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Management Material
Welcome to Management Material.
My name is Catherine Van Der Laan. I started my career at the bottom as an assistant and worked my way up to become the boss’s boss in 8 years. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that what got you to where you are now won’t get you to where you want to be.
This podcast is for top performers who want to be amazing managers. I’ve coached lots of talented people to get them from entry-level to recognized top performers to new managers to seasoned executives. I challenge deeply held beliefs and change how people see the world.
Management is all about leadership. The best managers were developed leaders long before they had any direct reports.
Here's one thing that most people won't tell you: Management is a skill. Management is a skill you can learn, just like the hard skills that got you to where you are now.
Management Material is about developing you into the best manager you can be. Let’s turn YOU into management material.
Management Material
How to Get Promoted or Get a Better Job
OOPS! The right file is now uploaded. Sorry, everyone! I uploaded the next episode for my other podcast, The Money Minister, but now the right episode for Management Material is up.
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Let’s talk about how to get promoted.
Yes, I know we’re in a down market. When there’s a down market, there are reorganizations and layoffs. There’s a lot of job instability. If you’re concerned about getting laid off, listen to the last episode. This episode is about getting promoted.
Promotions can still happen in a down market. You can still get that next job that you want. Let’s get to how.
I have a promotion framework. It’s literally worked for every single career coaching client that I’ve had. It works for promotions within the company and getting a better job outside of the company. Do you know why? Because this framework will PROVE with PROJECTS that you have the transferable skills for that next big promotion.
Every promotion starts with a person. You have to PROVE to a PERSON that you deserve the PROMOTION. So how do you do that?
Listen to the podcast to find out how!
Book a complimentary management coaching conversation at https://calendly.com/catherine-vanderlaan/free-60-minute-leadership-consultation
Email me at catherine@managementmaterialcoaching.com to ask a question or get in touch.
Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/managementmaterialcoaching
Find out more about Management and Leadership Coaching at https://managementmaterialcoaching.com/
Every promotion starts with a person, and I'm not talking about you. I am talking about the person that you are trying to influence. Who do you need to catch the attention of? Who are you trying to prove to that you are the person for the next position. Welcome to management material. My name is Catherine Vanderlaan. I started my career at the bottom as an assistant and worked my way up to become the boss's boss in eight years. And, man, I love management. If there's anything I've learned, it's that what got you to where you are now won't get you to where you want to be. Welcome to management material, episode 51, how to Get Promoted or Get a Better Job. Now let's talk about how to get promoted. Yes, I know we're in a down market. When there's a down market, there are reorganizations and layoffs. There's a lot of job instability. If you're concerned about getting laid off, listen to the last episode. That episode was about how to survive a layoff, how to get through a layoff, how to not get laid off. This episode is about getting promoted. Promotions can still happen in a down market. Really they can happen. They're usually quiet. They're quiet promotions because nobody wants to be that person who is resented because they got a promotion when other people got laid off. Yeah, you don't want to be that person, but they do still happen. You can still get that next job that you want. Let's get to how. This podcast episode is about how I have a promotion framework. It's worked literally for every single career coaching client that I've ever had, whether it was before I started formally career coaching and I was coaching different assistants and project managers and different people trying to get a better job or a different job. It has worked. After I formally started career coaching, I just took it with me because it worked for dozens of people before. Now it's worked for hundreds of people. It has worked and I want to share it with you. It works for promotions within the company and for promotions outside of the company when you're trying to get a better job. Do you know why? Because this framework proves with projects that you have the transferable skills for that next big promotion. No-transcript starts with a person, and I'm not talking about you. I am talking about the person that you are trying to influence. You prove with project that you have the transferable skills to a person. You have to prove to a person that you deserve the promotion. That's a lot of peas. You know it's a lot to say, so let's just talk about how you do that. You start with the person. So who do you need to catch the attention of? Who are you trying to prove to that you are the person for that next position? Who hires for the position you're looking for?
Speaker 1:If it's a few people, list them out. I know when I was looking for a director type position, I had a few people I wanted to impress. They were all vice presidents because I wanted to be the next shoe in for the director position. I wanted to be the obvious choice for the next associate director position. So I had those three to four people to impress three vice presidents and one senior vice president. So I listed them out and I did this for myself. I do it for myself every single time.
