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- A Practical Approach to Promotion
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Often when trying to get promoted you’ll hear the advice, “do the role of the person above you.” But what does that actually mean? How can you successfully accomplish the role of the person above you while still doing your work? Do people mean the entire role or just part of it?
The most practical approach I’ve seen to promotion (or higher impact more broadly) is something I think of as “full cycle opportunity ownership” defined as doing the following four things:
Correctly select a problem to solve / opportunity to work on
Come up with a plan to solve it
Convince others it is worth pursuing and that your plan will work
Successfully implement your plan
The above four items seem simple, but they are far from easy. So often individuals, myself included, exhibit one or two of the above but not all four. Without all four you don’t have full ownership which will always make you seem junior in the eyes of those you report to. When all four are exhibited correctly, you’ll demonstrate your ability to do the role of the person above you.
When people say, “do the role of the person above you” what they’re really saying is, “can I trust you to do this work well without my supervision?” The four components of full cycle opportunity ownership answer this question.
Problem selection
Selecting the right problem to solve or opportunity to pursue may seem like one of the easiest components of full cycle opportunity ownership, but it’s likely the easiest one to get wrong. Too often people select a problem that is narrow or applicable only to their sub-team which diminishes the overall impact of your solution.
A simple effort / impact matrix is generally the best place to start plotting the different problems / opportunities you see across your business. Take the time up front to actually push yourself to think of multiple problems / opportunities facing your business before choosing which one to pursue.
In almost all cases where you’re looking to showcase full cycle opportunity ownership you want to avoid high effort problems. Not because they aren’t worth pursuing, though sometimes this is true, nor because they are complex. Instead, avoid high effort problems / opportunities because the coordination required to solve them likely either: a) requires authority or air cover you don’t have or b) take so long to show impact that they’ll get put in your bosses “too hard bucket” and you’ll fail at step three of the process.
Low effort medium impact, or medium effort medium impact problems / opportunities are the sweet spot. When you think about effort, worry less about the complexity of the problem and more the amount of coordination required to solve it. The greater the amount of cross-functional work required to solve a problem the more likely you are to create extra work for your boss which you should avoid.
Select a problem that can be solved end-to-end with just the relationships you have. If you have strong relationships with stakeholders from other departments that’s great, but if you require extra work from your boss to get the cross-functional support you need it’s generally better to avoid this work unless they’ve specifically tasked you with it.
Come up with a plan
Many people are quick to point out problems / opportunities that they see. Few people bring plans and solutions for those problems / opportunities.
Nothing makes you seem more junior than being the team member who consistently highlights the flaws of other teams or points out problems without their accompanying solutions. Taking the time to hold your thoughts to yourself until you have a solution to recommend is an invaluable skill to cultivate. Never miss the opportunity to say absolutely nothing.
In general, simple plans outlined on a memo with one to two pages and an appendix are the best approach to communicating your plan to others. Don’t waste your time formatting a fancy deck at this stage of the planning process. Get your thoughts on paper in a coherent manner with as few words as possible. Review the current state (the problem), recommended future state (your solution), quantify the impact of your future state, highlight risks and dependencies, outline a rough plan of the steps you’ll take to go from current state to future state.
That’s it.
This is valuable for two reasons. First, nothing exposes flaws in your thinking like putting those thoughts down on paper. We’re all brilliant in our own minds (I know I am), but our brilliance disappears quickly once we see our thoughts as words on paper. This first step and the corresponding editing you do will make you much more articulate when you progress to the next step. In some cases, it will show you that you still have work to do before bringing either your problem or your solution to a wider audience.
Persuade
All leaders are in sales and step three of full cycle opportunity ownership proves why. Again, it doesn’t matter if you alone are convinced with your brilliance. There’s little value in being “right” if no one else cares.
If selecting the wrong problem is where many leaders stumble with full cycle opportunity ownership, failing to build a coalition that believes in your idea is where leaders fall short next.
It’s important to note that there are two distinct, but equally important, parts to step three. The first is to convince your boss that the problem / opportunity is worth solving or pursuing. The second is to persuade them that your plan will work.
Spend time with them on each of these components. Talk to them about why the problem you selected is worth pursuing by articulating the impact of your solution while reinforcing to them that you have the ability, either through your relationships or the scope of the problem, to solve it independently. Again, nothing kills more plans at this stage than your boss feeling like you’re putting more work on their plate so convincing them of your ability to solve the problem independently is as important as convincing them it is worth pursuing in the first place.
Once you’ve convinced them the problem is worth pursuing and that you can do the work without adding more to their plate, spend time talking about your plan. Get their feedback, this step is a dialogue not a discussion. Again, this is why a memo makes more sense than a deck.
Execute
Now that you’ve been successful with steps one through three you’ve earned the right to do the hard work. As exhaustive as the first three steps may seem they are the work required just to earn your place at the starting line.
No one ever gets promoted, okay maybe sometimes, because they had a good plan that didn’t work. It’s important to remember that in the real world we are not interested in plans that only look good on paper or seem smart in a classroom. Results are the capital on which enduring careers are built. Don’t lose sight of this fact.
Execute your plan in a high quality way that solves the problem without becoming a headache to your boss.
When you’re successful, give away as much credit as you can. If you’re unsuccessful iterate and try again. Above all else learn and keep going.
Conclusion
Alright you probably didn’t need 1000 words to review the four simple pieces of full cycle opportunity ownership. Remember:
Correctly select a problem to solve / opportunity to work on
Come up with a plan to solve it
Convince others it is worth pursuing and that your plan will work
Successfully implement your plan
Now go out there do some good work and get your promotion. See y’all next week.