How to climb the Millennial Corporate Ladder
Climbing the corporate ladder is not a matter of luck; it requires planning and hard work to be successful. Done the right way, success is basically guaranteed. This is how to do it.
1. Create a 5-year Plan
What does “having a career” mean? It means taking ownership of your life, actively shaping and managing it - by identifying specific goals. When you set a goal, it gets parked in your subconscious. With the goal sitting in the back of your mind, you then start to recognise things that you can act on to move you closer to your goal. If you didn’t have the goal in your mind in the first place, then these things usually go unnoticed. After you have set the goal, it is absolutely essential to recite it to yourself as often as possible – to keep it both in the back and front of your mind.
Break down the goal into smaller short-term targets. By doing this, you achieve multiple successes in your pursuit of the goal. This triggers the brain’s reward system and drives you to keep going. You may set a goal to achieve in 5 years. That’s a long time to commit and wait unless you can see results along the way. By creating mini goals, say every 12 months, you get consistent positive reinforcement that keeps you motivated to the end. Aim to identify potential opportunities, such as short courses, development programs, on-the-job training, or guidance from a mentor. Combine your true strengths and your natural talents with skills you have learnt or can learn.
2. Be a valuable Team Member
Early in your career, be a member of as many teams as possible. There are many skills you can learn and practice as a team member. The objective is to learn these and be viewed as a supportive colleague. Work hard, accept all work given to you graciously and only complain about broken processes never people. Look for opportunities to take on other people’s work as a way of helping and learning about their area of expertise by volunteering your time to others. Whenever you have a work conversation with other people, at the close always offer your help to them. This is usually rarely taken up, but people will view you as being supportive, caring and a good teammate.
Try to have work delegated to you that uses your strengths (your natural talents). This is the work you will do easily and feel passionate about, resulting in usually outstanding results. Let your manager know what your strengths are, things like leading, planning, scheduling, organizing, writing, technology, giving presentations, creativity, persistence, teamwork, training, teaching, and motivating people.
3. Engage with your Manager
Your overall objective is to build a supportive and trusted relationship with your manager. Do this by asking for regular mentoring sessions to discuss things like your top 3 issues, something that you recently did well, ideas and frustrations, things that do not fit neatly into status reports, emails, and other less personal mechanisms. Discuss a personal development plan and your training needs. Ask for an informal performance review – “are you doing a good job?”
4. Know how to conduct a Conversation
This may sound pretty basic, but most of us do not really know how to conduct a professional conversation. The trick is to have a conversation like you are doing an interview. We've all had really great conversations. We know what it's like. The kind of conversation where you walk away feeling engaged and inspired, or where you feel like you've made a real connection, or you've been perfectly understood. There is no reason why most of your interactions can't be like that. Here are some basic rules to guide you. Use any or all of them, but master at least one of them.
1. Listen. I cannot tell you how many really important people have said that listening is perhaps the most, the number one most important skill that you can ever develop. Buddha said, and I'm paraphrasing, "If your mouth is open, you're not learning." Why do we not listen to each other? Because we'd rather talk. When I'm talking, I'm in control. I don't have to hear anything I'm not interested in. I'm the centre of attention. I can bolster my own identity. But there's another reason: We get distracted. The average person talks at about 225 words per minute, but we can listen at up to 500 words per minute. So, our minds are filling in those other 275 words. And look, I know, it takes effort and energy to actually pay attention to someone, but if you can't do that, you're not in a conversation.
2. Don't multitask. Be present, be in the moment. Don't think about the argument you had with your boss. Don't think about what you're going to have for dinner. Don't be half in and half out of the conversation.
3. Let yourself learn something. Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don't. Everybody is an expert in something.
4. Use open-ended questions. Start your questions with who, what, when, where, why or how. Try asking questions like, "What was that like?" "How did that feel?" Because then they might have to stop for a moment and think about it, and you're going to get a much more interesting response.
5. Go with the flow. That means thoughts, stories and ideas will come into your mind, and you need to let them go out of your mind, otherwise, you stop listening.
6. Don't equate your experience with theirs. If they're talking about the trouble they're having at work, don't tell them about how much you hate your job. It's not the same. It is never the same. All experiences are individual. And more importantly, it is not about you. You don't need to take that moment to prove how amazing you are or how much you've suffered.
7. Try not to repeat yourself. It's condescending, and it's really boring, and we tend to do it a lot.
8. Stay out of the weeds. People don't care about the years, the names, the dates, all those details that you're struggling to come up with in your mind. They don't care. What they care about is you. They care about what you're like, and what you have in common. So, forget the details. Leave them out.
