Welcome to Tony Richards Messages

16 Getting Your Promotion

Welcome to this week’s message on leadership, self-confidence, and how to feel good about yourself everyday as you interact with people, in safety and comfort, at home and work.

Last week’s message was all about Critical Step 5 Application and how to best utilise it.
If you wish to be reminded of that message, it is also available back on the message page.

This week’s message is a Special Interest Item based on an often-asked question about a particular business situation. The question is often asked about how to get that promotion. And although I can assist with specifics, when I know all the company circumstance, I can only generalise here today, so that you get a broad answer that may help.

If you think about how people get to the top in their respective work, social or political areas it is not difficult to understand that things can go wrong. It is possible for people to get to the pinnacle of their company because of financial position, inheritance, seniority, accident or formal education.

There may also be intrigue or dishonesty, or many other nefarious methods, that people use for their own advancement, but for the sake of brevity this message will concentrate on the honest methods mentioned to make the necessary point.

Anyone who buys a business, and then employs others, becomes the boss because of his or her financial position. People who inherit a business are immediately bosses and under those circumstances, even if they don’t want the job, other people’s livelihood may depend on their continuing to operate the business.

People may get promoted because they are the longest serving in that organisation when someone else leaves or because of the arbitrary decision of a selection committee. In addition people may be placed in a position of power because they have procured more formal educational qualifications than their colleagues have.

However, you mustn’t be prepared to accept that you can’t be promoted, if you’re not in the above categories. One of the most important tips I can provide is to be in prepared to demonstrate to your employer that you have the necessary qualities, as well as qualifications, to represent their interests in the position available.

Nowadays many employers have ethical requirements of their representatives that need to be articulated at interview, or shown during employment, if the position is internal. Recruitment professionals will confirm that they are more interested in answers to behavioural questions, rather than mere formal qualifications.

As one professional put to me recently, “It is better to have no recruitment, rather than a bad recruitment!”

The weekly messages provided here are designed for you to rediscover and display the best character traits of your personality. This is not intended to change your personality.

Everyone was born with an ability to make themselves and others feel good, or otherwise, by how they interact with everyone else. Exercises like writing your Vision Statement are designed so you can choose more carefully which side of your character you wish to display.

If you have ever hurt the feelings of someone who loves you, by something you’ve said or done, you will then understand how important it is to avoid that unwanted situation.

And if you have inadvertently done that to someone you love, just imagine how easily you may have done that to someone you work with. If you have developed a reputation of showing sides to your character that others don’t like, what chances do you believe you have for promotion?

I am never surprised, when discussing promotional opportunities with colleagues on behalf of others, how they respond to questions with statements like, "nobody likes him or her".

Fortunately this has happened often enough that I am no longer uncomfortable in explaining to clients what the problem is. When they go through the process of Personal Development, that you have access to here, they discover how to demonstrate the best sides to their character and promotion usually comes very soon after that.

No matter what view you have of yourself, the rest of the world will form their own opinions of your character and that can determine your promotional opportunities.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. Abraham Lincoln (1808-1865). (Attrib.)

And no matter what you say or believe about how nice a person you are, they will still decide for themselves. Therefore it is the intent of these messages to assist you to show, and for others to observe, that you are of appropriate character, as well as best qualified, for promotion.

“The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

Please take the opportunity this week to think about your commitment to displaying the best of your character, as you are deserving of every opportunity to demonstrate all of your promotional qualities. You shouldn’t be surprised that we all want to share in your promotional success.

Please email me on any items of special interest you may have. If I don’t have the answer to any queries you raise myself, I would be certain that the people who email me on their special interest subjects would have. And if no one else had already provided an answer, which was lost in my poor memory, I would be happy to research the query and find the answer.

Your stories – even short comments – are of great value to inspire others, and I would like to take the opportunity to include your stories, or comments, in upcoming episodes of ‘Special Interest Items’. They will be included as they fit into the theme of the message for that week.

Do you know anyone you can help with leadership issues, or just feeling good about themselves? Forward this message to friends and work colleagues; print it out and place it on notice boards, and give copies to those without computer access. Printing out, and compiling each weekly message in a folder, is a good way to build a total knowledge of self-confidence and leadership. It will provide certainty in dealing with every aspect of your life.

Next week’s message is an explanation of Stage 2 of ‘The Cycle of Confidence and Leadership’ that you were born with.

It will be followed in coming weeks by messages on the Five Critical Steps to Confidence and Leadership, and, in turn, by another Special Messages in response to often asked questions.

Until then, please continue to see yourself as a unique and remarkable person, who deserves to feel good about yourself every day.

Tony Richards.

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