How to Climb the Corporate Ladder, Get Promoted and Advance your Career

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Learn from the best

I've been fortunate in having had the experience of working for an ex CEO of Daimler Chrysler. Not only did he provide valuable insight and mentoring to me over a 3 year period, but he also agreed to an indepth interview with him, allowing me to pick his brain.

I've taken the top insights from this man who climbed from the bottom to the top of a large corporation, as well as the best cutting edge information I could lay my hands on, and distilled the key insights on this page.

Doing a good job, is a neccesary condition, but not a sufficient condition for rising to the highest echelons.

3 Dimensions of Rising to the Top

Performance

(How good are you at your Job)

Knowledge

(What you know, about business, your business, strategy, technical skills, management abilty)

Without a solid base of business know-how or area specific technical knowledge and ability, you are at risk of standing naked when your cover is removed (a critical boss on whoms loyalties you rode, is sniped out or leaves).

You are also very unlikely to rise beyond the first levels of management without a solid base of real business knowledge and ability. No one is going to vouch for you without this essential element and stake their reputation on a potential turkey above this level.

See: Dangers of Excessive Charm: http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/its-lonely-on-top.html

To master the knowledge dimension, you should use the T-Model:

People

(Managing people above, below, and accross. What will it take to impress your boss?) People Skills. Dealing constructively with people's bullshit. Handling difficult situations. Understanding power ploys and politics. Rise to the top while hanging on to your integriry.Not making critical career damaging moves.

"The single greatest reason why otherwise talented people get stuck in mid-career is because they believe that the same rules that applied for the first part of their careers still apply. They don't. You have to master a much subtler set of rules. You'll need to learn how to acquire the global perspective your peers lack, when and how to deliver bad news, when to take a shot at your rivals and when to be gracious, and, most important, how to handle the many new influences on your [career] trajectory...Intelligence, imagination, and cunning are all required here - but not underhandedness...I don't believe you need to be devious to succeed. In fact, I think being excessively political is a mistake." - Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

At the lower levels of management, you must stay completely out of politics. Do not take sides. Stay neutral. Don't get involved, for as long as possible. The risk/reward ratio simply do not favour political games on the lower rungs. As you rise, you will reach a point where you will no longer be able to stay out of politics, and you will be forced into the game.

Master Machiaveli, then move beyond.

As you move up the ladder, there is one trait that is more important than anything else, for determining who will be promoted, and that single word is LOYALTY.

Because of the importance of politics at the higher organisational levels, people only promote those they trust. Therefore always display unsurpassed loyalty, trust worthiness, open and honest communication with your superior, while being careful not to spread vital information that could undermine your boss. If you ever decide to switch allegiances, know that there is no turning back, and that your new loyalties will be viewed with suspicion.

Using Lateral Moves for rapid escallation

Early rapid growth

Breaking stagnation

Increase Breadth of Experience

Lateral moves internally and externally - turns you into a generalist - widens your expertise and experience.

People groomed for the executive fast track are often moved around rapidly through the organisation, and jumped between completely different responsbility areas and type of jobs or different divisions to broaden experience and get a more total view of the organisation.

Go where the growth is, even if this means making a lateral move. The old saying that a rising tide lifts all ships still applies.

Take risks. Business columnist Bob Rosner calls volunteering for difficult assignments "the express lane to corporate success." But beware of suicide missions. Analyze whether a challenging assignment is merely difficult or probably impossible.

Other useful insights

To be promoted

Promotion usually happens to people with the following characteristics:

1)You must be available. If you are tied up in an important project and pulling you out will jeopardize that project, then you might be bypassed for a promotion. It is important to have a replacement for your skills since promoting a person who have a ready replacement is less risky. In other words, minimize all risks associated with promoting you , such as the cost and risk of replacing your current position, your bad relationships with key organizational people, and personal (alcoholism, lack of self control etc.) problems.

2)You must show (sell) you can do the job at the next level. Do not assume you are have shown the capacity for the next level by being competent at your current position. Learn to talk, to dress, and to possess the skillset (knowledge) required for the next level.

3)Anticipate organizational needs and changes. Do not merely be a passive player amongst the corporate changes. Anticipate organizational needs, develop a knowledge base to provide for the need, and sell yourslf as the answer to the anticipated organizational problems to the influencial senior managers.

3)Develope a network of good relationships. Do not be a jerk. In the modern workplace, it is better to be loved than feared since the knowledge workers have more leverage than ever. Talented people do not need to accept your fear tactics. It is important you are perceived as someone who is good to have a beer with.

4)Get noticed. Be someone that takes initiative. Volunteer to head up strategic projects, especially if such projects are likely to end up reporting status to the executive commitee from time to time. This increases your exposure with the people that matter. Always volunteer to be the one to take minutes of meetings, as minutes usually have to be reviewed or finalised by the boss afterwards - again increasing your exposure. People who are not known don't get promoted.

5)Always make your boss look good. A really good idea is never YOUR idea, always credit your boss. This is the smart thing to do. NEVER question or challenge the boss in public. Don't jump above your boss's head.

6)Always keep moving. If you find yourself stuck behind a dead-end boss, then its time for a lateral jump - either across division, country or company.
Rule of thumb: If you haven't changed position, division or area in 2-3 years, something is wrong and you need to make a drastic jump. Always

Diplomacy

Your colleagues may or may not like your being tipped for elevations and may be waiting for a chance to try and find fault with your work or pull your legs . You have to diplomatically avoid such situations and also be extra cautious so that you do not fall prey to such gimmicks. Several times you should know the intent of the person talking you rather than take his comments at face value and react accordingly.

It is always important to stay calm and composed all the time and never allow emotions to take control of you. Think before answering any questions directed at you.

Hard Work as a Negative Trait

If you talk to any successful entrepreneur, he will tell you that one of the ingredients of his achievements is hard work. But there are situations where hard work is counterproductive. The gadflies and drones of the company actually overtake you.

There are several reasons why this happens. There are people who work hard — much harder than their colleagues — because deep down they suffer from an inferiority complex. Often, they don’t realise it.

Away from the executive suites, why are people penalised for working too hard? The inferiority complex encourages some people to make themselves irreplaceable.

Hard work also implies a lot of devotion to the immediate job content. The end result is that you don’t have the time to see what others are doing. If you want to rise to the top, you have to be a generalist. This is why industry puts a greater premium on MBAs than engineers.

The ultimate result of unstinted hard work is that you get taken for granted. The worker who expects to get rewarded for devotion ends up as the dogsbody around the office.

This perspective comes from http://dobato.blogspot.com/2006/12/twelve-tips-to-climb-corporate-ladder.html, but you need to temper this point of view with many additional considerations. Reliability, and delivering what you promise when you promised (or immediately informing superiors when the plan changes) is key for getting promoted.

Snakes and Ladders

See Also:http://www.michaelpage.co.za/content/16096/how-to-climb-the-corporate-ladder.html

Hi man, im a young enterpreneur and i must say you inspire me.