I’ve had to privilege to work with many different people in my coaching programs along with through email and comments on the site. One thing that I’m often asked about is how to start a business, how to get one profitable, how to get enough capital to realistically start a business without outside investors, and much more. But something that I’ve been asked more and more is how to succeed in a job that isn’t entrepreneurial in nature.
A job where you clock in 9-5 usually, work for a boss who has another boss and another and another up the line, with HR departments, mandates, and all of that fun stuff. How does someone succeed in such an environment, make money, save time, and generally make the most out of it? And I’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t my strongest area of knowledge. However I do know people that have climbed corporate ladders and ended up in the plus six figure bracket, even before hitting 35, and by doing things smart.
So I took time to talk to them along with a few mentors that I haven’t talked to in a long time. Vice presidents, heads of HR, and a few others have shared with me what succeeded for them, what would succeed for those just getting into a field, what they would do if they were starting over, and what has changed since they got started in the corporate field and advice for the young. I combined that with my own experience, limited though it may be, with working through a few different positions within a few years, and then researching by reading books such as Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why along with Rise and a few others, as its been a few years for me.
I also had a family member who was able to shed a lot of light on this process. So regardless after boiling out down there are two main things or skills that you need to work on and study in order to rise up the ranks of a corporate environment. And this works even if you don’t have the right “demographics” working in your favor.
The First Skill Needed To Not Just Survive But Rise & Thrive In The Corporate Environment
Politics.
We all know that things are fair and we’ve all heard of office politics and we all know that promotions have less to do with merit and more to do with other factors. And yet we often just accept these things and do nothing about it. We figure if we didn’t win the sperm lottery, don’t hit the right demographics, or weren’t in the safe fraternity as the boss or aren’t a suck up then we are out of luck when it comes to rising up the corporate ranks. However that’s just not true. Politics is a skill that can be learned and harnessed for your advantage.
By politics I’m including a set of skills here. Sales, rapport building, social skills, and many things in-between that cover politics. Politics is often just as much about what NOT to do as what to do. Politics covers everything from wearing a suit or polo to a work function instead of a T-shirt all the way to knowing to always bring solutions to problems when you talk with your boss as opposed to just problems. And many other things. Now this is going to be roughly a thousand word article so I can’t discuss all of it but I’ll give you some resources to get you started on your journey.
Understand that above all else, politics is the most fundamental skill that you have to learn. And it’s not about laughing at everything your boss says, sucking up, or being unethical. You can be a master at politics without being a suckup, a sellout, or losing your soul. It takes skill and patience but it can be done. There is an ethical way to work your way up the corporate ladder, but again it takes time and lots of knowledge to pull off.
Some good resources on politics are.
Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, & Why by Donald Asher
Secrets To Winning At Office Politics by Marie G. McIntyre
The Second Skill Needed To Not Just Survive By Rise & Thrive In The Corporate Environment
Next we have something that’s often overlooked.
And that’s actually being good at your job. It seems people fall into two extreme camps. Those that think if you just keep your head down and do good at your job you’ll be promoted and then those that thinks it’s just all politics and you can suck at your job and be promoted. While the second view is closer to the truth than the first, for long term stable advancement, especially without friends in high places, you’re going to need to do both. You’re going to need to become a master at politics but also skilled at your job. Whatever that job may be. In the corporate environment for a lot of us that’ll be management type positions. Which means leading, guiding, correcting, and helping others do their jobs to the best of their ability.
Which is its own skill. And again there are plenty of resources out there on it. Let me put it this way, you should be living and breathing your job. Reading books on it, listening to podcasts on it, watching videos on how to do it better, taking courses to improve your skills. You’re not going to advance if after you clock out you aren’t learning how to do, whatever it is you do, better. And that’s in addition to learning about and mastering politics. You can’t just clock in 9-5 and think that after that you’re done. You have to keep learning and growing in your job. While others are at happy hour you should be learning and gaining knowledge. Not saying you can’t have fun or can’t have a life. But you can’t be lazy.
Just doing your work isn’t enough. Average is death or slow decay at the least. You have to go above and beyond. Become the go to expert on whatever it is you do. Though it won’t happen, you should have the skill to have other companies send their X (X being whatever job you do) over to you to become better, to be trained by you. Doing this alone isn’t enough but when you combine it with political savvy is when you’re really will start to see progress.
This is something that I have more information to share on but space is running short. If this is something you want to know more about then send me an email at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (d0t) com and I’ll get back to you as well as maybe develop more article ideas.
As always thanks for reading. If you like what I said then check out the Ultimate Alpha Collection on the sidebar. It’s a bit older but there’s still plenty of gold there.
Thanks For Reading,
-Charles Sledge
