5 Steps to Secure Your Promotion Ahead of the Annual Review

Jamie Lee: (00:00)
Welcome to negotiate your career growth. I'm Jamie Lee and I teach you how to blend the best of negotiation strategies with feminist coaching. So you get promoted and better paid without burning bridges or burning out in the process. Let's get started.

Jamie Lee: (00:16)
Well, hello there badass people. I have decided that if you are listening to this podcast, you are a badass. I mentioned this in the first episode, and by the way, if you haven't listened to the first episode yet, please do go back and listen to it because this episode will be building upon the concept of self-advocacy is an act of service. That was episode number one. Okay. I digress back to what I was saying. As I mentioned before, in the first episode, I am an immigrant. I came here from South Korea. English is my second language. So I have this habit of looking up words before committing to using them in my writing and in my podcast, a long winded way of saying, I looked up the word badass. I loved what I learned. A badass is a formidably impressive person. It gets better. The sample sentence that followed the definition was she is so wonderful.

Jamie Lee: (01:19)
So rad, so amazing. She's a badass. I love this because yes, they're using the female pronoun. And this is exactly what I think about my clients and about you. As people socialized as women, we've been conditioned to deflect praise and to second guess ourselves. So if you're listening to this and you're wincing at being called a badass know, that's normal, it doesn't make you any less of a badass. And here's how I know that you are one, there are three reasons. Number one, you have ambitions for growing your career. That is rad and amazing. Number two, you are living the impossible dreams of your ancestors as am I as a business owner and a coach. Let's think about this. We have careers as women. We have ambitions to grow our careers. I mean, those things, having a career and having ambitions. These were impossible just a few generations ago, back in South Korea, my grandmother on my father's side had a business, but that was possible only because there were so few men left in South Korea after the Korean war, before her generation.

Jamie Lee: (02:47)
So for my great grandmother, and before that women simply did not work outside the home. Women did not make O make or own their money. Women were property for millennia, having a career, having career ambitions. These things were impossible. Now you and I are living the impossible dreams of our ancestors, and we have ambitions to do it even better, right? To get promoted, to make more money while having a life that we actually enjoy. I think that's formidable. And I think that's impressive. Here's number three. Why I know you are a badass. You operate in a far from perfect world. There still exists. Gender inequity, racial inequity still persists to this day. And I'm recording this in 2022. Many of my clients are probably like you, one of the few or the only women or woman of color at the management table at the leadership circle to be striving for growth in this kind of environment is again, formidable and impressive.

Jamie Lee: (04:05)
Ergo. You are a badass. I know that's a book by Jen, Jen Sincero, and I agree you are a badass and I'm inviting you the badass to join my upcoming free event value articulation clinic. It's going to be held on Thursday, September 8th at 1:00 PM via zoom. And just as the name implies, this is a clinic I'm going to help you articulate your value. So you can set yourself up for success ahead of the annual review. I know we're gonna talk about that in detail today. And there's additional help coming that you can get at value articulation clinic. Here's why you want to be articulating your value ahead of the annual review. If you wait until the annual review to articulate your value and to make a case for your promotion, it is too late. It doesn't mean you can't ask, but most likely than not, you will be given what my clients call a non-answer, which they are not a fan of.

Jamie Lee: (05:17)
They'll say, you're doing great. And yeah, we'll consider your promotion for the next quarter or the next year let's revisit this. And this is gonna happen. Not because the manager is intentionally trying to annoy you. No, because by the time you have your annual review in the fourth quarter of this year, or maybe first quarter of 2023, decisions will have already been made behind closed doors. In fact, some of the big companies that my clients work at, they're already doing 2022 retrospectives, and they're already planning ahead for 2023. This means that the conversations for deciding on budgets, deciding on headcount and deciding who gets promoted or not are already starting. And you, my badass people, you want to front run that decision making process. This is the smart savvy and strategic thing to do, and I'm gonna help you do it before budgets. Before headcount, before promotions are set for 2023 value articulation clinic is intended to help you do exactly that.

Jamie Lee: (06:37)
So if you're wondering, cool, tell me more. I wanna, I wanna know the details today on this podcast. I'm gonna tell you what value articulation clinic is not what you will get out of it, how you can sign up. And because I intend to help you, uh, get set up for success. I'm gonna leave you with five actionable tips for you to get started right away on articulating your value so that you are set up for negotiation success ahead of the annual review. So here's what value articulation clinic is not. It is not a zoom and snooze session. It's not a zoom and snooze session. I just came up with that. you know what I mean? It's not yet another boring webinar with a bunch of boring slides, no boring slides. I promise I will not be monotonously droning on about the virtues of self-advocacy.

