Welcome to the celebrate brave podcast. 

I’m Nicole Trick Steinbach, your host, and the international bravery coach. On a mission to redefine brave. How we identify it, live it, and most importantly, celebrate it. Because when you build your brave, you change your world and that changes the world. Talk about something to celebrate. Let’s go.

Hello, brave people. All right. Today, we’re going to talk about promotions. We’re going to specifically talk about how you can make your next promotion. Not just possible, not just probable, but actually inevitable. I’m going to give a little bit of context and then I’m going to dive into a framework. I’m going to introduce a process and it’s going to sound like way too much work and I’m telling y’all it works. It works. It works. It works!. Okay. So context.

 

2020 was wild for tech. That’s where my career has been built. It’s where the vast majority of my clients are, women in tech, women in tech, across all industries. So at this moment, insurance, engineering, architecture, ed-tech, so education tech, medical tech, university tech, trying to think if I caught everybody and then an actual like software companies. Yeah. Oh, and there are hardware companies. I love y’all. Anyhow, so in and around technology. 

 

And 2020 was wild. You know, we think about zoom. We think about how zoom suddenly had to scale up. I am telling you, just in case you weren’t aware all of the other platforms, your HR platform, your finance platform, the pay platform, marketing platforms. All of these things did the same level of scaling on the spin of a coin. I mean, your tech teams got a lot of crap and in reality, tech teams, tech leadership, just process leadership as well have been saying, at least for the last five to eight years. The good ones who have been doing it for 10 to 15 years. Hello consultants!. How do you think consultants get things done? It’s always been possible, but anyways.

 

 They have been saying, we have to set this up to scale. Even some of the logistics and some of the property management people have been saying, Hey, You know, we don’t actually have to have all this space, but it was this old and antiquated, control-minded management that held it back.

 

So yes, it’s been possible. And on a coin spin. The tech teams and the process teams and the implementation teams and the support teams made it happen. Now you may have not always had a wonderful experience. I’m telling ya. Strategy is fricking important and I am amazed and honoured to have supported so many organizations and so many people through that scaling exercise. So that’s the context. 

 

The teams kicked Popo, kicked booty, kicked ass. As I’m recording this it’s April 14th. Promotion cycles for the vast majority of companies are over. Individuals have started to go into or have completed their annual planning. And I will tell you, I have never had so many conversations, so many consults of women in technology who have come to me specifically because they pulled crazy hours, they made magic happen. They, at the beginning of 2020 already wanted the promotion into 2021 and they did not get their promotion. You check out LinkedIn right now. And for the last few weeks, bonus cycles have been paid out and people are leaving their companies in droves. Currently one out of four women in tech that is 25%, 25% are self-reporting that they want to leave tech.

 

My heart is breaking because as you guys know, I’m super, super, super passionate about insisting that our tech, which is the spine of all of our industries. It is the spine of our education systems. It is the spine of our healthcare systems. It is the spine of our family systems right now, becomes way more inclusive. Who invests in it? Who innovates it, who designs it, who develops it, who sells it, who implements it, who supports it? Who does continuous innovation and improvement? 

Look, it cannot be, straight white guys who went to really good schools, making all these decisions because they don’t know how the world works. They know how their world works. I know how my world works. I do not know how a black woman’s world works. You know, we had Sumina on the podcast. I don’t know how her world works. And the tech I designed isn’t going to support her. So we need everybody. And when one in four women in technology are reflecting, are considering on leaving. We have a huge fricking problem. And I will tell you. That for most of the people that I talked to the THE Kickstarter for them to say to me, I’m thinking of leaving, I don’t know what else to do. I said I wanted the promotion then 2020 made miracles happen and I still didn’t get the promotion. I’ll never get the promotion. What do I do? This is my last opportunity. 

 

And guys that break my hearts, all of my hearts. Side note. One of the reasons I identify with an octopus is they’ve multiple hearts. And honestly, I feel like I do too. I can feel my hearts swelling when I get to cuddle with my kiddos and I feel my hearts breaking when I have call after call, after call of these amazing women in technology who have once again, been passed over, and they don’t know what to do. I held a workshop to walk people through this framework. I’m happy to do that again. If I hear from y’all that you want this, but here we go. 

 

You’re doing it wrong. You’re doing it wrong. They’re not going to notice. They’re not going to appreciate it. You have to back them in, to know that your promotion is inevitable. So here’s the deal. The very first part is your belief. Nothing is going to happen, consistently, sustainably especially if you are from the senior level up into the executive ranks. Nothing is going to happen until you firmly, consistently, sustainably, visibly believe. So I’m going to give you four questions and you are going to work on your belief. 

