Taking Charge: Employees Who Position Themselves for Promotion Benefit both Themselves and their Employers

Impact Achievement Group suggests leadership traits that employees can adapt to become attractive promotion candidates

SEATTLE – December 10, 2007 – No employee should ever wonder what type of performance will earn them the next promotion or opportunity in their organization. Instead, workers can learn from established leadership traits to make themselves the next likely candidate for promotion.

Taking personal responsibility for career development is a key element of personal success. Each employee should see himself or herself as leasing their talent. Their final product is job performance. Their product—their talent—must be continually developed to be valued by employers.

Employees who initiate, are decisive, flexible and who steer clear of workplace negativity are more likely candidates for that next opportunity, according to Julie White Ph.D., senior managing partner of Impact Achievement Group. Organizations continue to look on the outside for open positions because many internal employees don’t make the effort to develop their talent to position themselves for upward opportunities. Why? White points out it is often because many internal employees don’t approach their professional development purposefully.

"There are huge advantages for companies to hire internal candidates for open management positions – less downtime, less training and increased moral and productivity are just a few," said White, a co-author or the book People Leave Managers...Not Organizations!: Action Based Leadership. "Yet employees must take responsibility their career development so their value and contributions to the organization rise to the surface. Emulating established leaders is a good strategy."

Some of the best strategies to help employees take charge of themselves and their careers involve avoiding workplace negativity, enhancing their flexibility, avoiding procrastination and developing a bias for action rather than putting off decisions. And ironically, the employees who position themselves as potential leaders have also learned to say no and avoid the self-overload problem.

Additionally, companies look for internal candidates who have learned to establish an effective partnership with their boss and colleagues. Such employees understand and meet the expectations of their supervisors. They look for ways to lighten the load of an overworked manager, and understand navigating demands of multiple bosses. This involves eliciting feedback, prioritizing demands of the managers they deal with, and gaining cooperation from other departments and workgroups. In addition, those employees who suggest a solution first, without leaving the problem in their manager’s hands, also ‘rise to the top’ when companies look for appropriate internal candidates for managerial positions.

White added that employees can position themselves favorably when they demonstrate facility in handling office politics and difficult people.

Impact Achievement Group offers various training for companies wishing to groom the next generation of leaders, including their "How to be Valued and Promotable" workshops. More information is at www.impactachievement.com.

About Impact Achievement Group

Impact Achievement Group provides assessment, coaching, customer loyalty and leadership development training that focuses on employee selection, retention, employee engagement and customer engagement. By integrating and blending the world's best assessment and recruiting processes, workshops and eLearning training, coaching and measurement programs, Impact Achievement Group helps organizations improve human performance to achieve bottom line results.