Lesson Learned: Promotions are not about you!
Way, way back I was promoted to my first management position. The conversation with my boss went something along the following lines.
Boss: It sounds like you were expecting the promotion?
Me: Yep, I worked my butt for this . (rather smugly) (Looking back I was an arrogant little sh1t)
Boss: So you see this promotion as a reward?
Me:Â Oh yes! (laughing)
Boss: I see it differently. The promotion is not a reward for your hard work! That is why I gave you a bonus. I promoted you because the department needs someone who to lead the team and offload the day-to-day management tasks from me. This promotion means that I need you to step up into this new role and perform. It will be a stretch for you and you have a lot to learn but I think that you can do it.
Me: What do I need to learn?
Boss: You will need to learn management skills, improve your project management skills to handle multiple simultaneous projects and people. And of course budgeting too.
Me: No problem! I will prove that I am worth the investment.
Boss: I am investing in you and you are a high risk investment at that! You have great technical skills but now you need to learn the additional skills to perform as a manager. Basically you only have 25% of the skills to needed to perform as a manager! I am prepared to take the risk for a limited time and you need to demonstrate progress week by week. I can only give around 6 months to get up to speed and deliver.
Me:Â No problem
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Wow, boy was that a boatload of work! I learned a multitude of extremely valuable lessons from that promotion and the ensuing years of work. Here are the top lessons that I learned in the those six months.
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People are promoted into positions to meet the needs of the business.
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The learning phase never ends but there is a limited amount of time that the business can wait for you to learn and gather the skills needed to perform at the level needed.