Promotion at work often means more influence, more control over your job, and more salary—just to name a few benefits. Who doesn’t love that?
But, while everyone else keeps getting promoted, you’re probably wondering why you’re being left behind. Fortunately, the key to promotion is not as mysterious as it may sound. It just takes doing beyond what’s in your job description and developing habits that will allow you to consistently work your best and prove to decision-makers that you’re ready and deserving to take on more responsibilities. One of these habits is staying organized in many aspects of your work life, including your digital files. Continue reading as we reveal the industry secrets on how to get promoted at work.
How to Get Promoted: Stay Organized at Work
It’s necessary to understand that promotions aren’t handed out just because. You have to earn it by acting in a way that makes you deserve it. While the requirements for promotion significantly vary from one organization to another, you can take a few measures to increase the possibilities of you securing it. One thing’s for sure though, it involves staying organized down to your office files and it may take securing your documents and converting your documents from PDF to PNG. We’ll discuss more of this below.
Staying organized allows you to gain control of your time and complete the tasks necessary to achieve your goals. Some organizational skills you can develop include making to-do lists of important tasks, scheduling quiet time at work to focus on tasks that require more concentration and staying digitally organized.
• Establish a routine
From your very first day at work, create an organizational system that will help you keep on track. Some tools can help you track information, list tasks, and more. If your company has specific software for organizing, make sure to adapt to its various uses.
• Use calendars
A great way to stay ahead of meetings and deadlines is to use a calendar. This could even be the existing calendar on your email, which can help you mark all your events and be notified about them. Similarly, you can also use it to set up meetings with your co-workers.
• Create a to-do list
Whether this is on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis, writing tasks down on paper or your computer can help you keep track of assignments, update their status, and cross them out when completed. Here, you can be as creative as using a color-coding system to categorize tasks according to priority.
• Keep your workspace organized
You’ll be spending at least eight hours of your day in the office, so it’s essential to keep it clean and organized to keep it from getting out of control. There are plenty of benefits for doing so such as keeping you focused at work as well as helping you stay productive and deliver quality work.
• Clean and organize your digital files
Cluttered devices can reduce your productivity as much as cluttered workspaces can. Some steps to clean and organize your digital files include sorting incoming mails into categories, deleting outdated files, and archiving old but important documents by saving them as PDF or converting it to PNG.
Gogopdf is a free online conversion tool that allows you to convert PDF to PNG images. Saving documents as PNG is a great way to save on storage space without the risk of losing quality each time a file is opened, converted, or saved again. It also works great for preserving detailed, high-contrast images.
Other Habits to Help You Get Promoted at Work
- Give More Value
If you want to get promoted, you have to think about how you can add value to your company. Make conscious efforts towards this goal such as by doing the following:
• Improve your skills to deliver better results
• Always seek new opportunities for growth
• Expose yourself to company activities that can broaden your knowledge, skills, and experience
• Sign up for mentoring programs or build relationships with your seniors for career guidance
- Set and Communicate Your Career Goals
Some business owners and managers often set aside time to sit down, one-on-one, with their employees to set and discuss their career goals. Here, you can be transparent about where you want to see yourself within a specific timeframe. A good manager will help you outline strategies to keep you on track. They will also provide opportunities to help you build new skills necessary for the position you are targeting.
- Build Strong Relationships Across Your Organization
Take advantage of the networking opportunities you have, regardless if it’s a small get-together at lunch. Building a strong relationship with others will allow you to get to know people who can support you now and in the future. Plus, the more people who know you and your skills, the more likely they will vouch for you when opportunities arise.
- Take Initiative
Volunteering to help out your team members or asking for more responsibilities are some of the many ways you can build your reputation and increase value to the organization. It also shows your commitment to helping your department or the overall organization to succeed. While you’re at it, make sure that you’re also a good team player. Share successes with your team and avoid pointing fingers in cases of failure. Make sure to take over a task for the team that will help you bring everyone together and become an even more important team member. Volunteer to take care of the birthday planning for example. Make sure to organize a birthday celebration in the office or digitally and let everyone sign an online greeting card. The group cards by ecardforest.com are an amazing choice for that.
- Consistently Acquire New Knowledge and Skills
All your efforts to increase your chances of getting promoted can be summarized into this: expand your knowledge and skills in areas that are critical to the business. This will not only benefit the organization, but your career as well, allowing you to stay marketable in an industry that is increasingly becoming competitive.
Takeaway
It’s easy to assume that when you’ve been at the same job for quite some time, a promotion will eventually come along. But, the truth is, that takes more than log hours to climb up the corporate ladder. Sometimes, you even have to be vocal about it.
As said above, tell your boss early on what you are looking to achieve in the long term. If you want to be promoted, just say so and ask what it will take for it to happen.
Success takes long-term planning and daily action. By learning new skills, staying proactive, and doing beyond the bare minimum, you are setting yourself up for a promotion and proving to your organization that you are worthy of it.
Do you have anything more to add to the list? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
