When you start a new job, what’s the first thought that comes to mind? Mine is, “I wonder how long it’ll take before I rule these halls.” And that is not a farfetched thought if you have professional development goals that will lead you to those opportunities. This post will list out the 5 goals you need to achieve in order to get noticed and have doors open for you.
I’ve worked at two different offices where I started as a receptionist. I was surrounded by other receptionists but for some reason, they were never able to get the opportunities I got. That is until I realized what I was doing differently. And soon my friends started finding themselves in different positions once I shared my secrets.
After reading this post you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get someone to notice you and give you an opportunity at your workplace. Believe me, it doesn’t matter what position you hold, you have as much of an opportunity as anyone else to get promoted or poached by a different department.
This post is all about the professional development goals you need to set in order to get promoted at work.
Professional Development Goals
1) Win your boss over
Let’s face it. Your boss can either be your greatest enemy or your biggest ally. They’re the ones who decide how you spend your time and what your job entails. And there are bosses that push for their employees to be better and greater and there are those that give them busy work.
Whatever the case may be, it’s imperative that you win your boss over. Only then will you find yourself with new and exciting tasks that develop you into reaching your highest potential. Your boss will become your spokesperson and they’ll tell everyone how much they love you. This is the best way to construct a solid reputation in a company.
Here are some super easy ways to win your boss over:
- Remember the things they tell you
- Let them know when you complete a task or when you’re running behind
- Take initiative and share how you’re working through creating solutions for you and your coworkers
- Be empathetic we all have good days and bad days
- Do not speak badly about them – to anyone
Now let’s say you’ve tried to win your boss over but you just can’t. Hey, sometimes it’s a clash in chemistry. Then sadly I encourage you to get another job and find another boss. This is literally why people get stuck in dead-end jobs. It’s because their boss won’t help them become better and who wants to do their best work when they don’t like their boss?
2) Win your coworkers over
Your coworkers are not your competition. The only person you can compete against in this world is yourself. You carry your hopes, dreams, and fears and no one is the same as you. Obviously. But really you can’t compete against someone who is on a different journey.
What you can do is learn how to work with others. Your coworkers are your team and teams are what win the Super Bowl. Life and work are not a one-man show.
Besides learning how to work with others I cannot stress enough how small this world is. You never know when your coworkers are in a position where they can help you move on to the next level. And would you recommend or refer someone you didn’t like? Absolutely not.
Protect your relationship with your coworkers and win them over by:
- Supporting them when they need it
- Acknowledge their strengths and ask them for advice
- Share any knowledge you may have that could be of use to them
- Be empathetic we all have good days and bad days
- Do not speak badly about them – to anyone
Also, who doesn’t want to work and spend their days with a friend? Sure coworkers can help you in the long run but you also want to enjoy your life today and tomorrow. And if you have a positive relationship with your co-worker in a positive environment then that truly is the breeding ground for greatness.
Again sometimes you just can’t make it work and if you love your boss and your job then all you can do is limit your interactions. Or work with your boss somewhere else.
3) Get friendly with other departments
This post is starting to feel like a post about getting people to like you more than getting promoted. But that’s the thing. People work with who they like. Qualifications are important when it comes to promotions and opportunities but it doesn’t seal the deal. Also, I’ve had multiple occurrences when I wasn’t qualified for a job but I got it because they liked me.
If you’re a good person and you’re around good people, that’s basically networking in a nutshell. And that’s the kind of behavior that actually gets you places.
So after you win your boss and your coworkers over, it’s time to win over the whole company. Become friendly with other departments. And when I say other departments I mean every single one, not just the one that holds prestigious titles.
This will allow you to stretch outside of your comfort zone and find opportunities that you didn’t know were available to you. You become incredibly resourceful because you’re more knowledgeable about how things operate. Lastly, someone may end up poaching you because of your slight interactions.
My favorite thing to do, when I interact with others is share how proud I am of the work my team does. This allows your team to gain recognition and you look like this amazing person who is a total team player.
4) Find your champion
As you become friendly with other departments, you’ll eventually cross paths with different leaders within your organization. And then it’s time to strike the perfect balance. You don’t want them to feel like talking to you is work so you don’t want to ask complex, detailed questions. At least not at first. This is something you can do after you’ve had a few conversations where they’ve initiated the conversation.
But you also want them to be aware of the work that you do and how you think about work. Basically, you want them to become a fan of your development and work ethic. You could briefly mention some of the work you’ve completed, and why completing this work is so important to you. Again you don’t want to go into the details unless they ask. The more they ask the more you’re able to gauge how much they want to hear. It’s a backward way to ask permission to share.
And you want permission. When people go on and on about their work and all they’ve done, it’s very easy to come across as arrogant. Arrogance leaves the picture once people want to hear you.
Slowly you’ll begin to share your progress and someone will undoubtedly take a liking to you. That person will either hire you or recommend you. So make sure that you’re always working on something or learning something new. Otherwise, you won’t have much to share and you’ll become boring. And nothing is worse than boring when it comes to networking.
5) Take their advice and keep in touch
At this point, everyone in the world should love you. You’re surrounded by supporters and everyone is speaking highly of you. Now it’s time to not mess it up.
As you have different conversations people will have different recommendations for you. Follow all the legal ones 🙂
There’s nothing worse than running into someone you gave advice to and then you find out they never took it. Well if you don’t take people’s advice, people will stop advising you and doors will start closing in your face. No one is going to hold the door open for you if you don’t walk through it.
After listening you have to also remember to keep in touch. This is the toughest one but remember that keeping in touch doesn’t have to be a weekly occurrence. You could check on someone once a year. Just be mindful of the kind of relationship you have and your level of proximity. If you work with someone all the time but they’re not on your team you want to make sure you check in with them. On the other hand, if there’s someone you never see but they’ve reached out then you need to respectively reciprocate and put in some effort.
You need to demonstrate that you’re dependable and loyal. Once you do someone is bound to hire you.
Also, you want to build a connection with people that withstands minor interruptions. Building a network gives you the experience you need to have effective, efficient, collaborative, and fun working relationships in the future. The goal is to make your team so large, it includes everyone.
This post is all about the professional development goals you need to set to get promoted at work.
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