Annie:
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Annie:
No matter the circumstances. Whether you're booking in town or across the globe, the service is always consistent, meaning peace of mind and less stress, which we all know I'm a fan of. Mention me to the sales rep or click the link in the show notes for 20% off your first three trips. Welcome to The Whole Assistant Podcast. I'm your host, Annie Croner. I'm a former assistant who's passionate about our profession, and I'm also a certified coach who's invested in your success. You've come to the right place if you want to know what it looks like to stand in your power and achieve success as an assistant through overwhelm and burnout. Now onto today's episode.
Annie:
Hello and welcome to another episode. I am really excited because today I'm going to be answering a question that was submitted by one of my listeners. So if you don't know, I have a way for you to submit a question to me that will either be used in a complete podcast episode like this or as a segment of another podcast episode, and the link is below. It's called Ask Annie anything. So if you'd like to submit a question, please feel free to do so. There are several different ways in which I can acknowledge you, or if you want to remain anonymous, please let me know. And you can let me know in the form that I'm going to have you fill out when you submit your question. So today's question comes to us from Kelly in London.
Annie:
Kelly asks, how do you go about asking for a promotion when you feel that you're being overlooked or held back? So I'm going to break this question down, and we're going to break it down into two pieces here. The first chunk is going to be how do you ask for promotion and the second chunk is going to be the last half of the sentence when you feel that you've been overlooked and held back. So I'm going to go back to this first part of the question. How do you ask for a promotion? I think it's important to ask yourself a few questions before you ask for a promotion. Like is my performance on point? Have I been making mistakes? Are there holes that I need to fill before I approach my executive or before I approach my company for a promotion? Am I clearly communicating my value proposition to my company? That is another question I would encourage us all to ask because more than likely you are nothing communicating your value proposition enough. And the reason I say more than likely you're not communicating your value proposition enough is because I have coached enough assistance at this point to recognize that we just take our gifts for granted. We take our strengths for granted, which means that we are not clearly or regularly communicating with our executives around all that we're managing for them around where every piece is at during our weekly one on one or a weekly touch point. And in my last role, I just would send my executive an email outlining everything I got done for him that week.
Annie:
I also had included in there what I was planning on working on the following week and questions I had for him around specific situations and circumstances that I needed his feedback on. So regardless of how you communicate with your executive, it's really important that you are consistently and regularly communicating your value proposition to them. Now, I know for a lot of people this may feel braggy or like you're bragging or like you are really talking yourself up, and that can be incredibly uncomfortable for us. But your executive needs to know. They need to know what you're working on, where you're at in the process. And they need those updates because how are they going to know what you're working on unless you actually share with them what you're working on and where things are at in terms of the pipeline and also your priorities. So that weekly touch point is a huge one, even if it's just a summary email like I send and I get asked the question a lot. Do I have a template for this weekly touchpoint email that I sent? No, I don't, because my template was unique to me and the work that I did.
Annie:
But I would say that if you want to put together a similar email, I would consider the buckets of work that you are now managing on behalf of your executive and behalf of your company. Consider all those projects you are overseeing or a part of and essentially you're going to go down the list and give updates on every single one of those buckets. So if you manage calendars, for example, you'll give an update on his calendar. If you manage like multiple calendars, you'll give update on those, whatever the buckets are of work that you manage. I managed three homes for my last executive. I also managed certain things for our VC firm and then I also managed certain things for my executives personal financial world. So those were my buckets of work. And then at the end I would, I would include my plan for the upcoming week and then also action items for my executive.
Annie:
So it was just a very simple update. But it took me about 2 hours to draft every week as I was going throughout my week and I found that I had the best success when I would start that email as my week progressed. So as I would be closing out my day, if I go in and update the email every day with all the action points that I had taken throughout the day, it was the best way to update that email. It would still take about 45 minutes or so to wrap it all up nicely in a bow and send it to my executive every week. And on the off chance that I didn't send it, I'd be getting a follow up email or an email the following week being like, Annie, where's my most latest update email from last week? So that's just how my executive preferred to communicate. I was totally willing and happy to accommodate that once I figured out what his communication style was. So that's another thing. Like in terms of communicating your value proposition, really consider your executive's communication style.
