Positioning yourself for promotion and mastering career advancement - with Porschia Parker-Griffin of Fly High Coaching

#186: Porschia Parker-Griffin is a Professional Certified Coach, a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Master Practitioner, and a director and business consultant. She explains how to actively position yourself for a promotion, how you can demonstrate that you should be promoted, and what to do if you’re passed over for promotion.

What you’ll learn

• [1:37] Why so many people can increase their salaries.
• [2:30] How Porschia got involved in coaching business professionals.
• [4:32] What getting a promotion is really about.
• [5:23] How taking on more responsibilities can lead to a promotion.
• [8:37] How to make yourself stand out without doing overtime.
• [10:56] What motivates people to want a promotion.
• [12:45] How to know when a promotion isn’t the right thing for you.
• [15:24] The skills you need to get promoted regardless of your industry.
• [17:40] The importance of developing leadership skills.
• [19:50] How to communicate well in a workplace.
• [21:55] Getting promoted by changing jobs.
• [24:25] How to actively position yourself for a promotion.
• [26:40] What to consider if you’re seeking a promotion.
• [28:41] Ways to demonstrate that you should be promoted.
• [34:05] How to avoid being given busy work that won’t lead to recognition.
• [35:39] How to figure out which tasks lead to promotion.
• [36:46] How to decline doing a task that your boss has given you.
• [38:15] Constructive ways to respond to being overlooked for a promotion.

Resources mentioned in this episode
Please note that some of these are affiliate links and we may get a commission in the event that you make a purchase.  This helps us to cover our expenses and is at no additional cost to you.

• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith
• Career 101 Podcast

For the show notes for this episode, including a full transcript and links to all the resources mentioned, visit:

https://changeworklife.com/positioning-yourself-for-promotion-and-mastering-career-advancement/

Re-assessing your career?  Know you need a change but don't really know where to start?  Check out these two exercises to start the journey of working out what career is right for you!

Transcript

0:00

Is getting promoted really just about more money, more status, more power? And how do you get yourself promoted? That's what we're going to find out in this week's episode. I'm Jeremy Cline, and this is Change Work Life. Hello, and welcome to Change Work Life, the podcast that's all about beating the Sunday evening blues and enjoying Mondays again. If you want to know how you can enjoy a more satisfying and fulfilling working life, you're in the right place. When you work hard, and you do a good job, you might naturally think that your reward is to get promoted. But is it as simple as that? Is working hard enough? How do you make yourself promotable? Do you even really want to be promoted, or does it just feel like something you should be going for? My guest this week, who's going to help us answer these questions, is Porschia Parker-Griffin, founder and CEO of Fly High Coaching. Porschia empowers ambitious professionals and motivated executives to add, on average, 15,000 dollars to their salaries. She also hosts the Career 101 podcast to give people an edge in their career. Porschia, welcome to Change Work Life. Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy. I have to say, I'm really intrigued by this average figure of 15,000 dollars by which your clients increase their salaries. Is this telling us that there are an awful lot of underpaid people out there? I definitely think that's one way to look at it, yes. And then also, Jeremy, to your point about our audience, you mentioned it in my intro, a lot of our clients are very ambitious. And so, I find that a common pattern I hear when they hire us is that they want to strive for whatever that next goal is. And we know with careers, a lot of times it's financial. Right? So, they might want to make a slight bump, whether that be with salary or job title or getting promoted, like we're going to talk about today, which could possibly include both of those. So, yeah, that's just a pattern that we've seen. And what is your backstory? Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into coaching? Yes. And I will try to keep it quick, Jeremy. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology. So, I was always interested in how the mind works and really helping people through psychological means. Right? I am a millennial, so I graduated in the depths of the recession, and I realised that I did not want to go and get a PhD and become a psychologist, which is what people said, 'Hey, that's the only thing you can do with your psychology degree.' So, I graduated in the depths of the recession, and I said, you know what, I'm just going to go figure out this working world thing and try to see what happens. So, I moved across the country from Atlanta, Georgia in the US, to Los Angeles, California, and I fell into working for a financial consulting firm. And so, long story short, it was what a lot of people would think of as boring, but the great skills I got from that was learning how to help business owners and seeing how to a small consulting firm ran. And somewhere in between there, I ended up in sales, and I was stressed out, overworked, I had a health scare, and I said, you know what, for this kind of pressure, I want to be selling something that I really truly believe in. And so, I had heard about coaching, researched it and decided to start my own coaching business. Just like that. Just like that. And then, I did realise in studying exactly what coaching is and getting certified that coaching is really everything I wanted to do, but I