The #1 reason you're not getting promoted

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I had an interesting conversation the other day with another leader.

It went something like this:

Them: “Would you recommend [name] for a promotion?”

Me: “It depends on the role.”

Them: “What do you mean?”

Me: “I wouldn’t put them in most finance roles with senior leadership exposure - it’s more about the way they do their job than the actual work itself. It’s their style.”

Today we’ll explore the intangible and often frustrating style issue and how to overcome it.

Let’s go!

What do I mean by “style”?

I sort of hate going here, but I see it more often than I’d like to admit.

People get passed up for promotions every day based on the way they conduct their business.

Let’s assume you are driving a killer FP&A Flywheel.

And you’re setting + executing your FP&A OS vision.

But you’re still not seeing career growth - and you can’t get a straight answer why.

It’s likely because of your style.

It’s the way you execute the job on a day-to-day basis. There is nothing wrong with what you’re doing, but there’s a problem with how you do it.

Here’s a few common examples:

• Your explanations are a bit too technical when the senior leader wanted simplicity

• Your communication style is dry/boring

• People feel like it’s a chore to pick up the phone and talk to you

• You use lofty finance words and concepts when talking about the business

Technically, it could be anything that is a cultural rub between the way you operate and what people want or expect from you.

I understand this isn’t very helpful of an explanation, so let’s talk about how you can assess if your style is holding you back.

Find a trusted [work] friend

The easiest way to figure this one out is to find a trusted work friend and ask them if your style is holding you back.

But the trick is knowing who you can trust (which is why I say they must be a friend).

If you find yourself in a position without any work friends that you can trust to simply ask, try this:

• Find your closest work colleague (someone who speaks openly with you)

• Plant the seeds that you’re trying to figure out why you’re not getting promoted

• Wait a couple weeks

• Hint to them you think it’s because of your style and how you do things

• Wait a couple more weeks

• Ask them with 0 emotion if they have seen any situations where your style might be holding you back

• Repeat every couple of weeks or find a new person

Why wait a couple weeks between steps?

First, people don’t like giving surprise feedback.

Second, it gives them time to observe you with the idea you’ll probably be asking for feedback.

If this doesn’t work, let’s move on to step 2…

Ask you boss, nicely

I think more people should learn how to subtly mine their boss for information.

What I mean is asking your boss in a way that feels completely harmless, uncharged emotionally, and nonchalant.

Too many people write out a 6 page self-review of how awesome they are and bring it to their boss asking for their feedback.

What would you do if your friend did that to you?

“ummmm, looks great. keep it up!” (sound familiar??)

So you need a different approach - here’s what to do:

• Casually ask your boss if they have a framework or checklist of what it looks like to get to your next level and the level after that - you’re taking some time to reflect on your career and what’s next for you

• Then review that framework, highlighting any areas where you think you’re falling short (red, yellow, green)

• Bring it back to your boss and say “before I start working on these things I highlighted in red and yellow, is there anything intangible that I should be thinking about?"

• You can even follow-up with “I know my success to this level was mostly based on my ability to do the work, but the next level is more about style. Is there anything style related that I should be thinking about that I haven’t paid any attention to?”

I bet you get a really clear answer there.

But in case you don’t, let’s move on to part 3…

Become your own coach

One of my favorite life-hacks is something I call self-coaching.

It’s where I’m about to go ask someone else a question (boss, mentor, expert, etc.) but instead of asking them, I simply ask myself.

In essence, I take a literal minute of silence and imagine myself asking a mentor for advice. Then I ask myself “what would they tell me to do?”

And about 90% of the time, I get the answer.

The other 10%, I have to go ask the mentor.

But the lesson here is that we often know what the right answer is - our gut will tell us.

It just takes a little brain trickery to turn our mind off and listen to our gut.

In summary:

Don’t get held back in your career due to your style.

Life’s too short.

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