Most of us reach a point in our careers where accomplishing goals doesn't return the same rewards. Despite succeeding at your performance goals, you may be told that you are "not ready" for a promotion.
This type of feedback often means that you've spent more time on building your skills and not enough on building relationships. However, there are certain actions you can take to strengthen your relationships and put you on the path to promotion.

You "just aren't ready" for a promotion

Companies achieve results through collective leadership. To be considered for a promotion, you need to demonstrate your ability to work well with others.
Identify what makes you great at your job.
<ul>
<li>What are you known for?</li>
<li>What types of problems do people frequently come to you to help solve?</li>
</ul>
Take that skill and find a friendly way to share your gift with others.

Share your gift with others

Find opportunities for feedback on how you appear to others. It will help you become aware of behaviours that may interfere with your effectiveness.
Shift your perspective from "me" to "we." Instead of being a lone achiever, it is important to involve your team, listening more, and talking less.

Understand how others see you

Jack Welch said: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
We learn best when we are teaching others. Your earliest opportunity to lead others comes from volunteering. Reach out to a person outside your business unit that would welcome your help. Then commit to helping them work on an issue they raise.

Mentor others

There are often people that we have greater difficulty working with than others. The sooner you can identify personality characteristics that you find challenging, the more time you have to develop strategies for working effectively with them.
When you take accountability for getting along with all kinds of coworkers, you eliminate friction and make it easy for management to promote you.

Learn how to work with difficult personalities

To advance and take on more responsibility does not mean you have to say yes to everything. However, you should learn how to delegate and know which things to say no to.
<ul>
<li>Volunteer for cross-functional task forces and opportunities that broaden your network.</li>
<li>Learn new skills outside your comfort zone.</li>
<li>Earn support of other executives outside your direct reporting line.</li>
<li>Aim for projects that are revenue-generating or strategic.</li>
<li>Avoid purely social projects or those that lack takeoff.</li>
</ul>

Set healthy boundaries

<img src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2021/01/A_Feb21_04_535200981.jpg" width="630" height="354"><div class="caption" dir="ltr">
				XiXinXing/ Getty Images
		</div><div more-caption="more" close-caption="close" dir="ltr">
		Summary.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
		Too often, people early in their career hit a wall when vying for opportunities to rise in their companies.