didn't know existed. Because back then, they didn't talk about coaching when I was an undergrad. It wasn't obviously mainstream like it is today. So, just the solution-oriented nature of coaching, the positive side, working with people, as opposed to focusing on psychological traumas and things like that was just really prolific to me, and I wanted to be a part of it. So, let's talk about promotion. Is getting promoted only about moving up in the hierarchy and getting paid more? So, I think this depends on who you ask, Jeremy. For me, the answer is no. I think it really depends on the type of promotion. It depends on the individual. It depends on the organisation. And by type of promotion, I mean the role that you are being promoted into. So, I don't think that it's all about one aspect or another. Would you see, say, an addition to a role as being a kind of promotion? So, suppose you're asked if you can spend some time working on a particular project, because they have seen skills in you, and it doesn't form a natural part of what you've been doing or your job description, but it's something that they've realised, 'Hey, you know what? You could be a good fit for this.' Taking on extra job duties is one way that I like to talk about that with our clients, Jeremy, and you're right. Sometimes people just see things in you or in someone else, and they ask them to work on special projects. Another way that a lot of our clients have experienced that is, someone has said, 'Hey, can you train this new person that's coming into your role?', even though their job title isn't technically trainer or manager, but they might be asked to do those extra job duties. If you embrace those, that can be a great way to position yourself for promotion in the future. I've seen people push back against that and say something along the lines of, 'It's not in my job spec, and I'm not going to get paid any more money to do this sort of thing. So, why should I?' I'm curious to know how you approach that sort of mindset. So, it's definitely a mindset that you can have, and it is a common one. I really think that it depends on where you are in your career and if you want to be promoted. At some point in, I'm sure, most people's working lives, you started off in a position of learning, growing, developing quote-unquote to some degree. And if you are interested in getting promoted at your current organisation, then I would encourage you to perhaps think about possibly going above and beyond, really. And so, yes, you can say, 'Hey, that's not in my job description, I'm not getting paid to do that, I'm not doing any extra work.' You're definitely well within your right to do that. But you just really have to make that internal decision for yourself. Do I want to go above and beyond? You don't have to. Right? There are no have-to's in this life. And then, how do you want to see your career play out in that organisation that you're in? And if you do desire a promotion, if you do desire to perhaps develop within that organisation, then I would encourage you to really reflect on taking on extra roles. Now, again, when I say take on extra roles, I'm not saying be used. Right? I'm not saying do two and three different job descriptions, like I know during COVID a lot of people were doing. And even now, because there are a lot of layoffs going on. I'm not saying that. But I am saying going above and beyond your job duties. And a lot of people are actually not only encouraged to do that, but depending on how your organisation handles the performance review process, the only way to get that exceeding expectations, which is a common kind of top performance review metric, are you at expectations, above expectations, or exceeding expectations, a lot of times to get that exceeding expectations, you are going to have to go above and beyond. Right? But, again, it's your choice. And just going back to what you were saying earlier, when you talk about above and beyond, you're not necessarily talking about doing more hours, because that's something that is definitely going to put some people off. If your hours are 9-to-5, and for whatever reason you want to stick to those hours, then above and beyond doesn't necessarily mean no, you've got to stay to six, to seven, to eight, or whatever it could be. Exactly. Great point, Jeremy. Yes. Just like I mentioned it, it doesn't mean that you're taking on two and three different job roles here. It doesn't mean that you're staying late every day. But it does mean that you are showing that you are doing more than, I would say, just the average person in your role, if that makes sense. And, yes, that can be done within your 9-to-5 working hours. It's really also about positioning, too. And we'll probably get more into this in this conversation, but it's all about positioning yourself. Right? When I talk about positioning yourself for a promotion, you can do that in your standard 9-to-5 hours. Okay. And so, just to deal with another objection, but as it is, my standard job description takes all the time, it takes that 9-to-5, so how can I do these extra above and beyond things while still keeping the same hours? So, that is going to depend on the person's organisation and their job role. One way that I think most people can do, again, that's not going to take you any extra time, is to think about what I call the gaps, right? So, what are those areas that you see on a day-to-day recurring basis in your job that could be done better, that perhaps are not streamlined, perhaps are not as effective as they could be? And how can you make just a suggestion to, perhaps, your manager or someone else in your department, again, depending on how your organisation is structured, to point that out and then provide perhaps a potential solution? Right? That shows that you were just thinking about improving, thinking