How to Climb the Career Ladder

The current position you hold within your organization comes with certain responsibilities and obligations that define your job description. Your job description therefore comes with certain expectations. Fulfilling those expectations gives you a reputation for being a competent and reliable employee. Being competent is of course commendable, but unfortunately it won’t get you very far. If you truly desire to climb the career ladder, then you must carefully think through how to surpass those expectations. This is precisely what going the extra mile is all about. It means doing far more than what is stipulated within your job description.

If you truly desire to climb the career ladder, then going the extra mile will not be enough. Yes, it will get you noticed, but it won’t really make you stand out. Anyone can go the extra mile. It just takes some effort. To truly stand out you need more than effort — you need smarts. This essentially means figuring out how to do things better, more productively, and far more efficiently. It means improving systems and processes that boost your organization’s bottom line. It means consistently challenging yourself to find better ways to get things done that improve how you work and how the organization operates.

In order to do things better, you need to become a smarter and more savvy thinker. This of course requires committing yourself to lifelong learning, which essentially means taking the time to learn everything you can about your job and industry. The more you know and the higher level of proficiency and skill you develop, the more valuable you become to your organization. And of course the more your organization values you, the more likely you are to be promoted. However, you can’t possibly know or learn about everything. You must therefore be very selective where and how you spend your time.

Acquiring new knowledge and learning valuable skills is of course wonderful. However, unless you are given the opportunity to showcase those skills, then you’ll unfortunately never get noticed. This is where it is helpful to ask for more responsibility that goes beyond your standard job description. Keep an ear out for new projects and developments within your organization, and be one of the first to volunteer your time, energy and efforts. The more opportunity you get to showcase the knowledge you have acquired and the skills you have developed, the easier it will be to make inroads to climb the career ladder.

If at anytime you’re struggling to make progress with your career aspirations, it can be helpful to ask to work in a different area of your organization. This can be of tremendous value as it exposes you to new people, systems, methodologies and processes. Furthermore, it allows you to learn valuable new skills and acquire relevant knowledge that can help you better understand the workings and operations of your organization — at a far deeper and more comprehensive level. This will allow you to gather valuable insights that can help you formulate new ideas to improve your company’s bottom line.

In the end, the goal with all this is to build a remarkable reputation — to become the person that everyone within your organization respects and admires. There are of course certain qualities that top managers value above all else. These qualities include passion, creativity, dependability, trustworthiness, enthusiasm, and being a team player. In the end, people climb the career ladder in one of two ways. The first is based on who they know. This is if course all about making the right connections. And the second is built solely upon their reputation, which of course depends entirely upon who knows them.