 

So question number one, do you really deserve the promotion? Number two, have you really earned the promotion? Number three, do you really have the potential for the next role, and number four, really? Your answer to all four in the most critical voice that you have has to be a YES. Because you may not hear it at that level of criticalness,  from other people, from HR, from your mentor, from your sponsor, from your colleagues, from whomever. You may not hear it, but you’re going to think it. And so here’s a couple of things that I want you to keep in mind. 

 

Number one, you shall be promoted based on your potential, your potential. Do you have the potential to grow into that role? And until you say HELL YES, till you believe it, they won’t either. Same with deserve. Same with earn. Your belief is the complete foundation. If you have a wonky foundation, you are going to fake it, and you’re going to work on your belief. You’re going to work on your thoughts until your answer to all four is HELL YES. Do I really deserve the promotion? Yes! Have I really earned it? Do I really have the potential for the role? Heck yeah, I can already do 40% of this, 50% of this. Maybe even 60% of it. Promotions are for potential and really? Yeah, totally, absolutely. I believe. Okay. That’s part number one, then we’ve got three columns. These are the three realities. 

 

Number one you own and you drive the process. It is not HR. It’s not your manager. Here’s the reality. It is your choice. It’s your choice to believe it’s your choice to remain consistent. It’s your choice to remain clear. It’s your choice to look at every circumstance as an opportunity to show the promotion is yours because you and you alone own the process. A lot of people like to outsource this, hun, please. Nobody cares about you getting your promotion, except for you. If you’re lucky and you have people who support you, fantastic. You and you alone own the process. That’s number one. 

 

The second column is you time the process. As a former manager, I did management for a very short period of time because I was inside of a system that did not empower me to hold people accountable and give them what they deserved, both positive and negative. But here’s the reality. I know this to be true. And I also coach executive leadership. I coach frontline managers. I know this to be true. Your management starts thinking about promotions, really thinking about it maybe six weeks before the final HR deadline. If you are not the top name, when your manager starts thinking about it, six weeks beforehand, you are too fricking late. 

 

Stop waiting for your manager or HR or your union rep or whomever to bring that topic to you, you own and drive the process and you also time it. So here’s the deal. If you’re at a middle-sized company, you’re looking at 12 weeks, at least. You start this conversation with your manager and I will give you the process as best as I can on a podcast a little bit later, but you start it, you drive it, you own it. And if you’re in a middle-sized company, which means up to 10,000 employees, you’re looking at least 12 weeks, at least. And if you’re in a large company, four to six months, so in the summer, is when you kick start the conversations for promotion in January, and around mid-December is when you kickstart for summer. Y’all I’m not playing, you time the process. You gotta drive that train, not jump on it when it’s too late. 

 

And number three, you own the clarity. So you ask the questions, you track the content, you get the transparency. That is your job. Your management is there to ensure in the best-case scenario that you continue to grow your career. In reality, they’re there to make sure that you can do your job, that you are doing your job exceptionally well. So you own the clarity because here’s the thing your manager has to turn around and make a case for why you get the promotion to their manager, potentially to their manager’s manager and to HR also potentially to finance, it depends on the size of your company and how your processes work. 

 

So you own the clarity so that you know where you are, you know if you’ve got the support, you know what needs to be done to get the support and you know your manager is set up with a clear, concise case for why the promotion makes sense for you. It’s the best thing for you. It’s the best thing for your manager and for the team and the function. And it’s the best for the company. You own the clarity. So we’ve got the foundation of your belief. We’ve got the three pillars, you own and drive the process, you time the process, you own the clarity. And if you’re rolling your eyes and you’re like, Oh, why are they in management? Let me tell you. That’s why you don’t get your promotion. This is how you make your promotion possible, probable inevitable. So here’s the simple process. I’m going to do my best on a podcast. Here’s the simple process that sits on all of that, the foundation and the three pillars. It has four parts to it. 

 

The first part is established goal. Second, set the strategy, three confirm checklist and four manage the progress. So with your goal, established goal, you come into the meeting with your simple, clear ask and timeline. Dear manager, in the next promotion cycle I would like to be promoted to, I don’t know, senior global director. Ask for a response. What do you think about that? How does that sound? And then you listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. You listen! Not for what you want to hear, but for what is actually being said. And here’s the deal, no matter what it is if it’s skeptical if it’s fully supportive, if it’s like wonky somewhere in the middle, you’ve made a simple, clear request with the timeline and you’ve asked for a response. You’ve listened, listen, listen, listen, listen, no matter what the response is, you schedule a strategy meeting. You say, thank you so much. This is so important to me. I’d like to set a one-on-one session, just you and I with just this agenda point. Now, here’s already where you’re owning it you believe you believe you believe your foundation. You’re already owning it. You’re already timing it. And you’re already owning the clarity. We’re assuming that your manager is supportive of having the strategy conversation. Here’s the thing about inevitability. If your manager does not support it and is making that clear and is not making time. Stop, it is time to go somewhere else. 