about productivity, again, separating yourself from the average person in the role. When people think about promotion, also, the first thing they'll think about is an increase in salary, and then the second thing they'll think about might be some kind of increase in seniority. Now, that might not be an increase in seniority which results in more power or influence or that kind of thing. It might just be you're up another label on the corporate ladder. When considering what promotion could do for you, for the individual, what are some other things to think about beyond just these obvious ones of money and status? So, I think that's a great question. A lot of our clients are motivated by different things. Right? So, yes, money and status, a lot of people are motivated by. I find that a lot of our clients are actually motivated by learning. They're motivated by growth. They're motivated by development. They're motivated by doing challenging work. That's something that I hear a lot. Where someone might say, 'Hey, I've got this job, I've been doing it for two years, five years, 10 years, and I could just do it with my eyes closed. I'm ready for a new challenge.' Right? So, the whole idea of being promoted and, perhaps, taking on either a different role or additional responsibilities can also really, I would say, contribute to someone's thought about work, by having that challenge factor, that learning, that growth development factor as well. So, it sounds like a good indicator that you might be ready for some kind of promotion, whatever that means, is that, basically, you're bored and doing your job on autopilot? Yes. Great way to put it. So, developing that a little bit further, what might indicate to someone that they need something, but that perhaps a conventional promotion isn't what they need in order to feel more satisfied at work? So, I think boredom, to your point, is great. Someone who might be restless in some way, I would say. I think those are the top two, feeling that sense of boredom, maybe a little restless with the current roles and responsibilities that they have. What could they be looking for that might not be satisfied with a promotion? One of the most common things I see that people think that they're going to get or think that they are going to feel is a sense of importance. I think a lot of people are looking for promotions or looking for certain job titles or even certain salary levels in their mind, figures, is because they want to feel important. We've helped a lot of our clients here, your point earlier about that on average 15,000-dollar increase in salary, we've helped people to get that specific job title they wanted or get that salary figure that they wanted, and they still weren't happy. Because then, they realised that they were looking for a feeling. They were looking for an emotion that they thought that the job title was going to give them. Now, that's really interesting. And I'll bet if they just speak to their boss about it, they'll probably learn that they won't necessarily get that from a job title status increase. Yes. Absolutely. To that point, one thing I've heard from quite a few of our clients before is, they were in that scenario that you just mentioned, and they wanted to be a manager or a people leader. And then, I've heard from a lot of people that, afterwards, they said, 'You know what?' And I'm going to quote a past client directly. He said, 'I'm tired of following people around and making sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. I just want to go back to focusing on myself and being an individual contributor.' So, yes, I hear that. Achieving promotion is going to be sector specific in a sense. So, there are going to be certain skills which are applicable to some sectors and which aren't to other sectors. But I'm wondering if there are certain top skills that anyone can look to develop to help themselves get promoted, no matter what industry or sector they work in. Yes. I would say communication, leadership, and networking are some of the most important things that you can develop that will help you to get promoted, regardless of the industry that you're in. Communication is important for so many things, but really being able to explain yourself and articulate your ideas in a clear fashion is really important. I can't remember the study off the top of my head, but there was a study in the past that really just looked at the perceptions of people that were able to communicate well. People automatically attributed a lot of things to those people, like leadership, capability, ability to handle something, just on how they communicated. So, that's really important. Leadership, I think, to some people might seem a little obvious, but having leadership skills where people think about you as someone who can help get things done, help achieve certain goals. Again, that people think of you top of mind as a leader, that, I think, bodes well for you in terms of positioning yourself for a promotion. And then, I said the networking. Networking is a concept that, personally, I kind of shied away from, especially early on in my career, because I am an introvert. So, just putting myself out there and going to network, introducing myself to people is not my natural way of being. So, networking also is important when it comes to positioning yourself, I should say, for a promotion, because people have to know about you in order to think of you. And then, they also have to see you as someone who, again, stands out, not necessarily the average person in your role. I'd just like to touch on leadership. That person you described who got promoted to a line management position and then realised they didn't want to chase around people, is leadership only relevant if you're looking for promotion to that kind of a thing where you are line managing, or you