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6 Reasons Your Boss Won’t Promote You: |
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Written by Sean Cheyney
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Read the entire article at iMediaConnection.com
1. Failure to communicate
What are you doing? How are projects coming along? Any stumbling blocks I should know about? How are we tracking against our KPIs? How is our key prospect coming along? When was the last time you talked with our biggest account?
Do these questions sound all too familiar? The likely problem is the most common and, fortunately, one of the easiest to change: You have a failure to communicate.
Communication problems tend to fall into two categories. The first category is a lack of communication. The second communication category where frustrations typically bubble up involves communication frequency, content, and style
2. I'm not screwing off, really
How many times has this scenario happened to you? You've been analyzing reports for the past two hours, and your brain is total mush. You decide to take a quick five-minute brain break and hop on YouTube where you're watching the newest viral video sensation or a new social media application that is being heavily touted on iMedia Connection when your boss (or boss's boss) walks by. The next thing you know, you're in your boss's office hearing about how you seem to be screwing off, and maybe you really can handle a bigger workload. Sound familiar?
If you really are spending most of your day screwing off, then you probably have a long line of people who want to strangle you, including your boss and all of your coworkers who are picking up your slack. But I'm guessing that this isn't the case. More than likely, you're busting your butt, and instead you have a perception problem.
3. Make a mistake, rinse, and repeat
We all make mistakes. It's the best way that we learn and translate lessons learned into breakthrough results. The key is that you actually need to learn from those mistakes, not continue to repeat them. Nothing makes me want to strangle someone on my team more than when mistakes are continually repeated.
The key to avoiding mistake repetition is realizing when you don't have the answer. I've had some of my greatest personal growth moments after making mistakes (sometimes really big ones) and seeking out answers so that I didn't repeat them.
4. What were you thinking?
Do you have business decisions you've made in the past where you wonder what could possibly have been going through your head? A cornerstone of smart business is the ability to make decisions that are based on logic, experience, and a grounded process. When you throw all caution to the wind and toss a good decision-making process to the curb, your boss will want to strangle you. And you're definitely not setting yourself on a path to promotion
5. OPM -- other people's money
When you're doing business with vendors, entertaining clients, traveling, or making any one of a number of purchase decisions, are you treating the company dime with the same care you would if it were your own money? Or are you making irresponsible business purchase decisions? Maybe you view business travel as an opportunity to treat yourself to the most lavish meals and travel perks?
Having purchase power comes with a great deal of responsibility. If you prove that you're irresponsibly liberal with the company checkbook, your boss and your CFO will take turns strangling you.
6. Hamster in the wheel
Do you feel like a hamster in a wheel? Are you spinning your wheels working really hard but not seeing the results? If you're in sales, being busy and not producing sales is going to get you a kick out the exit door quickly. In other positions, the lack of results may not be evident as quickly, but you still should have a good measuring stick regarding how you're tracking toward your goals.
At one time or another, we've all had the disconnect where we've been busting our butts, feeling overwhelmed with work, but still not getting the results we were expecting. It's one of the most frustrating positions to be in. It's just as frustrating for your boss, especially when they see you working extremely hard
Time to stop screwing off, get off the hamster wheel, and communicate your sound decisions that produce results.
Sean Cheyney is the VP of marketing and business development for AccuQuote.
On Twitter? Follow Cheyney at @scheyney. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
Read the entire article at iMediaConnection.com
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