Niamh OKeeffe - Get Promoted (Penguin Business Experts Series)

With a track record of 19 years career experience across leadership advisory services, including strategy consulting, head-hunting and executive coaching, Niamh OKeeffe has become an internationally regarded expert on the performance acceleration of leaders and their teams. Niamh spent the first eight years of her career with Accenture as a strategy and management consultant, followed by two years as Chief Executive of a non-profit education and training centre and finally a headhunter in the City of London working mostly with Barclays. In 2004, Niamh established First100, a leadership and performance acceleration consultancy. Niamh is the author of six books. The most recent is Future Shaper: How Leaders Can Take Charge in an Uncertain World.

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First published by Penguin Business in 2020

Copyright Niamh OKeeffe, 2020

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Text design by Richard Marston

ISBN: 978-0-241-46528-8

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Thank you to Celia and Martina from Penguin, to Eimee and to my family.

I wrote this book during the 2020 COVID-19 London lockdown. It gave me focus, and I hope it inspires focus in my readers as they progress their careers in an increasingly uncertain world. With that in mind, I would like to dedicate this book to my nieces and nephews, and of course to my daughter Meera, whose bright smile and beautiful spirit inspire me every day.

If you follow the advice in this book, you will get promoted.

Having worked as a leadership advisor with many clients, over many years, I am in a position to be able to spot patterns of behaviour. As a consultant to an organization, not a member of the organization, I operate outside the system. This gives me a unique perspective on how the system works.

My observations have led me to realize that promotions dont always happen in the way that people assume. Getting promoted is not just about working hard and doing a good job. If securing your next promotion was as simple as that, then surely you wouldnt have needed to pick up this book in the first place!

If you have started to realize that promotion decisions are more nuanced, read on. If you feel like you are blocked in some way within yourself, or by others and you dont know why, read on. If you have been blindsided by peers getting promoted, and are concerned you are being left behind, then read on. If you feel you lack the secret code to unlock what it really takes to get ahead and are starting to feel resentful or frustrated, then read on.

In this book I will provide you with insights about how promotions really work, and what you need to do to secure your next role. I will decode the mysteries and help you to get promoted but even better than that, I will help you to be strategic about your career and figure out how your next role fits into a longer-term strategy. That way, you will be as focused as an arrow homing in on your target, totally clear about what you want to achieve and why and your motivation, time and energy will be aligned accordingly.

This book is about providing you with a breakthrough approach to your next promotion, and the one after that, and the ones after that. It is about building your skills and intelligence in what it takes to get promoted.

I am on your side and whatever your starting point, I will help you to get promoted. It is what I do for my clients, again and again, typically guiding them from stuck in the middle middle management to eventual C-suite. I dont preselect my clients based on any particular criteria, specific potential or innate talent for getting to the next level. I dont conduct feedback-gathering prior to starting our work, to help assess whether the odds are stacked in their favour. I simply work with anyone who wants to get promoted, whatever their level, to help them achieve their goal as long as they commit, and are willing to act on my advice.

At the start of my foray into coaching people on how to get promoted, the results always came faster than my clients or I expected. I noticed something interesting happening: that the momentum we created caused further momentum and acceleration, and suddenly the promotion goal was realized. Now I know for sure we can always expect fast results.

I have worked for years on what it takes to get promoted. I am pleased to now be able to codify my approach in this book. Just as I help each of my clients get promoted again and again faster and faster each time if you are motivated to follow my advice, then it will happen even sooner than you think.

If you picked up this book, then you are either already ambitious or some part of you knows that you simply cant afford to stand still in your career and not get promoted. You likely already know that there comes a point at your company and in your career where you are either moving up or moving out. If you have been in your role for at least three years, it should be time to secure your next promotion. If you get passed over for promotion and find yourself in your current role for five years or more, then you should not take it for granted that you can keep your job for much longer. It depends on your company culture, of course, but typically there is always upward pressure from newer, younger people who are climbing the ranks and securing better positions. I dont like to use fear as motivation, but I want to be candid so that you are realistic. If you are not being driven by ambition, then you may have to be driven by practicality in order to self-improve and seek your next role. Your efforts will not go to waste. It is always good to show drive rather than be seen to be coasting in your role especially if you are part of a competitive corporate culture where it is all about survival of the fittest.

In an attempt to go all out to help you secure your next promotion, I will leave no stone unturned in terms of tactics. I delve into all the key strategies that will take you from your current role to your dream role. If at first you find all the advice a little overwhelming, please know that you can start your promotion journey by applying just some of the ideas over time you will be ready to add new layers of these strategies. Think of getting promoted as a skill to be mastered, not just a one-off transaction.

Look at this book as your coach, companion and guide on your get-promoted journey. For some of you, it really will be as simple as reading it once and finding an insight that immediately unlocks the door onto how to get promoted. For others, it may be worth rereading the book, and introducing new habits and behaviours gradually. Whichever way you learn, the answers are within this book how and when to apply them is up to you.