How to Get Promoted at Work: What Leaders Actually Look For

I enjoy interviewing people for leadership roles. I like learning about their goals, why they want the job and what questions they have. But I tell everyone who asks me about getting promoted the same thing: the interview was last year. By the time you sit down to interview, most of the decision has already been shaped by how you showed up for the year before.

When I am filling a leadership role, I still post it and interview the people who apply. I also ask the team, behind the scenes and without saying who applied, who they think the next leader should be and who makes the team better. Most of the time, the names they give me have already applied. If a team already trusts someone and sees them as their leader, that is the best evaluation you can get.

Do the job before you have the title

The most reliable path to a promotion is to start doing the next job now, in the ways you can. You do not need a title to help a new teammate learn, to stay calm when things get messy, to solve a problem that is not technically yours, or to make the people around you better. Those are the things leaders notice, and they are the things teams remember when someone asks who their leader should be.

Early in my own career, I worked my way up by staying late, closing down, cleaning and offering to do anything I could to learn more. I proved I was willing to do the work the job needed before I had the job, and over time someone gave me the opportunity to lead.

Develop the people around you

If you want to lead people, the best preparation is helping the people around you grow. Teach what you know. Share credit. Help a struggling coworker. Offer to train the new hire. Developing others needs no title, and it is the clearest signal that you are ready to be responsible for a team.

When I build development plans for people who were not chosen in a promotion round, that is almost always the center of it: find ways to make the people around you better, so the next time the team is asked, your name comes up.

Tell your manager what you want

Many people assume that good work will be noticed and rewarded automatically. Sometimes it is, but often managers simply do not know who wants to grow. Tell your manager directly that you are interested in a leadership role or in taking on more, and ask what would make you ready. Then work on what they tell you and check back in.

A good manager will appreciate the conversation, and it gives you a clear path rather than a guessing game. See How to Ask for More Responsibility at Work.

Be open to learning

One trait I pay close attention to is openness to learning. Talent, experience and drive matter, but if someone is not open to learning, their growth eventually slows. Ask for feedback, take it without getting defensive and show that you used it. The founder of judo asked to be buried in a white belt, the beginner’s belt, because he still saw himself as a student. That mindset is exactly what leaders want to promote.

When the promotion goes to someone else

Not getting a promotion you wanted is disappointing, and it is okay to feel that. Ask what you could do differently, build a development plan and keep doing the next job before you have it. In one promotion round, the team named a woman who had not even applied. I told her how the team saw her, and she is now in a leadership role at a different company. How others see you is often ahead of how you see yourself.

I write more about how I choose leaders in How to Decide Who to Promote Into Leadership. These ideas are part of my signature keynote, You Are Capable of More, and my leadership workshop, You Are Capable of More: Leadership.