are leading a team or something like that? Or can leadership be a valuable skill to develop even if you're looking to remain in a role which one might categorise as an individual contributor? Yes. I think leadership is very important regardless of the role that you're interested in, and it's vital for individual contributors as well. An example I'll give, a lot of organisations might have different career tracks. For people who worked in large corporations that have career development tracks or plans that managers and HR talk about, they might know this, but one individual contributor track that's common is the subject-matter expert, the SME track, where you might never have any direct reports, but you become the go-to person for whatever process, software, product, whatever the organisation does. Right? And in that instance, leadership is very important in terms of being thought of as the go-to person capable of maybe leading projects or initiatives in some way, coming in and adding extra insight when other teams or individuals are having conversations. So, that's just, I think, an example of an individual contributor where leadership is very important and something that people would consider when promoting someone to that type of role. And at the risk of going down another rabbit hole, you mentioned how people who are perceived as communicating well are also perceived to have certain abilities that come with it, I'm paraphrasing what you said, in a nutshell, what does communicating well mean in this particular instance? I think it's really about clarity in ideas and speaking or writing, delivering your ideas in a way to where other people understand them, other people know what the goal is, they know what they're supposed to do, and I think things are perhaps specific enough to where people can take that information and then run with it. Right? Not be confused, not have to maybe ask 25 questions afterwards, if that makes sense. Yeah. And I think this is probably a skill that you can develop pretty early on. So, even if you're in a junior role, and you're taking instructions from someone senior, then the way you can deliver feedback or deliver an outcome or that kind of thing, it all involves communication, so maybe it's an opportunity there to say, 'Okay. So, I've delivered that, I'm just curious to know whether it landed, whether you understood everything. Is there anything in the way I communicated to you that I could do a bit better?' Exactly. Exactly. It's definitely a skill that people can work on regardless of their level in an organisation or where they are in their career. And you made me think of something there, Jeremy. When I was working on my master's programme, one of the courses that we had to take was business writing. And I had never really thought about business writing and how you craft information for an email in a business setting, versus if you're writing a research paper or writing a novel or something else, an article. But really, one of the aspects of business writing that, I think, really parallels this conversation that we're having about communication is being as brief, direct, clear, and concise as possible, so that people don't confuse, again, with what you're saying. I have a theory that the easiest way to get promoted is to change jobs. What do you think? I think that that can be the case in a lot of instances, and I do think that sometimes it can be the fastest way to change jobs. I would dive into what you're focusing on with easiest there. But I do think sometimes it can be faster to just apply for another job that's at a higher level and focus on that. And what might be the downsides with that approach? Well, there are quite a few. So, as people are seeing now, and I'm not sure if it's as prevalent in the UK as it is in the US, but there are people who really focused on getting jobs at certain organisations, and those organisations have laid off masses of people. And a lot of times, it's kind of like the last one in, first one out. So, it's based on tenure. The people who have been at the organisation longer, a lot of times actually get preference in terms of staying, and the other people are laid off earlier. So, I have seen people who were like, 'Hey, I don't care about this job. I want to go work for this huge company here.' And then, huge company has layoffs. And also, depending on your work history, you can come off looking like a job hopper. And there's a debate on if being a job hopper is a good thing, if being a job hopper is a bad thing, what is a job hopper, all of that. But I will say that when you are applying for highly competitive positions, where there are hundreds of candidates, the fact that you've moved around a lot, a lot of recruiters will look at that and think of you as perhaps not as safe of a hire as someone else. In some cases, promotion seems to be about getting the nod. So, you've reached, I don't know, a mid-ranking position, and someone takes you aside and says,'Yeah, you know what? We think that you've got what it takes to get promoted to the next level.' I'm curious to know whether that's something that you should wait for because that's the way it happens, or is this something where you can be more active, and you're not waiting for someone else in the organisation to go, yes, you are a chosen one? So, I do think that you can actively, what I call, position yourself for promotion. So, show that you have potential. Right? Demonstrate that you are perhaps ready for the next level. But to your point about the easiest way of getting promoted is to get a new job, sometimes you can do all of this, and if the opportunity just isn't there, then you're not necessarily going to get that promotion, because the job hasn't been created yet, or the job isn't open yet. And that's a good point, isn't it, that you might be the best