Annie:
Does he want a weekly touch base? Does he want a daily touch base? Whatever the touch point is that you have with your executive, just consider those things as you consider communicating your value proposition. And then of course, when it comes to asking for a promotion, there are also logistical things. I'm a firm believer in creating a business case for your promotion. Express to your executive why they should give you a promotion, why you deserve a shift in role, or all the increased value as that you're doing in comparison to your initial job description that you were brought on board for. And actually write out that business case. Add a new job description or job descriptions if you're moving out of an EA role, say to a chief of staff role, or if you want to move for a junior role to more senior role. Write out what the new job description looks like and the and your current job position will look like once you make that shift and advocate for yourself. Guys, that's the biggest thing.
Annie:
So that's how you ask for promotion is by really consistently making sure that your performance is on point, making sure that all the processes are in place so that your performance is on point, and communicating your value proposition regularly and clearly to your company. And then logistically, as you're preparing to ask for that promotion, create a business case that includes all the increased value you intend to offer and how your role is shifted and changed with time, with new job descriptions. So now we're going to move away from the nuts and bolts portion of this question and to the second part of the sentence when you feel you've been overlooked and held back. So as you'll recall, the full question was, how do you go about asking for a promotion when you feel that you have been overlooked and held back? So it's really fascinating because I don't think that being held back is actually a thing as an adult. Like it's a thing as a kid for sure. Like if you aren't meeting your grades, if you aren't making good grades or whatever, and your parents choose to hold you back, a grade that's being held back as a child, but nobody can physically hold you back. More often than not, it's us holding ourselves back from success. Either by not wanting to leave our current position because we're too afraid to look elsewhere, or by not having those interesting conversations or those maybe challenging conversations with our executive around why we have not been promoted and what skills you would need to actually work on in order to work toward a promotion instead of actually having that open dialogue with your executive around what it would take to take your career in that particular company or environment to the next level.
Annie:
So here we really have to separate the data from the drama. Okay? And I also know what it feels like to be overlooked for promotion. I also know what it feels like. I'm using air quotes here, feel held back. But I would question whether or not held back is actually a thing. Like nobody can actually hold you back. Nobody can like hold you at gunpoint and make you stay at a company that you're at. If you show up to work at a company every day, you're showing up by choice.
Annie:
That is a choice that you are choosing to make. You could choose not to go to work that day. Many people do. So I just want to point that out first of all. And I also want to bring into the conversation this idea of want matches. So if you have been around for a while, you probably heard me talk about want matches, a want match is when you want a role, you want to perform in a role, you want to do a role in the same way that your executive wants you to perform and do in a role. And so there's a lot of synergy there. Now, first of all, there's no such thing as a 100% want match in any role.
Annie:
There are always gonna be things that we do that we really don't care for. There are always gonna be certain ways that your executive wants you to function and you would rather function another way. There will always be those things. The question you have to ask yourself is, have I first advocated for myself enough in this role? Have I actually asked for a promotion and been told no? And have you actually had that open dialogue there again on what skills you would need to work on or what you would need to do to work toward a promotion in your current role? If you haven't done those things, then it's going to be really hard to know whether or not your role is an actual want match. Okay? And if you've been told no, then you've got an then you have options, then you know, okay, so I'm not going to be able to progress in my current environment, in my current role, what is next for me? And then you can look outside of your current role for a job that will have better alignment for you to where you feel like you can grow and flourish within that role, within a new environment. Okay, so the idea of want matches is really important because what want matches do is they separate the data from the drama. So Kelly, to bring your question full circle, how do you go about asking for a promotion when you feel that you've been overlooked and held back? Have the open conversation with your executive. If your executive is unwilling to promote you into a role for which you feel qualified, or if you feel like you capped out in your current environment after having that conversation, then you can choose to make a move outside of your career, current organization with more upward mobility or framework or a benchmark for success for you.
Annie:
Okay, so that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you find it helpful. Please feel free to submit a question to Ask Annie Anything. You can go to the link below wherever you're listening to this podcast in the show notes, and I hope you will submit a question and be intentional, be whole. That is all for now. I help assistants apply the concepts I share on this podcast. If you're ready to take your growth deeper and you're curious, working with me in a coaching capacity is right for you, please email me at [email protected] to schedule your complimentary discovery call.
