“I want to do your job someday Dave. Will you show me how to get there?”   I loved the ambition and drive Dorothy showed with that statement. But like others before her, she had no clue what the most critical thing she needed to accomplish was before she became promotable.

I had just offered her an advanced position that was one level below management.  She wanted to know about her next promotion. I asked her what steps she thought would make her a great candidate for the next level. Her answers were typical, and they were misguided.

The Key To Promotion

Her Next Steps Were Misguided

Her list was in line with what I witnessed some of my peers tell similarly ambitious subordinates:

• Get to know important people in other departments.
• Make sure the people at higher levels know you.
• Get on committees that will give you exposure.
• Do presentations at important meetings.
• Be a guest trainer in the training department.
• Network, Network, Network….

This is a partial list. But, it is representative of what some subordinates and leaders believe. Unfortunately, I watched many of my peers push people into these activities and miss the most important step in the process of getting promoted.

Because of this, many of these people never reached their goal of getting promoted. They checked a lot of the boxes they created for themselves but never got to the next level.

In fact in Dorothy’s case, she was promoted before her peers and they had been around longer and done more of the items on the “promotion check list” discussed above. Dorothy got promoted because she did the most important step.

The Most Important Step – Mastery

Dorothy mastered her current job! I told her that first day that I would be happy to help her to get promoted. I told her I’d be happy to get her involved in the activities she thought were important to getting promoted.

But, I also told her that her first step to the next level was to master the position she occupied now. All the other stuff would not matter until she proved she was an expert in her current job.

While her peers worried about networking and preparing for the role they hoped to attain in the future. Dorothy grew in her current role. She became the “go-to person” at her position. When things needed to get done, people went to Dorothy first.

Pretty soon when the leaders above me asked what she had accomplished, I was able to site numbers and metrics that proved Dorothy was a rock star in her current role. Her results were apparent and undeniable.

At the same time, my peers quoted committees, presentations and guest training opportunities Dorothy’s peers had participated in. Soon the higher ups weren’t soliciting volunteers for committees, presentations or guest training. They just began asking for Dorothy.

Dorothy got promoted in a relatively short period of time in comparison to her peers. They were good and talented people. Unfortunately they had the wrong ideas about what it takes to get promoted.

The #1 thing any of us can do to reach the next level is to master the level we are currently inhabiting. If we do not master our current role, all those other activities will be secondary.

The Bottom Line:

The path to destruction is full of good intentions. It is good that leaders want to help their people reach their goals. It motivates everyone on the team to see their leader work hard to get them promoted.

However, too many leaders put the cart before the horse. Taking people away from mastering their current job to help them network and position themselves for the next level hurts a person’s chances to get promoted.

The best thing the leader can do for that ambitious and driven person is to help her focus on her current job. Keep things simple and focused so she can have a huge impact in her current role.

Once mastery has occurred, the networking and the exposure to promotable skill sets should begin. The leader should say something similar to what I told Dorothy:

“Learn your current job. Master it. That is the most important thing you can do to reach your goals. Once you do that, then we will focus on the next level, and I will be your biggest and loudest advocate for promotion.”

Question:

Do you believe people become too obsessed with reaching the next level before they master where they are?