Jamie Lee: (07:40)
Nope. I'm gonna be preaching the virtues of self-advocacy with conviction and Gusto. No monotonous droning here. Value articulation clinic is a fully interactive coaching call. I'm rolling up my sleeves, actually helping you one at a time so that you can go and talk about your contributions, your strengths, and the growth that you want in your career, so that you can articulate your value with confidence and be strategic about your career growth. I'm gonna be helping you so that you know exactly what to do for you after the clinic. Now, I understand that not everyone will be able to join the event live. I mean, you can sign up and get the replay and still not. Everyone will be able to get coached within the hour of value articulation clinic. Even if you don't get coached by me, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna learn from watching other people get coached and I get it if you're thinking, but that's nice.

Jamie Lee: (08:49)
My situation is so unique, so different. I can't imagine that other people getting coached is gonna help me. You will be surprised you'll attend either live or watch the replay. And you're gonna watch someone get coached on their unique and different situation. Their mind drama about having a non-traditional background or being a single working mom or encountering office politics or encountering unconscious bias. And you will find that the coaching I give them on their specific situation exactly is exactly what you needed to hear for your situation. This happens all the time. It is so valuable and so useful to see other people get coached so useful and so valuable that I invite my one-on-one paying clients to come to value articulation clinic and my clients who attend. They tell me they gained useful, actionable insights. Even if they themselves didn't get coached by me during that event, I'm calling it a clinic for a reason.

Jamie Lee: (10:04)
To me, when I think about a clinic, it conjures up the image of a doctor coming to an outpatient clinic with a big tool bag, right? And I do have a wide range of coaching tools in my own tool bag and the metaphorical coaching tool bag at value articulation clinic. I'm gonna be picking up these tools on an as needed case by case basis. And then I'm going to be teaching the tools in the conversation through the process of coaching value. Articulation clinic is not a zoom and snooze session. You're gonna get exposed to real coaching real tools for real application to sign up, come to Jamie Lee, coach.com/home. And you'll also find the direct link in the show notes. If you're like my clients, you love strategy. You love homework. You love showing up to events prepared, whether it's something like the clinic or to your annual review.

Jamie Lee: (11:08)
And that is why I'm gonna walk you through five steps. You can take right away to start demonstrating, articulating and advocating for your value ahead of the annual review here. R five, number one, no reply needed email updates. Number two, don't just list the what, tell them why number three, close the loop. Number four, get in front of decision makers and number five. See your promotion early and often up to three to six months ahead of the promotion that you want, cuz this is a process and we're getting started. We're being strategic. So let's start with number one, no reply needed email updates. Some of you probably just completed your mid your reviews and you've gotten some feedback on what you can do to improve. You may or may not agree with the feedback that you've been given because sometimes the feedback that we get from our supervisors are not actionable.

Jamie Lee: (12:19)
They're vague managers, executives. They're not necessarily great at giving feedback. And sometimes you don't agree with the feedback because it's something that you are already doing and you're thinking how come they don't know? And the reason they don't know is that they don't have visibility. They didn't have visibility into what you are doing. I'm going to give you a case study directly from the book, how women rise by Sally Helgeson and Marshall Goldsmith. And in this case study, I forget the name of the woman manager who was featured in that book. So let's just call her Mary Mary's job was to keep stakeholders informed and up to informed and up to date on the status of the project that she was leading. So she's thinking, it's my job. I'm gonna do it. I don't need to talk it all. I don't need to, you know, toot my own horn about how I'm doing my job.

Jamie Lee: (13:20)
So I'm just going to continue to update stakeholders on the progress and the status of the project that I'm leading. She goes to the review with her boss and the boss says, Mary you're doing okay, but I need to see you be more proactive in updating stakeholders. Mary is flabbergasted. Mary is frustrated because she's thinking, how come they don't know that I'm doing my job. They should know in the book, the authors talk about how Mary was coached to set aside this thought that they should know, because obviously they didn't know that she's doing her job and updating the stakeholders. So she was coached to set aside her frustration and then to refocus on what is in her control. What can she do to correct this situation to improve it? So she was suggested to send a no reply needed email once a week.