Speaker 1:Next, list out the skills those people are looking for for that next position. So you have the people now. List out the skills that they're looking for. So if you've been coaching with me at all, you know each skill is listed right in the job description. Pull them out, write them down, then check off the ones that you already can prove that you have and circle the ones that you cannot prove that you have, that you cannot talk about well in an interview, that you can't put on your resume because of a project. Circle the ones that you need to have for that job, that promotion that you're going for. All right, you have the people, you have the skills that you need to have.
Speaker 1:Now comes the fun part. You get to think of projects that will prove to the person you're trying to influence that you have the transferable skills you need to do the job. That was a big mouthful. Let's really break it down here. Say you want to be a marketing manager or senior marketing? Oh, a marketing director, let's go with that. So you want to be a marketing director, but right now you are a senior marketing manager. Great, there are some skills marketing directors have that senior marketing managers may not have, like strategic analysis across the portfolio of the whole company. What is going to make the company the most money?
Speaker 1:So you go through, find those skills that the director needs to have, the marketing director needs to have, that you don't have. Circle them and then think of projects that will prove to whoever's hiring for those positions that you have the transferable skills you need to do the job. If it's leadership, if it's presentation skills, if it is strategic analysis, if it's data analysis, if it's SQL, whatever it is, put it down and then think of projects that will prove with a presentation there's a lot of peas in this one that you have the skills. It should be something that helps the person you're trying to impress and give yourself some options, because in the next step so you're in step number three, thinking about projects in the next step you're going to create a timeline. When are you going to reach out to the person you're trying to impress? How? How will you settle on an appropriate project for that person? It has to help that person, so maybe discuss it with them before you do it. When do you want to finish the project and have the proof that you're the right person for the next promotion, and how are you going to present around it? How are you going to be excellent out loud? Let me give you a better example.
Speaker 1:I had a product assistant who wanted to be a product manager At our company. There was almost next to no chance that she could jump from assistant to product manager. I had only seen it once and it was very difficult for that one person. So we went through this exercise, this exact exercise. She listed out we made columns for person, skill, project timeline, all of those things, and if you've been in coaching with me before, you have seen the framework. She listed out the people that she wanted to get to her side. They were directors, other product managers and the VP in our department Great. Then we listed the skills she needed to build proof around. She had to manage a budget. She had to be seen as a leader, a thought leader. She had to present a strategy. She had to show competence in the processes and in data analysis. These were the things she could not prove that she could do in an applied way for that position. Some of these skills she already knew how to do, but again, she couldn't prove it. That's been really frustrating, isn't it? I'm sure it is really. It was frustrating for her and if you have something like that, I'm sure it's frustrating for you. Well, she had to build that public proof.
Speaker 1:I talk about building public proof in the episode called Be Excellent Outloud. That's also part of my promotion framework, part of my course, actually, about getting a better job. Then we talked about a timeline. She didn't want to start away, right, she didn't want to start right away and she kept saying, well, maybe I'll reach out next week, maybe I'll do it some other. And I pushed her to start sooner rather than later. She wanted next week, next month, when her current project was over. No, I said this week, tomorrow, today. So she focused, she prioritized and she succeeded. She got that job within four months. Now that might seem like a long time, but hey, if she hadn't taken any action, she wouldn't have gotten any job within four months. When we talked about the promotion, when we did this exercise, there wasn't even a job open. She strategized like this, built the proof and when that job was open, she was considered a shoe-in for the position. Everybody knew she was going to get it. Oh, the job opened up. Well, of course, you put that woman into it, of course.
Speaker 1:Now, when I'm coaching around this, I hear a lot of people telling me that they can't do this for a number of reasons. There are always reasons they can't do this. Their workload is too heavy, they can't handle any more projects. They don't know who to influence. Who am I supposed to be influencing and how do I influence them? I'm a nobody. Nobody knows my name. I don't do presentations. How do I just start doing presentations? How do I just start doing extra projects? Or maybe they're not allowed to take on random other projects? I hear that a lot. I can't do a project. That's outside my position. The rules in my company don't let me do anything outside of my job description. Well, guys, that's a load of crap.
