6 Office Habits That Increase Your Chance of Promotion

A lot of people believe that, when it comes to a promotion, you should only be patient. Nonetheless, just like simply going to school won’t get you good grades, just showing up at work won’t get you that promotion. Unfortunately, it is not all about the hard work either. Sure, you may outperform the entire office with sheer brilliance or work twice as hard as anyone else, but this too will not guarantee you a promotion. The only thing that can get you there is both being an invaluable asset of your company and looking the part. With this in mind, here are six office habits that are bound to make you look good in the eyes of your employer and, in this way, get you one step closer to the promotion you so desperately want.

Be the First One at the Office

As long as you are the first one to get to the office, no one can tell if you got there 5 minutes or several hours before. In other words, nothing will get you looking as dedicated and vigilant as being at the office early day in and day out. Aside from looking good, there are a few more benefits of being early for work.

For example, this allows you to skip any potential delay caused by the traffic. It gives you a chance to setup your workstation while all is still peaceful and quiet, but most importantly, it helps you catch all the early calls. Finally, getting acclimated at work usually takes from 30 minutes up to a full hour. So, if there is an early meeting scheduled, you are bound to outshine everyone else present.

Focus on the Meetings

In the previous section we hinted the importance of looking good at the meetings, but now it’s time to get a bit more in-depth with this vital topic. There is a popular belief that frequent meetings are one of the most tedious aspects of office work. However, to some, they are nothing but a great opportunity to step up. Sure, interrupting people (especially superiors) while they talk is not something advisable, but speaking up in meetings is one of the easiest ways to get noticed.

Presenting your own idea can demonstrate just how much you are contributing to the company, but this is not your only option. Even if you don’t have anything new to say, you can simply endorse a co-worker and in this way demonstrate just how great of a team player you are. This is a particularly great idea seeing how it doesn’t require inspiration or creativity, not to mention that it also gains you some bonus points in the eyes of your colleagues.

Dress for the Job You Want

Another thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that you shouldn’t dress for the job you have, but for the job you want. Regardless of how cliché this particular piece of advice may sound, a lot of people tend to disregard it.

If you aren’t exactly sure what kind of clothing this entails, you could simply look at the way in which your superiors are dressing and try following suit (no pun intended). Of course, this doesn’t mean following their fashion sense to the letter, but only using it as an example in order to get some much-needed pointers. One last thing, clothes are not the only thing that matters. You should also think about your haircut choice, beard grooming, makeup and your appearance in general.

Look as if You Are Working Hard

Even though you may be the most hard-working person in the office, it usually happens that management can’t measure this properly. Sure, in the sales-team the performance of an individual team member is easily quantifiable, but this is more of an exception than an example of how these things work.

You may currently be neck-deep in the most vital piece of research, but on the outside, you may appear as if you were idly wasting time on social media. The difference here is made by your facial expression and your body language, so it is vital that you learn how to create an aura of a dedicated employee with these two means of nonverbal communication.

Use Major Projects to Shine

Another thing you need to keep in mind is the importance of major projects for your career. Appearing as you are hard-working on default is great, but your company’s major projects usually turn out to be breaking points in one’s career. The reason behind this is simple – the eyes of the entire management will be on you during the entire project, making this into a great opportunity for you to shine.

There are many different ways in which you can demonstrate just how invaluable you are, but none of them are as efficient as finding a way to save company funds. For example, introducing others to a new method to control the cost of your software development testing efforts is one of the things that is not that hard to pull off, yet may leave a great impression. Regardless of how much money you manage to save this way, you will prove that you are ready and willing to go that extra mile to secure your organization’s prosperity. This kind of effort almost never goes unnoticed.

Feel Free to Speak Your Mind

Finally, one of the most common problems people face here is the issue of time. If after several years of dedicated work and effort you still don’t get the promotion or at least a raise you believe you have earned, you may start thinking about botching the whole thing and going someplace else. While this may sometimes be a valid career choice, you shouldn’t do anything rash before speaking to your employer.

First of all, going someplace else means starting all over and if you fail to face your manager head-to-head and outright demand better treatment, you will definitely regret it. Whenever you find yourself in a similar situation, you will always wonder what would have happened if you did speak up before leaving. During this conversation, you need to appear confident, but even more importantly, you need to stay respectful. Furthermore, this is not something you do every day, so trying to ‘wing-it’ is not going to cut it. You need to know exactly what you are going to say before you step into your boss’s office.

Conclusion

The thing about all of the steps listed above is that they need some degree of consistency. The fact that nine out of ten days you get to the office one hour early doesn’t give you the right to be half an hour late on the tenth day. Speaking up during several meetings in a row doesn’t give you the right to fall asleep on that one occasion. All of your efforts should have a single goal – the promotion and ways in which you can get it. Nonetheless, this is a 24/7 job and when it comes to it, partial solutions are out of question.

Keep in mind that, when you finally do get that promotion, your work won’t be done. It will only mean that you are ready to take your next step on the corporate ladder. This journey doesn’t end until you reach the top.

Author: Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.