Jamie Lee: (14:26)
Here's what Mary did every Friday. At the end of the day, she sent three bullet points. She said, Hey, this is just an FYI. You don't need to reply. You don't need to give anymore feedback on this. I just want you to know. So she made it really easy for the boss to consume this information, right? No action required. And the three bullet points simply highlighted were showcased how she did update her stakeholders. In other words, she gave herself visibility. She gave the boss visibility. I should say. She gave the boss clear visibility into how she is doing her job, how she is updating her stakeholders in the book. They talk about how Mary felt sort of discouraged in the process of doing this because there was no reply. There was no great job. Keep going. There was no encouragement from the boss and she's thinking what's the point, but she kept on going.

Jamie Lee: (15:35)
She kept sending the three bullet points every Friday without fail for a full quarter. The next time she goes to the performance review with this boss, the boss is smiling. The boss is beaming. The boss says, Mary, you're doing a great job. I love how you're keeping stakeholders updated. Keep doing that. This is fabulous. Mary successfully turned the perception of her boss around by giving no reply needed email updates. I love this. And I do recommend this to my own clients, especially when they've gotten feedback on something they're already working on. And it's very tempting to just keep on plugging away at making improvements and doing better without creating this visibility for yourself without updating the boss or a decision maker about the progress that you are making. And I also love this because it forces you to sit down and assess your contribution, assess the progress you are making and helps you with cultivating the skill of self validation.

Jamie Lee: (16:55)
And I also really like this because it creates a paper trail. There is undeniable proof that you are making progress. And so sometimes I recommend my clients to keep a win log, uh, either on paper or in a Google doc, every time they achieve a win, every time they get praise, every time they create a successful result in their job to put that into this journal or Google doc and the no reply needed email update is just one way to communicate that, to share that in a very specific and pointed way, you help them. You help your boss, you help your supervisor help you, and they feel great because they see you implementing the feedback that you've been given and making progress on it. This is a win-win. This is a classic example of how self-advocacy is an act of service. And if you feel sort of hesitant about speaking up in meetings, I think this is a great way to start.

Jamie Lee: (18:03)
Just send three bullet points every week, no reply needed, make it super easy for them to read and consume, right. And see what happens. See the improvement that it creates for you. The next time you go to your performance review, okay, let's go to number two. Don't just list the what? Tell them why. So this is slightly more advanced strategy. So if you've been sending those updates and you've been creating visibility for the work you do, this is something that you would want to do when you have one on one meetings. When you go to check-ins. When you go to your regular standup meeting, don't just tell them what you've done. Don't just tell them what got done and what still needs to get done. Tell them why you're doing what you're doing. Tell them why it matters. In other words, talk about the business impact of your contributions.

Jamie Lee: (19:04)
It's so easy for us, badass people to get myopic in our focus about what just got done, what still needs to get done. I know this tendency firsthand, but when we get wrapped up in that mindset of like, oh, I still have to get so much more done. There is more to do more to do. We feel rushed. We feel stressed. We feel inadequate. We feel like we're never gonna catch up. We don't feel great. Speaking about the impact of our contributions. So this is intentionally designed to help you take a pause and take stock of why you are doing what you are doing. I once coached a VP of communication. And I asked her to think about why her efforts matter. She's leading the email new, uh, email campaigns, right? She's improving them. She's making sure they go out every week. Why are we doing that?

Jamie Lee: (20:04)
Because it helps us retain customers. Okay. Why is it important to retain customers? When we retain customers, it has a positive impact on the bottom line. It improves our profit margins. When we have greater profit margins, we have greater profit. We can do more things in the business. We're achieving our goals, right? So I coached her to think about and to articulate the why of her contributions, not just the what. Okay. So now let's talk about number three, closing the loop. Number one was about giving updates on the progress you're making. Number two is articulating the why the big picture impact of what you're doing. And then number three is communicating the impact that you delivered. So it's different from no reply needed updates, because that's about the progress. Now it's about communicating milestones achieved. So back to my VP of communications client example. So this would be the time when she would go back to the decision maker, stakeholders managers, and let them know X percent lift on retention has been achieved.

Jamie Lee: (21:21)
It's a milestone it's been achieved. This is useful because it creates the perception of you, somebody who delivers on the promise that you make. And I want you to know that it's important to close the loop and not rush past this when you achieve milestones in your job, because letting people know about what you've achieved is not necessarily bragging. So often I see badass people, especially women saying, yeah, I achieved that, but now I've got bigger things to achieve. It's not that important. Yes, it is important. It may not feel great to communicate your achievements, but it's not about you feeling good because this isn't bragging. This is about sharing the facts of your achievement, the facts that matter to decision maker stakeholders, because your achievement helps them make better decisions. Remember self-advocacy is an act of service. So close the loop. Now I want to talk to you about number four and number five.