 

You are making your next promotion inevitable. That doesn’t mean that you’re at the exact same place with the exact same manager and the exact same role. If you don’t have your leadership support, stop playing around. Stop it. All right. Set strategy. Here you go, you bring the role. So you’ve got your one-on-one meeting. If your manager wants to bring HR, that’s totally fine. Let them. You set up a one-on-one meeting. You come in, you repeat your specific simple ask for the promotion with your timeline. You bring the role that you’re going for. Look, 60% potential. 50% potential is when a lot of men get promoted. So you track,you compare. I am here. Here’s where the role we promote based on potential. Quote me, we promote based on potential. I’m ready for this. How does that sound? Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. And then in that meeting, in that meeting, that’s when you get the clarity of the yes or the no. 

 

You’re going to hear responses like I want to support you, but……..The most common for women is, well, the two most common for women, statistically, and this is from the women in the workplace is; you know, you need to improve your influencing skills, your leadership skills. Okay, cool. Cool. I’m going to write these down. This was your role in the meeting going to write this feedback down. I’m going to get feedback from the other people. Whatever is agreed. And you’re going to start drafting a checklist in the strategy meeting. 

We’re still in step two. You’re going to agree on who are the decision-makers who actually have to sign off on your promotion. So you’ve repeated your simple timeline, simple request. You’ve made your case of your potential and comparison with the role. And you’re already getting feedback. You’re agreeing on the strategy, for you to reach that promotion you’re agreeing on who else needs to give you that feedback. And you are clarifying who are the final decision-makers. 

 

The reason that you want to make sure that you know who the final decisions are and that you document it, is because that is the easiest way for a manager, not to give you the actual feedback. It’s the easiest way for them to wonk out. Oh, I have to talk to this other person and this other person and this other person. You own the clarity you drive the process, get the clarity. 

 

Step three, confirm the checklist. This is when you move from strategy. And you go into momentum and into accountability. So you will have three or fewer areas. They will start off as like, Oh, you need to improve your leadership skills, whatever, that can mean anything. So you have proof points, you have smart proof points. So. Let’s take the leadership skills one because so many of the people I’ve been talking to were passed over for promotions. This was the nonsense that they were told. Okay. You got to …. , your leadership style didn’t increase. Hello. Are you crazy! Anyways. So you have your three smart proof points two, one, whatever the case may be. For example, complete an internal course for first-level leaders. Who’s the decision-maker, HR. How do you know that this is done while it’s a yes or a no, you’ve either done it or you haven’t done it. Another example for leadership skills. Assume ownership of the full team communication structure and the full team project structure. Who’s the decision-maker? In this case, it would either be your manager or it’d be their chief of staff, depending on the level of seniority you have. How are the results? Is this a yes or no? Probably not because things change over time. So you’re going to have a percentage and you’re going to have notes. 

 

Another example that people often get is, Oh, you need to improve your tech skills. There’s no ending to tech skills. So you’ve got to get that smart, smart, smart, smart proof point. You get certified for example by a cybersecurity organization. Or you step into a bigger role inside of X, Y, Z project. So these are smart proof points. You’ve got your decision-maker and you’ve got your results either a yes, no, or percentage. This is your checklist. Have you done this before? I will tell you that of all the consults that I’ve had this year of women who came to me, pissed off thinking about leaving tech because they didn’t get their promotion again. Zero, zero had ever done a promotion checklist EVER. 

 

This is how you build your belief, you own the process, you time the process and you own the clarity. This is the fourth and final step inside of the simple process. You manage progress. What this means is you keep that checklist and you can put it in Excel. You keep that checklist and you keep it up to date, make it a shared document so that your manager has it as well. Keep the clarity and the transparency and you are going to status track it just like any other project, just like any other project. You follow through, you keep that accountability, you identify obstacles and you work to remove them. You identify opportunities and you work to embrace them. Like any other project. Project management makes project success much more likely. And when you have your clarity, when you have your momentum and when you have your accountability, which is this checklist and status tracking, and you have you, your free will. , Your promotion goes from possible to probable to inevitable. This process is uncomfortable. It starts with your belief and then it’s all about you staying on top of it. You can, you can get that promotion, so go make it inevitable. 

 

Thank you for listening to this episode of the celebrate brave podcast.

If you’re ready to build your brave, to live a life you love, and create a career that matters to you. Reach out! Together we can spend time one-on-one to explore how I can help you. And until then share this episode with people in your life. People who can join our movement. To redefine brave how we identify it, experience it, and celebrate it.