9. Make eye contact. While the other person speaks, look into their eyes. If you find this difficult, look at the space between their eyes just above the top of their nose; to them, it appears that you are looking directly into their eyes. Doing this gives you an upper hand making it easier to persuade and influence someone, and it is a great negotiation tactic.
Source: Celeste Headlee, Writer, and Radio Host.
Senior managers and executives will always remember you if you conduct conversations like this. In fact, everyone will remember you.
5. Specialize
It’s important to develop one or more specializations that result from doing different jobs and working in different teams. The more specializations you can learn means that you can describe yourself as a ‘generalist’ in your particular professional discipline, which means more job opportunities because you have specializations combined with broad knowledge.
6. Learn Project Management
It’s the perfect introduction to becoming a manager or team leader, plus it gives you a fantastic specialization. Copy the best features of a project manager you know to get you going. Manage as many Projects as possible and learn to do Planning, Scheduling and Financial Management.
7. Develop your Working Style
Don’t leave the way you work to chance or undue influence by others (except for highly successful and notable role models). The way you work is your ‘brand’; it’s something you should be proud of and definitely be known for. Consider things like what time you arrive at work and what time you leave. Are you practising formal time management techniques? What are your personal work practices? Do you have any, and if not, why not? Don’t multitask; it’s a trap and doesn’t work for you. Don’t use a laptop in meetings; you forget most of what you type against writing.
High-Performance Work Practices
8. Be seen as a being Professional
Being a professional means subscribing to a set of professional standards, for example.
1. Having a professional attitude. Being upwardly supportive. Not participating in secret or negative conversations. Arriving at work on time and staying until the day’s work is complete. Being organised, polite, engaged and putting in extra time when required.
2. Demonstrating professional maturity. Producing quality work. Acknowledging mistakes without shifting blame. Owning up to issues and presenting solutions. Being predictive about problems, acting before they occur to avoid them.
3. Managing time and workspace. Maintaining a diary for appointments and deadlines, regularly checking to stay on schedule with meetings and tasks. Using smart email management techniques. Organising a workspace so that it’s clean and files are organised.
4. Practising leadership skills. Making presentations, being a business liaison contact, and joining a professional society. Being up to date with industry changes by attending seminars and reading professional publications.
5. Communicating professionally. Being aware of body language, eye contact and a handshake. Speaking clearly and practising active listening.
9. Become a High-Performance Manager
It’s important to develop early a progressive, modern management style that heavily influences the way you think, feel, speak, and act. Your management style has a significant impact on how you and your team operate; the right management style promotes team member engagement and makes your team members feel more comfortable approaching you with questions, suggestions, and ideas. The right management style substantially increases your management confidence and lowers your stress levels. When you have a management style that fits your personality, your objectives, your team, and your business, not only can you focus more on exercising your strengths and achieving your goals, but doing so becomes far easier.\
Imagine you have a team, and they are completing the survey below – how do you think you would rate? Answers to these questions are a direct reflection of management style.
1. I would recommend my manager to others.
2. My manager assigns stretch opportunities to help me develop in my career.
3. My manager communicates clear goals for our team.
4. My manager gives me actionable feedback regularly.
5. My manager provides the autonomy I need to do my job (i.e., does not "micro-manage" by getting involved in detail that should be handled at other levels).
6. My manager consistently shows consideration for me as a person.
7. My manager keeps the team focused on priorities, even when it’s difficult (e.g., declining or deprioritizing other projects).
8. My manager regularly shares relevant information from their manager and senior leadership.
9. My manager has had a meaningful discussion with me about my career development in the past six months.
10. My manager has the technical expertise (e.g., technical judgment in Tech, selling in Sales, accounting in Finance) required to manage me effectively.
11. The actions of my manager show they value the perspective I bring to the team, even if it is different from theirs.
12. My manager makes tough decisions effectively (e.g., decisions involving multiple teams, and competing priorities).
13. My manager effectively collaborates across boundaries (e.g., team, organizational).
Source: Google Oxygen Project.
High-performance managers develop teamwork; they know they need to spend time with their teams, talk to them, and understand them and what they care for individually. A high-performance management style motivates others to do more than they thought possible. Managers using this style set challenging expectations for their team members who are managed as individuals, identifying and developing their strengths. High-performance managers are supportive, provide mentoring and are role models who are respected and trusted. Team members emulate this style, a style that radiates positivity, charisma and an energy that infects team members. A high-performance management style:
1. Is excellent for rapidly changing business environments.
2. Promotes growth.
3. Builds and manages high-performance teams.
4. Suits both a management and leadership position.
5. Significantly boosts self-confidence, team productivity and innovation.
How to develop a High-Performance Management Style.