Jamie Lee: (22:39)
Number four is getting in front of the decision maker. And number five is seeding your promotion three to six months ahead of time. A client of mine, a marketing expert wanted to get promoted to global director of marketing for a new product line that had recently been launched at her company. She was already dedicating 90% of her time to do the work of a global director for this product. She just didn't have the title yet. And she felt there were at least two barriers. Number one was external. Her direct boss was responsible for her performance review, but wasn't involved in the new product line. And she told me, I don't know. I think the boss wouldn't understand the value and the impact of my work. I mean, I could talk to him about the why, but I don't think they would get it. And frankly, I don't think they really care.

Jamie Lee: (23:35)
So in coaching we investigated and then we uncovered that the best person for her to get buy-in would be from the VP of sales, the person who had been involved in the development of this product line from the get go, even though the VP of sales didn't directly manage my client yet their perception and their decision would impact the future of the product and therefore my client's career trajectory. And then the second barrier was internal. Even after we identified the key stakeholder, she felt hesitant about engaged them about engaging the VP of sales in a strategic conversation because she had never advocated for herself. She had never articulated her value in this direct and proactive way. She felt awkward about it. So in coaching, I told her, listen, if it feels awkward, know that you're doing it right. Be willing to have the conversation, even if it's haltingly awkwardly courageously, because having the conversation with the people whose decisions matter is how you get to what you want.

Jamie Lee: (24:50)
So she identified the real decision maker. And then from there she devised a high level plan that speaks directly to what the VP of sales most cares about. She organized her ideas into a simple coherent plan that would dovetail the sales team's goal of reaching international markets in Latin America, Europe and Asia. For you, you may also wanna think about, okay, yeah, I'm going to have this review with my manager, but who's the real decision maker. Who's opinions whose decisions do I really think is going to move the needle on what I want to achieve in my career. So get in front of the decision maker and then number five, you seed the promotion that you want months ahead of time, you start ahead of the annual review. And this is what my client did. She articulated the value of the plan, the why, and the business impact of that plan.

Jamie Lee: (25:53)
She did it early. She did it often. She got in front of the VP of sales. She got in front of other key stakeholders. She shared that with her boss too. And she did it as often as she can. And she did this consistently months ahead of the performance review with her own direct boss. So as a result, what happened was that she created a reputation of for herself. She was able to shape the perception that stakeholders and key decision makers have of her as somebody who is the best and really the only viable candidate for that global director role. She also cultivated a relationship ahead of time with the key executive who went to bat for her, who was able to sponsor her promotion behind closed doors. So this way she secured her promotion ahead of the performance review with her own boss and the performance review sort of felt more like a formality than, um, than a difficult conversation.

Jamie Lee: (26:59)
By the time she sat down with her own direct boss for the annual review, she was surprised she was taken by surprise. By, by the time she did this, the boss said, you know what? Yes, I'm going to I'm, I'm a hell yes on your promotion. And I'm going to ensure that you get the maximum pay raise possible. I'm going to move you up to the highest pay ban possible in your bracket right now, so that you get the highest bonus and the raise that is possible for you. So for my client, identifying the key decision maker and seeding her promotion ahead of time, three to six months ahead of time paid off, articulating her value paid off. So in summary, number one, no reply needed email updates. Number two, tell them the why, not just the what number three, close the loop. Number four, get in front of the decision makers.

Jamie Lee: (28:00)
Number five, start seeding your promotion. Now three to six months ahead of time. I think about this whole process like this, every touchpoint in this five step process is like a domino. Every touchpoint is like a domino that you, you set up and then by the time you go to the annual review, like you are already set up for success. And with just one, tip everything, just tips over, right? This very satisfying the conversation. Doesn't have to be fraught with anxiety because you have done the work ahead of time. You have set yourself up for success by front running the decision making process. So the point of all of this being start now, now is the time to actively articulate your value. Be strategic, do not wait until the annual review because it will be too late. Decisions have already been made behind closed doors front run that decision making process.

Jamie Lee: (29:13)
If you want help implementing these steps, come to value articulation clinic. It's gonna be on Thursday, September 8th at 1:00 PM Eastern, and you can come to Jamie Lee, coach.com/home. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to this podcast on any of your favorite podcasting PLA platforms so that you don't miss out on any future episodes. If you know other professional women, other women leaders who can benefit from these career advancement strategies, please share this podcast. The more women win, the more women rise, the more we all win. And you can also tag me on Instagram, or you can find me on LinkedIn. All of the links, the social links are on, uh, podcast dot Jamie Lee, coach.com. I hope you have a wonderful week. I hope you start articulating your value and I will talk to you soon.