performer in the world, but there does often still need to be a business case for you to get promoted. Exactly. And that's what can take the time and things that are beyond your control that are involved in, if that job becomes open and how they go about filling that role. But I could share, if you want, some perhaps tips or suggestions that I have told our clients in terms of trying to demonstrate that they have that potential and they're ready for a promotion, if you're interested in that, too. I definitely am, and it kind of goes to this question I had as to whether it makes sense for someone to almost make a plan. So, like having your own personal internal marketing plan, your own promotion plan, what could that look like? How long a time frame might you want to be thinking about? Absolutely. That's exactly what we work with our clients on. It is a plan. Right? When you're positioning yourself for a promotion, you have to be strategic about it, you have to think ahead. Well, I won't say 'have to', because there are some people that, I think, are naturally doing these things. So, it seems like, for them, they didn't plan it. But I think for most people, it is wise to have a plan. Think about your reputation. Think about the initial impression that you made when you started in the role that you're currently at. Think about all of that as you position yourself. When do you start to implement a plan? I mean, do you look at a, I would like to get promoted by a particular date, and you do like a T minus something and come up with a plan? So, are we talking like a year, two years, five years? What do your clients do? So, the first thing I encourage people to think about alludes to something we were chatting about earlier is that you want to make sure you're in the right organisation first, before you start this plan to position yourself for a promotion, because you might be in the type of organisation that doesn't have any opportunities, will not have any opportunities for the next two years, and you can do all of this, and perhaps it won't help you to reach a certain goal. So, the first thing you've got to think about and really determine is if you're in the right organisation. Then from there, I encourage people to think about their long-term goals first and then work backwards into a promotion. So, if somebody says, 'Hey, I know I want to be a director one day', for example, that's something I hear from a lot of our clients, well, if they're an individual contributor right now, then their step towards longer-term goal of becoming a director, maybe they need to in their organisation become a team lead or a manager first. And so, if you say, 'Hey, I want to be a director in the next 10 years', then we can work backwards into the promotion that you would be working towards now. For a lot of people, they start thinking about promotions at the one-, two-, three-year mark. And those are some of the most common time frames I see people talk about. So, you've got this sort of time frame. You've had a look at the opportunities. You've satisfied yourself that there is the possibility of getting what you want in the organisation where you are. So, yeah, let's give some examples of how you can then position yourself. Yeah. So, one of the first things I recommend people do, this is a great point that you made earlier, I think all of these things can be done within your standard 9-to-5 or whatever your working hours are, so these don't necessarily require you, to your point earlier, Jeremy, about working overtime, I recommend that our clients start volunteering for assignments or projects that are already within their job scope. So, when I say that, a lot of times people know that there are certain projects or certain clients or certain accounts that might be perceived as more difficult and that people run from, oh, I don't want that account, I don't want to work for that client. I don't want to do that project. You volunteer for those. And that can go a long way in positioning you as a leader, someone who openly embraces challenges and that might be ready for the next level. Okay. So, people will remember if everyone else was running from the project, and you volunteered for it. Something else that you can do, and this goes to your point about leadership earlier, is to not blame other people when things don't go as planned. Leaders and some of the best leaders usually don't engage in a lot of blame. Right? Instead, they are looking for solutions and trying to make things better. And I think a lot of times just energetically, a lot of people feel better about that, right? Instead of spending a meeting talking about where the breakdown was and how everybody was wrong, you maybe let other people touch on that, or you touch on that briefly, and then you move on to solution. And then, along with that is really staying positive. I think some of not only the best leaders, but when people think about who's ready for a promotion, it's usually people who are positive, maybe even in a negative situation, maybe they can inspire or motivate other people with their attitude. I think those are all some things that people can probably start right now. I've now got an image of someone who's got a permanent rictus grin on their face, who's running headlong towards the really difficult clients, and I'm seeing that person burning out or only doing it because they have to do it. And I'm curious as to where you draw the balance between that kind of stuff and not driving yourself crazy. Because chances are there are difficult clients because they are difficult clients. And, yes, you might mark yourself out by saying, 'Oh, don't worry. I'll look after that account.' And then, after three months, you think, 'Why on earth did I do this? There's got to be an easier way. Never mind getting promoted. I just want to run out that