this week, the stage of your work, and what your plan is for next week.
Seize responsibility
If the opportunity arises to take on extra responsibility, try to identify and seize on it as a means to show initiative, commitment, and proactivity.
It is important to note that extra responsibility does not necessarily mean extra work. Rather than considering this as another thing to add to your growing list of to-dos, look for small opportunities with a significant and far-reaching impact. For example, perhaps you schedule virtual coffee one-to-ones for a new starter with everyone on your team, or maybe you identify an area for process improvement that enhances the remote experience for both internal and external stakeholders and bring it to management with a solution.
However, if you are asked to take on additional tasks when swamped with work and don’t want to decline for fear of jeopardising a promotion, consider saying yes while proposing a reasonable and achievable timeline for you. This might look something like: “Yes – thank you for asking. I would love to contribute to this. I can have it across to you by close of business on Thursday.” Suddenly, an “I can’t” becomes an “I can” but on your own terms, and it leaves a much more positive impression overall.
Advocate for yourself
If you feel that you are being overlooked for a promotion you truly believe you deserve, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and ask for one. However, before you put a call in your manager’s diary, there are certain things you will need to be prepared with to be able to discuss what you want and why you feel it is justified. Consider the work you have done over the past 12-18 months and start thinking of it in terms of metrics. It’s not simply a case of listing what you did but, instead, detailing what you did and how it added real, measurable, and definable value. Learning how to assess your work and contribution in this way will add weight to a request for a promotion that sounds less “I want…” and more “I deserve…”
Other things to emphasise are those that may have gone unseen, such as additional responsibilities you assumed or ways that you upskilled while at home. Don’t undervalue those contributions. Instead, be prepared to outline how those undertakings benefited you, your team, and the business and, where appropriate, how they could add value going forward.
Ultimately, a well-formulated pitch for promotion with its foundation rooted in facts rather than feelings will have the most significant impact and, hopefully, the best outcome. Best of luck!
Sinead Smith is Director of Newly Qualified Accountants at ACCPRO.
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