Frank was a hard worker at this company. A new position opened up and Frank thought he would be perfect for the job. He had been with the company for 15 years. He constantly met and exceeding his job expectations. He’d won numerous performance awards. He was assertive and efficient. He thought he had a good shot at getting promoted.
He applied. He waited. Finally the announcement for the new manager was made and Frank’s name was not called.
Frank was furious. He was certain his record was better than all the candidates. After work, with his supervisor who was also his friend, Frank decided to be bold and ask why didn’t he get the job. His friend slumped his shoulders and said, “Honestly, Frank you do a great job, but your people skills could definitely be better. It wouldn’t be a good fit for you to be a leader. You serve us best doing exactly what you are doing.”
[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”raised” width=”500px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]You can be really good at doing your job, but that does not mean you will be promoted. When companies are looking for leaders they need people who can rally their people, lead people, and solve problems caused by people.[/dropshadowbox]
6 Communication Skills You Need To Get Promoted
1. Speak up
Be strategic about making your voice known. Don’t talk just to say you are present. Contribute and add value. If you have a good idea, offer it. Consistently doing so gives you presence. Speak clearly and sound educated. Clear, strategic, value adding speakers get promoted.
2. Shut up
You can’t learn if you are always talking. Knowing when to shut up shows you are mature enough to control your impulses. Zeal wants us to talk. Wisdom tells us when to be quiet.
Winston Churchill said
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” TWEET It
Demonstrating restraint gets you promoted.
3. Praise and compliment
Get in the habit of giving away compliments . Regularly praise people you work with for their skills, good attitudes, hard work, etc. This creates an exciting and enthusiastic workplace. Being secure enough to praise others gets you promoted.
4. Confront
Confrontation is critical in building a trusting and productive environment. Confrontation doesn’t have to be scary. It is simply pointing out a discrepancy. Confront out of intrigue not out of accusation. Well executed confrontation skills gets you promoted.
5. Ask for Feedback
Actively pursue feedback. By asking for feedback, you are establishing open communication. You also measure which skills are and are not working. You don’t know what you need to work on if you don’t ask. Seeking feedback gets you promoted.
6. Compassion
Remember at the end of the day, you work with people. You rely on people. You need people. Develop a sense of compassion. Be able to see people for they are, not just who they are to you. Being compassionate gets you promoted.
Consistently implement these skills so you aren’t passed over for a promotion due to poor communication skills.
What other skills gets one promoted?
The big one for me is to shut up! I realized several months ago I desperately need to improve my communication skills in order to do anything more with my life. It’s been an uphill battle the whole way. That’s why I appreciate what you write so much Julia…keep it coming!
Brady, kudos to you for realizing that you need to work on it. If you don’t mind being a little transparent, tell me more about which communication skills you think you need to improve. It could help me for future posts or you can contact me privately.
Great post, Julia. Another thing that will get people promoted is learning to focus and prioritize. I am just using another subject that we write about here on the blog, really to show how our site can be a business solutions resource. Thank you Julia for another well thought out post. Loved the intro story. 🙂
Adam! You are so spot on about focus and prioritization. there are so many thinking vying for prime time spots in our lives, knowing how to prioritize is key!
I love this post Julia! Finding the line between shutting up and speaking up is so so hard and once you find it, learning how to walk that line is even more difficult, but can have such an enormous impact on your leadership skills as viewed from our perspective and that of those around you! Great job!
Daniel,
It is a balancing act! Depending on the situation, I ask myself a couple of question to determine if I need to speak up or shut up.
Do I have a good idea?
Am I bothered by something?
Am I bothered because of a preference issue? Am I bothered because it isn’t that way I would do it?
Does my preference matter? Sometimes a preference matters sometimes it doesn’t. Is it important?
Will I talk about this later? Meaning am I bothered enough that I would be tempted to gossip about it later. If so, then I need to speak up
Like I said, depending on the situation, I ask a series of question to check my motives, and assess the situation. It sounds cumbersome when I type all of that out but the actions happen in a split second in our heads.
I’d be interested in hearing more about confronting out of intrigue for a follow up artocle.
Brad,
Duly noted. I love teaching on confrontation because it is an essential skill that many people try to avoid at all costs. I know because I used to be one of them. I like harmony but it wasn’t until I learned about what I call “confront out intrigue” that it really became clear the beauty and power in confrontation to take a relationship to a more productive level.
Thanks for the future post idea!
Speak Up – This is so true. When I used to work at Apple we would have morning meetings before we opened called “downloads”. I was usually never one to speak up because 1) I don’t like being the center of attention and 2) I’m not a morning person, haha. However, I found when I was finally able to speak up and share my ideas that my “stature” with the leadership team changed, somewhat. I feel like they respected me more and that was super encouraging.
Confront – At Apple we called this “feedback”. It couldn’t be general, it had to be specific. Whether it be “positive specific feedback” or “negative specific feedback”, we were encouraged to give it and receive it. It was something I didn’t learn very well, at least for the negative feedback, but I sure did enjoy giving positive feedback.
All that to say, these are definitely some great skills to possess. Great post.
Vincent!
That is a great example of how speaking up gets you noticed (in a positive way) and getting noticed is the first step in getting that next promotion.
In my workshops, I call confrontation feedback too because that is really what it is but most people identify with the word feedback so I use it. Positive and negative feedback done right is a beautiful thing!
Thanks for commenting 🙂