doors screaming.' Yes. Great, great point, Jeremy. It's also about your own capacity and what you can handle. Right? So, do you really have the time to think about positioning yourself for promotion right now? Do you really have the time or the bandwidth to maybe take on a difficult project? Right? That's a great question to ask yourself before you just blindly volunteer. Great point. I will say, though, that if you are, again, to the point of wanting to stand out, you've got to think about how you're going to stand out within working hours from the rest of the people on your team. I'm sure there are other ways that you can stand out in a positive way, but I think volunteering for certain projects or accounts has been one of the positive ways that our clients have successfully, I would say, position themselves for promotions. And when I say volunteering to, you also want to make sure that you're volunteering for things that are needle movers in the organisation, business-focused. I don't know if you've heard of this, Jeremy, but a lot of times they've done research about, for example, women in the workplace, and they've shown that women might take extra roles with a specific committee or different things, but they weren't necessarily needle movers, things that were top priorities to the leaders of the team. And so, while they were volunteering for all of these committees or special parties or activities that they put on, people didn't see them as needle movers. So, they might have been wearing themselves out, volunteering and participating in all these extra things, but they weren't seen as a high priority for the business. And so, that's why I mentioned projects or accounts because, generally, those are some of the things that people will notice and think of as important, if that makes sense. Now, this is really interesting, because I'm sure that it might not just be that the individual volunteers for things which aren't actually seen as needle movers, but there might be a boss who, I don't know, maybe they're thinking that it is a good opportunity for a person, or maybe it's just they want something off their desk, and so they present an opportunity, air quotes, to someone as, a means by which they can show off their stuff, when, in fact, it's not a needle moving job. It actually might be an important dull admin task, but it's not something that's going to be brought into the mix realistically when it comes to assess whether or not someone is right for promotion. Exactly. Exactly. That happens a lot, and they've even done research about biases, about who someone would recommend take what activity. And in that position, I think it is really important, again, to be strategic. So, let's go back to what you were talking about earlier. Let's say someone does have a plan, and they say, 'Hey, I want to be promoted in the next year or two years.' Well, they say, 'Hey, I've got this amount of time, and my boss perhaps has come to me with organising the Christmas party. And while organising the Christmas party might be a really important thing, because we do these holiday events every year, I don't really have the time, energy, or bandwidth to do it. And in fact, I want to position myself for other opportunities.' Then, that comes to having that conversation about how you might nicely decline that opportunity or come up with another solution that doesn't involve you working on it or owning something on your own, and you just contribute to it, but it doesn't suck up all of your time, to your point. So, how do you figure out what tasks are the needle movers when your boss says, 'Hey, we'd love to get you involved in that collection'? That's another great question. It really depends. So, of course, it's going to depend a bit on your organisation, your leader, all of that. Some clues to help you figure out what those are, though, would be, one, look at what the primary goals are for the organisation. So, most companies, especially the larger ones, they share what their goals are. They share what their strategic plans are. They share their vision, mission, values, all of that. Compare what you're working on with those things. It's obviously much easier if you're in a department or you have a job with a lot of quantifiable metrics, like sales, marketing, even customer service, because there are numbers and metrics around all of that. So, it's easier to figure out what the needle movers are there. But if you don't know, compare to what your executives, bosses, managers, directors are talking about. And if your boss does present you with an opportunity, and you look at it and think there is no way this is a needle mover, how can you say that to your boss? I generally recommend that if people are going to decline something, first, you've got to look at it from a positive angle. Right? So, most people default to the negative. Most people default to, 'Oh my gosh, this is a waste of my time. No, I don't want to do it.' So, if you think that way, after you have that thought, look at, is there any way that this could be a needle mover? Is there any way that this could be an opportunity to perhaps give me more visibility to network, communicate, or show leadership skills? If not to the right people, then you want to think about how you can nicely decline the opportunity. So, there are a few ways to do that. You can either mention how you have other projects, it doesn't fit into your schedule, or you can volunteer to contribute to it, but say, 'Hey, I really can't own this whole project or activity because of X, Y, Z.' Right? You have other work, other initiatives that are going on, and then make sure those initiatives are needle movers. Right? So, that someone can clearly see that they would be asking you to take time away from something that's a needle mover, really important, to work on something that isn't. Let's