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There is nothing worse than feeling stuck in a job. What are the best ways to progress without having to resort to shameless self-promotion? Here, career coaches explain how to make sure you are first in line for a promotion – and a pay rise.
Position yourself as a winner
“One of the major secrets to getting any sort of promotion is that you must sow the seeds early on and build up to the point where the promotion feels like the natural next step,” says John Brown, a career coach in Nottingham. “First, you have to nail the current job. Make sure you meet your deadlines, hit all your targets and fall firmly into the ‘delivering’ category. Be brave enough to push back if your targets are unachievable. Don’t set yourself up to fail by simply agreeing to everything.”
Tessa Grint, a career coach based in Bangkok who describes herself as a “leadership architect”, agrees: “You need to become the leader before you get the promotion. A promotion is the reward and recognition of the work that you’ve been doing.”
Keep your boss happy – and tell them what you want
“Your boss is your best advocate and supporter when it comes to progressing at work,” says Brown. “Help them out where you can and volunteer to do more.” Also, make sure that your boss is never caught off guard: “Keep them well informed, even if it is bad news,” says Brown, and always be open about your career goals, rather than going for internal jobs in secret.
Grint says: “Good managers will probably hold regular career conversations, at which point there is a natural time to bring up what you want and where you see yourself in the future. If you don’t have that, in a one-to-one with your manager, say that you’ve been reflecting on your future, and ask if you could discuss what the options are for you.”
Work on your visibility
Visibility is key to career advancement, says Elaine dela Cruz, a London-based executive coach and co-founder of Project 23, a diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy. This involves “being intentional and strategic about how you’re seen and what people think of you”. This doesn’t come naturally to everyone, she says, including “people who are from marginalised backgrounds – and by that, I don’t just mean ethnicity; maybe they’re introverts or maybe they are neurodivergent and loud social environments don’t typically work for them – but organisations tend to reward people who are visible”.
How can you get around this if it makes you feel uncomfortable? “Engage with things your organisation is putting on,” says Dela Cruz, and ask questions at events, if you feel you can. Take part in any extracurricular activities that are within your comfort zone. “I am not saying go to the pub because everyone else is. But I think putting your hand up for the things that suit you, rather than not putting your hand up, is a good place to start with active participation.”
Shout about your achievements
When it comes to self-promotion, “a lot of us get the ick”, says Dela Cruz. “Being labelled as an operator or someone who plays the game tends to have quite negative connotations.” It is important to reframe this, “and realise that this is how it works in most workplaces”. It is about accepting that the impression that someone has of you affects what they think you can do, she says.
Grint says: “In the corporate world, this is called ‘stakeholder management’, which is a phrase that everybody hates, but it is important. Are you doing the right work? Are you telling the right people? Are you telling them in the right way? Are you telling them at the right time? You’re not bragging … you are raising the visibility of the really important, high-impact work you’re doing.
“Decide where is the most appropriate forum to say these things,” Grint adds. “It might be a Slack channel or internal messenger system, or it might be standing up in a meeting and saying, ‘My team’s done this.’ It’s about thinking, walking, talking, acting like a leader. Start with saying what you did, why, what you learned and what you’re going to do next. And say thank you to the people around you, because that is going to create a culture of recognition.”
Don’t be a busy fool
“You need to be focusing on the right work,” says Grint. “Nobody gets promoted for inbox zero. My favourite phrase is, ‘Are you being a busy fool?’ Everybody is busy these days, but actually a lot of the time we’re not being productive.”
Don’t offer to make the tea too much: “I used to see people being really helpful,” says Grint. “They would offer to make coffee. They would offer to take notes in meetings. I would strongly recommend that you don’t do that, because once you put yourself in that position, they are going to see you as the person that makes the coffee, as the person that takes notes. It is absolutely still possible to change how people think about you, but once they have pigeonholed you into that position, it is difficult. So don’t be helpful in a way that is positioning yourself as junior.”
Brown stresses the importance of having work-life boundaries, even if you are trying to impress: “Don’t waste your time being the first one in and the last one to leave. Much more important is to focus on actually delivering on the things that you said you would deliver on, and of course making sure that people know you have delivered on time.”
