In a lot of ways, career progression is crucial. For the sake of your sanity and your financial future, you’ll want a role that adapts in terms of things like annual pay, responsibilities, and the tasks you’re expected to handle each day. This is the best way to keep your job exciting, and can help you to achieve the position you want, instead of the only one you were qualified for when you first started.

Unfortunately, while promotion announcements might be commonplace in our favorite movies and television shows, they’re not quite as common as we’d like to believe. Unless you struck lucky with a manager who prioritizes job progression in particular, it’s all too easy to find yourself stagnating in a static role.

This is terrible news, and too often, it’s an issue we perpetuate without even realizing that we’re doing it. So, if you’re fed up with feeling stuck in the same role year after year, ask yourself whether the following mistakes could be contributing to your downfall.

Mistake 1: Leaving your personal development plan to someone else

Our career goals and dreams are 100% unique to us, and tend to be based on things like our financial needs, and our requirements for career satisfaction. Yet, when it comes to developing a solid personal plan, many of us make the mistake of putting our managers in charge. Too often, we either wait for a manager to suggest an opportunity like promotion, or to pursue career development based on what’s convenient for them, rather than what will actually get us where we need to go.

This is a terrible idea for obvious reasons, and it’s a situation you can improve by simply taking charge with a personal development plan that’s all your own. This plan should consider vital factors such as –

  • What do I intend to achieve?
  • How soon would I like to achieve it?
  • What must I do to get there?
  • Etc.

This will provide a far clearer idea of your ideal career progression. As a result, you’ll be far better able to work determinedly towards this outcome, rather than just going along with what other people say. That can make a huge difference, and can also highlight you as a determined individual with a strong sense of your professional self. Which can only be a bonus.

Mistake 2: Keeping too quiet

No one likes a show-off. As such, there’s some risk that constantly shouting about your lofty ambitions will prevent you from being considered for even a lower-key role you’re unlikely to stick at. That said, it also doesn’t pay to stay so quiet about your overall career intentions that even your boss doesn’t know what they are.

The answer? Find a middle ground between making yourself known, and also making yourself reliable. For the most part, this means things like getting settled well into any role before you start to make noise. It also pays to keep these conversations for your manager only, always at opportune times such as when a new role you’re interested in opens up.

It also pays to make a statement about your progression intentions with the role you take in the first place. After all, your manager is unlikely to consider you for a top marketing role if you take a job in HR. So, always choose a relevant starting position that opens up conversations for progression without that area.

Mistake 3: Limiting your learning

We all know that training courses are key to progression, especially if you’re starting within an entry-level role. But, did you know that limiting your learning solely to courses that further your career goals could end up holding you back?

In reality, a manager will look at a whole range of things when considering their strongest team members for promotion. Applicable training is one of those, of course, but other skills, such as flexibility, willingness to learn, and motivation, will also feature heavily. All of which you can get across by engaging in as much workplace learning as possible.

The good news here is that managers are now implementing far more workplace training schemes for a wide range of purposes. As well as training courses in specific software or job focus areas, it’s now possible to engage in things like role-play-based customer experience training to enhance a company’s reputation. Group CPR training has also become commonplace for ensuring workplace safety. Gaining these qualifications can make you an even more valuable member of your team. They also show your manager that you understand that progression requires a rounded, flexible approach, rather than a rush right through the middle.

Mistake 4: Leaving your team behind

On the surface, job progression doesn’t seem like a group activity. If you have your eyes on the promotion goal, you might even resist working with colleagues who you view as competition. But, progression typically means that you’ll need to manage entire teams of people. If you’ve not painted yourself as a team player, even the best applicable skill sets won’t see your manager considering you for other roles.

In a broader sense, failing to work with your teammates can also damage your performance overall when things like group KPIs fall by the wayside. Especially if any discrepancies trace right back to your determinedly solo performance.

The best promotion prospect is someone who is fully integrated with their team and works towards group goals well. Ideally, you should also become a trusted team leader, and someone that everyone can come to with their problems or concerns. This way, if your manager ever talks to your team about the best person for promotion, your name is a lot more likely to come up.

Mistake 5: Clocking out when everyone else does

In the early stages of your career, there’s every chance that you won’t feel overly passionate about your position. You see this as a means to an end, after all. For that reason, you might have no qualms about clocking off at five on the dot, and not returning until dead on 9 the next morning. Unfortunately, this behavior will never help you to stand out for promotion. Instead, it sends one clear message – I’m not dedicated enough to put in any effort.

Even if a role isn’t your dream job, you’ll only ever get further in a company by giving it your all. Let’s say you work in reception but dream of being an HR manager. You should still dedicate yourself to working overtime whenever asked and going the extra mile with things like unique filing systems, suggestions for any improvements, and, of course, outstanding service. Each of these efforts will help you to stand out as a determined, forward-thinking worker with the skills necessary to go a whole lot further.

If a promotion opportunity ultimately comes down to you and one other person on your team, staying behind more often may also be the thing that tips the scales in your favor. Of course, this doesn’t mean burning yourself out until you’re no longer productive. It does, however, mean that you shouldn’t rush out the door each day, but should instead take your time to make sure you’re ticking off every to-do task your manager gives you first.

Conclusion

If you constantly find your quest for career progression at a dead end, you may be making one or all of these mistakes in your work. Get your journey back on the right track by addressing these issues, and making yourself a far more appealing promotion prospect.