Be Competent in your Current Position

• You must know your job well enough that you can train someone else for the role. Your competency in your role must make you irreplaceable and an asset to the organization.

  • Being utterly competent in your role will create more independence and trust in your direct supervisor.

  • Being competent in your role does not mean that you should begin correcting other teammates or talking negatively about a teammates work habits to your boss. Stay in your lane and focus on being the best at your job.

Accept Feedback and Excel

• Being able to listen to constructive feedback and take action to improve goes a long way.

  • It is okay to make mistakes as long as you take ownership and grow from the errors. The goal should be not to continue making the same mistakes at work and to solve problems to avoid a repeat situation.

Your Work Ethic Needs to be Exceptional

• It is easier to be a candidate for a promotion if all the company has known you to be a diligent worker. Hard-working doesn't necessarily mean taking on extra tasks, staying late on the job, or overworking yourself.

  • Some examples of an exceptional work ethic are being timely, maintaining deadlines, high productivity, communicating in advance about mistakes or upcoming absences, and being reliable.

Participate and be Present

• It is helpful to participate in any team bonding events if you can. This does not mean you must be engaging and entirely extroverted for the entire event. Just show up, be seen, engage a little, and leave. You do not need to attend every event and stay for the whole time but make sure your presence is known.

Be a Positive Team Member

• It is easy to get consumed into workplace politics and gossip. It is important to stay neutral (as you get promoted, this is a mandatory skill as you will not agree with everything you'll be enforcing if managing direct supports).

Overall, to obtain a job promotion, you should not be dishonest, put others in a vulnerable position, take advantage of others and or be manipulative. If you feel like this is the only way for you to get a promotion in your current company, you may be in a toxic workplace environment.