Get ready to network
“A lot of people bundle networking and LinkedIn together,” says Brown. “They are two separate things. Networking is about building lists of people you can connect with, reaching out to them, letting them know that you are looking for a new role, making it clear what type of roles you’re interested in and what skills you have. That is a process that I’d recommend everybody does when they are looking for a step change in their career. LinkedIn is a tool to help you do that.”
“LinkedIn enables you to be visible,” says Dela Cruz, “and to control how you want to be perceived. It’s an easy way to look at who you are and what you stand for and whether or not you’re going to fit in.” Rather than just posting about your company, she advises that employees “be yourself and say things that you think are interesting beyond your job”.
Whatever you do, “Don’t get ChatGPT to write LinkedIn posts for you … produce fewer that are from the heart,” says Grint.
Talk to people already in the role
If you are offered an interview, “find out as much as you can about the people that might be on your panel”, says Grint. “Speak to people who are already in that role. There is no greater knowledge base than somebody that’s already doing it. You could also ask them to be your mentor.”
Surround yourself with a supportive network, says Dela Cruz, that you can think of as your “personal boardroom”, as outlined by Zella King and Amanda Scott. “You and your career are the company. Who are the boardroom members that you need? I’m a talker, and I over-reflect, so I know I need someone who will disrupt that. But there may be other roles that I might need, such as someone who knows how to navigate budgeting and running an organisation.”
Negotiate hard
When it comes to salary negotiations, “arm yourself with data”, says Grint. “Find out as much as you can about what other people are paid. AI is probably going to be your best friend with this. It is a game of poker.” If you change jobs, “it is the best and sometimes the only time that you can negotiate really hard for these things. So push hard and see what happens. They can always just say no.”
Dela Cruz says to “ask for a pay rise as high as you possibly can without laughing”, referring to the advice of the advertising executive Cindy Gallop. “Then back that up with what you deliver to the workplace, not just in measurable outputs, but how you align to what the company says the values are, and how you bring other people with you. It is not just a look-back piece. You’re saying to them: ‘You are going to pay me for what I’m worth now, but in that commitment, I will continue to deliver, and that will affect the company in future ways.’”
Brown says: “Nobody’s going to give you a promotion just because you’ve been there for a long time,” so don’t be tempted to use that argument. “Similarly, if you have personal financial difficulties, that’s not really the problem of the employer and they will not respond well to that being used as an argument for progression.”
What should you do if you are offered a “dry promotion”, where your responsibilities increase without a pay rise? “There are times when you just want out of the current role and into something that’s a bit more you,” says Brown. “In these situations, salary is not really the big driver. So the candidate has to ask themselves if it’s money that’s motivating them or if they’re happy with just being in a good job.” If money is an issue but you still want to take the job, make sure that you get it in writing when the salary will be reviewed, says Brown.
Look after yourself
“We all know that when you don’t feel great, you’re not going to have clarity of mind to be able to make good strategic decisions,” says Grint. She recommends having a physical health scorecard, checking you are taking care of yourself through nutrition, fitness and rest. “Prioritising our physical health isn’t about creating more things to do, it is about cultivating the energy that makes everything else possible,” she adds.
Having an intentional morning routine, making time to exercise, meditate, journal or similar, can help propel you to power, too, says Grint, as she has found among high-performing elite leaders: “Even if they don’t follow it 100% to the letter, they have defined their minimum. So even on a ‘bad day’, they will still show up. They will still do certain things that nudge them gently towards the goal that they’re working towards.” This regime can be adapted to your personal needs, Grint says: “Your morning routine is about what feels good for you. It’s about how you thrive. It’s about creating an environment where you can perform at your highest, where you can become an elite-level version of you.”
“In a lot of workplaces, people are managing the line between social relationships and levels of professionalism and sometimes that line gets blurred,” says Dela Cruz. “Being conscious of that line enables everyone to work within it.” This means not “being inappropriate and asking for pay rises or promotions when you’re out doing social things, and not utilising things that people have told you when they’ve been in the pub”.
… And, if you keep getting overlooked
Ask for honest feedback and carry out a career audit, says Brown: “That means having a look at where you want to be, where you are and where the gaps are between those two things. Of course the ultimate option, if you are being overlooked, is to leave and go somewhere else. Use information from your career audit and from the feedback you’ve obtained to make sure that you present a different image, a revised image, at the new company.”