finish off on what could be slightly negative, but let's turn it into a positive. You don't get promoted. What are some of the constructive ways that you can deal with that, and how do you avoid feeling or sounding, frankly, a bit desperate? This is probably one of the number one things that I hear from clients. So, I'm glad you asked it, Jeremy. Being overlooked for a promotion can really hurt. Let's just be honest about it. Especially if you formally applied for a promotion or, in some way, you made your interest known, and then they selected someone else. While it's difficult, I recommend that you find ways that work for you to release any negative energy or feelings that you have around being passed over for a promotion. There are a few different ways to do that. One, you can talk to a career coach, like Jeremy or I, about it. Some of our clients also have therapists that they talk to. I've had some clients that just journal about it. Right? So, if someone is a writer, and they really like to put their thoughts out on paper, and that helps them to release things, you can do that as well. In essence, you want to get your thoughts and your feelings, emotions out in a productive way. And you also want to get those thoughts and feelings and emotions out with people who are not directly involved in your workplace. So, that means not venting to your co-worker or your colleague or your manager. Right? That's not what I would recommend. You want to release that energy about not being selected in a productive way to move forward. Porschia, we could easily carry on for probably another hour, but I think we should probably bring this to a close. Anyone who's curious to explore this topic of promotion further, any tools or resources that you can suggest? It's really hard, but I'm going to recommend one of my favourite books. And it's not necessarily promotion-specific, but it's really just growth- and development-specific, and you can definitely apply it to promotions. It's the book What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith, which I know a lot of people have read. But it really, I think, is a great mindset resource to help you know that what got you to your current role that you're at is not necessarily going to help you get to that next role on the other side that you are looking for. And where should people go to find you? There are a few ways. You can always check us out on our website and it's fly-highcoaching.com. And if you are social, you can come and find us on LinkedIn. You can search and just let me know that you were listening to the Change Work Life podcast, and I will accept your request. Perfect. Links in the show notes as always. Porschia, you've provided a huge amount of value in this interview. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy. Okay. Hope you enjoyed that interview with Porschia Parker-Griffin of Fly High Coaching. I wish I'd had this discussion about needle moving activities with someone like Porschia before. I can certainly recall in the past having been given tasks which I didn't really want to do, but with a vague promise that they might help my further career, and which I didn't feel like I could say no to. And in hindsight, these activities were time-consuming, but they weren't really needle moving activities. And that's the tricky thing when you're tapped up for a job. Can you realistically say no? And if so, how can you? I liked Porschia's suggestion of first seeing whether there is something that you can get out of this task. So, it could be, for example, internal networking and just getting your face better known. But if not, I guess it's something that really you've got to find a solution that you can present to whoever gave you the activity, rather than just a flat refusal. Show notes for this episode are at changeworklife.com/186. That's changeworklife.com/186. And you may well be thinking, 'Do I really want to get promoted? Am I in the right place to get promoted? Are there the opportunities to do so? Should I be looking elsewhere?' It could be hard to organise all these thoughts in your head and to take what you think is the right action. And this is where coaching can come in. A coach can help you figure out whether promotion is something that really is right for you, or whether it's just something which you feel you should get. And if it is right, what sort of promotion that means. Is it a management or leadership position? Or is it becoming the guru, like Porschia was saying, becoming the subject-matter expert? And then once you've done that, a coach can help you to figure out what your plan should be. Who do you need to ask to find out whether there are opportunities at your current place? If you're thinking about a move somewhere else, well, where should you move to where you'll get the promotion but also be happy and enjoy your work? If you'd like to find out how coaching can help you and whether you would like to have an initial conversation with me, go to changeworklife.com/coaching, that's changeworklife.com/coaching, where you can find out more. Now, I've got a couple of episodes coming up which should complement this interview quite nicely. One is about how you can be much more strategic in your career planning. So, rather than just looking for job adverts and then dusting off your CV and covering letter, how can you put more of a strategic plan together? The second episode I've got coming up is all about salary negotiation, particularly when you are starting at a new company. What's the process? What are some of the myths? What are some of the limiting beliefs you might have that hold you back from getting the pay that you deserve? You're not going to want to miss either of those episodes, so if you haven't already, make sure you're subscribed to the show, and I can't wait to see you next time. Cheers. Bye.