Speaker 1:Managers think outside the box. They know the box, they see the corners and then they reject the box. Okay, that box has sides to it that shouldn't be there, right? So managers see the box and they say really, you want me to just kind of play in there? Be real folks. When they say think outside the box, I mean demolish that stupid thing. All rules are made by people. All rules and people change. People can be reasoned with. People want their lives to be easier. That's key. People want their lives to be easier.
Speaker 1:Think like a lazy person. Everybody bemoans the manager and bemoans the departments that are lazy. Well, use that to your advantage. If you want to get into a department, if you want to make a difference, if you want to be a manager, think like a lazy person. How can you make your job easier? How can you make that person's job easier. Well, there's your project. Is it building the skills that you need for the next promotion? Make someone's job a lot easier. That's your project, super easy.
Speaker 1:Here's the bottom line. You need proof that you can excel in the next role. You need everyone and their mother to know you're better than your current job and can provide better value when you're promoted Managers. Well, if they like their jobs and they like the company they're in, managers hate it when someone isn't living up to their value potential, and that includes you. So show how much value you can bring the company by proving it with projects that help the right people who can get you promoted. Think about their job, what is going to help them? And build your skills at the same time.
Speaker 1:Guys, it's just as a little encouragement, because it can seem a little dejecting to hear all this like do more, do something else. Prove that you have the skills. Guys, one of my jobs was created for me. Yeah, I said that. One of my jobs was created for me. It didn't exist until I showed that it should exist.
Speaker 1:So when you go out of your way to prove that you deserve a promotion and the good people around you see that they will think of you first when the position comes around and if you get so well known and, by the way, I'm an introvert and I have to go out of my way to get known around the company because my natural instinct is to stay by myself I want to be by myself, I want to just do data analysis, I want to stay behind the scenes and not talk to anybody. That's not exactly true. I like talking one-on-one, I like talking to different groups, I like it when I have a role, and so what I did was I created a role and I volunteered to get up in front of people, and now I love public speaking, I love coaching groups, I love training people and I'm an introvert. I just need to recharge at the end of the day. But when I see everyone's progress and I see them growing and flourishing and this is key actually enjoying their jobs because they got to the place they want to be, well man, I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1:So, if you're an introvert, think of projects that are not just going to prove that you have the skills for the next promotion, but also bring out your passion. In my Get a Better Job, in my Beta Test of the Course that I'm relaunching now that I've moved to California and all of that is behind us, thank God, and we are unpacked and everything. Well, mostly we still have a few boxes left. Anyway, now that I'm relaunching that Beta Test, the very first lesson is about strategizing around your career and getting to a position that brings out your passion. A lot of pees in the first two episodes, and so go from this episode, from this one about strategizing, getting to a better role, getting to your next promotion.
Speaker 1:Go, find the people that you need to influence to get that next role. Go find the skills that you need to prove that you have to get to that next role. Figure out the projects. Reach out to those people with a timeline and some ideas, maybe discuss it with them first, right, and then you will be a shoe-in. Go execute, it's all in the execution. Go do it and you will be considered management material. You will be a leader. You will be someone who is proactive.
Speaker 1:Hey, who doesn't want to hire someone who's proactive? I looked for that on my team every single time. I don't care if it was an assistant position or something else. If I could see that the person was proactive, smart and a problem solver. I knew that they could be trained and they could do the position if they wanted to. So go, go, put this into action and get a better job. All right, I will see you in the next episode and I hope to see you.
Speaker 1:I think down below in the description is a way to contact me if you'd like some career coaching or if you would like to join the beta test of my Get a Better Job, previously called the promotion handbook, get a Better Job course that is being created right now I'm releasing well, I can kind of consider them chapters, but lesson after lesson and in the beta test, you get to provide me some feedback and tell me how it went, what is going well, what can be changed, all of those different things. So go ahead down there and contact me, sign up for the beta test and let's get this thing off the ground. I want to help you get a better job. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Go get that promotion guys. Thank you for listening to Management Material. If you like what you're listening to, please rate us on iTunes. I track those ratings like I tracked my GPA in college, and let me know what else you want to hear about I'm an open book. I can't wait to see you in the next episode.