Chances are they’ve focused too much on their skills and not on their relationships at work.
These five tips for strengthening relationships can help those struggling demonstrate to...<button dir="ltr">more</button>
	</div><img src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2020/10/Ascend_Logo_2020_2x.png" alt="Ascend logo" width="105" height="25">Job and life advice for young professionals. See more from Ascend <a href="https://hbr.org/insight-center/ascend" dir="ltr">here</a>.Have you ever been told, despite hitting or even succeeding at your performance goals, that you “just aren’t ready” for a promotion?I remember hearing those same words early in my career. It’s vague, frustrating feedback —&nbsp;and it isn’t actionable.Most of us hit a point in our careers where the emphasis we’ve placed on <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/10/10/why-great-sales-people-make-terrible-sales-managers/?sh=547e97d624cf" dir="ltr">accomplishing goals</a> doesn’t return the same rewards. We’ve crossed an invisible line, and we usually don’t know it until there are repercussions.After more than 20 years as a Fortune Global 50 executive and coach to the C-Suite, I can tell you that this type of feedback often means that you’ve spent too much time building your skills — and not enough time building relationships.What can you do to set yourself up for success? Here are five actions you can take right now and throughout your career to strengthen your relationships and put you on the path to promotion.<h2 dir="ltr">1)&nbsp;Know what makes you great at your job — and share your gift with others. </h2>To be considered for promotion, senior management needs to see you’re able to work well with others. After all, companies don’t succeed through individual effort;&nbsp;they achieve results through collective leadership.Chances are there’s something special about the way you go about your work. Perhaps you think more strategically than others on your team, seeing trends and connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of information. Or maybe you’re a clear communicator, saying what needs to be said in a way that ensures everyone will hear it and take action.To identify what sets you apart, ask yourself: What you are known for? What types of problems do people frequently come to you to help solve? Take that skill and find a friendly way to share your gift with others to build relationships and add value to the team. For example, if you’re good at presentations, offer to provide feedback on a colleague’s dry run before their next big meeting. Or host a brown bag roundtable on best tips for presenting to executive management, where your team members can share their top recommendations.If you can start demonstrating this capability now, management will more easily think of you in a role with additional responsibility.<h2>2) Understand how others see you — and shift your perspective from “me” to “we.”</h2>As you grow in your career, find opportunities to <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/10/get-the-actionable-feedback-you-need-to-get-promoted" dir="ltr">get feedback</a> on how you show up to others. This will help you become aware of behaviors that may be decreasing your effectiveness and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90572513/why-managing-impressions-is-critical-and-doesnt-make-you-inauthentic" dir="ltr">avoid blind spots</a> in self-awareness that can slow your career progress.Let’s review a previous client of mine, Aaron, who was told by his boss that he “just wasn’t ready” for promotion despite consistently exceeding his goals.When I interviewed his colleagues, I discovered that Aaron was being blocked for a promotion two levels up in his organization by an executive who believed Aaron “wasn’t a team player” due to the way he’d led a turnaround. Aaron had been handed the leadership of a highly tenured and underperforming team with a mandate to “fix it,” and he went to work like a steamroller, reengineering operations and successfully hitting goals. But his success came at the expense of several long-time employees leaving and slamming Aaron’s reputation on their way out. The executive with the power to promote Aaron now viewed him as a “lone wolf” achiever.After Aaron and I worked together on how he achieves goals, he is now involving his team on strategy planning, listening more, and talking less —&nbsp;and the senior executive is noticing his shift from “me” to “we.<h2>3) Mentor others to develop your leadership skills. </h2>As the great <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/03/jack-welchs-approach-to-leadership" dir="ltr">Jack Welch</a> said: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”You may not be managing a team yet, but your earliest opportunities to lead others could come from volunteering. We learn best when we are teaching others.One easy way to do this: Reach out to a person outside your business unit that would welcome your help and commit to spending an hour with them once a month for a year to work on an issue they raise. A few years ago, I mentored a young woman who was brilliant —&nbsp;and painfully shy. From a different business unit, she approached me as a safe confidant. She recognized that her lack of assertiveness was impacting her ability to influence and be heard. Over a monthly coffee, we worked out an action plan with small behavior changes to increase her confidence and executive presence that really added up over time. She was ultimately promoted, and I enjoy following her continued success.A bonus — when you help others, you’ll feel great, and they will thank you for it. I love receiving notes from former team members and colleagues about what they’re doing now and how our work together helped them. It’s one of the reasons I became an executive coach.<h2>4) Learn how to work productively with personalities you find difficult.</h2>Each of us has preferences in working and communication styles, and usually there are some people that we have greater difficulty working with than others. The earlier you can identify the specific personality characteristics that are <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/10/the-secret-to-dealing-with-dif" dir="ltr">challenging for you</a>, the more time you have to develop strategies for working effectively with them.This is important because until you do, history will repeat itself. The triggering traits will resurface in other colleagues. When you take accountability for getting along with coworkers of all types, you eliminate friction and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/31/getting-ahead-isnt-a-nasty-business-us-study-reveals?CMP=share_btn_tw" dir="ltr">make it easy</a> for management to promote you.Remember, too, that relationships change over time. People mature, get promoted, and go on to work for other companies. One day you may find yourself reporting to your frenemy. Or they may leave to go work for your dream company, where you’d love an introduction. Take the long view and invest in your relationships — even those that don’t come easily.<h2 dir="ltr">5) Set healthy boundaries in your work relationships. </h2>It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that extra hours will get you that promotion. However, to advance and take on more responsibility, it’s really not about saying yes to everything. Rather, know <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/how-to-say-no-to-things-you-want-to-do" dir="ltr">which things to say no to</a>. Be judicious and diplomatic, and learn to delegate.Some things you should say yes to: Volunteering for cross-functional task forces and other opportunities to broaden your network, learn new skills outside your comfort zone, and earn the support of other executives outside your direct reporting line.But be intentional; aim for projects that are revenue-generating or strategic, such as those that will increase the efficiency and output of your organization. Avoid purely social ones (like the office party) or those that lack the necessary sponsorship to get off the ground. Start forming your diplomatic “no” skills early. Just because you may be more junior in seniority does not mean you need to take on everything that comes your way.Once you’re consistently achieving results, your promotability comes down to relationships. If it’s clear to management that you attract followership among your colleagues and achieve results through others, the next time a promotion opens up, they’re likely to bet on you.<UL><LI><div dir="ltr">
					
						Amii Barnard-Bahn, a former Fortune Global 50 executive, is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barnardbahn.com/" dir="ltr">consultant</a>&nbsp;and speaker who specializes in accelerating the success of&nbsp;leaders and their teams. Her clients include Gap, Adobe, Chegg, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Bank of the West. Download her free&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/PromoteHBR" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">Promotability Index</a>® career assessment.&nbsp;
					
		</div></LI></UL>

Five strategies for employees who’ve been told they’re “just not ready.”

Career

Job and life advice for young professionals. See more from Ascend <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/insight-center/ascend">here </a>.

Have you ever been told, despite hitting or even succeeding at your performance goals, that you “just aren’t ready” for a promotion?

I remember hearing those same words early in my career. It’s vague, frustrating feedback — and it isn’t actionable.

Most of us hit a point in our careers where the emphasis we’ve placed on <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/10/10/why-great-sales-people-make-terrible-sales-managers/?sh=547e97d624cf">accomplishing goals </a>doesn’t return the same rewards. We’ve crossed an invisible line, and we usually don’t know it until there are repercussions.

After more than 20 years as a Fortune Global 50 executive and coach to the C-Suite, I can tell you that this type of feedback often means that you’ve spent too much time building your skills — and not enough time building relationships.

What can you do to set yourself up for success? Here are five actions you can take right now and throughout your career to strengthen your relationships and put you on the path to promotion.

1)   Know what makes you great at your job — and share your gift with others.

To be considered for promotion, senior management needs to see you’re able to work well with others. After all, companies don’t succeed through individual effort; they achieve results through collective leadership.

Chances are there’s something special about the way you go about your work. Perhaps you think more strategically than others on your team, seeing trends and connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of information. Or maybe you’re a clear communicator, saying what needs to be said in a way that ensures everyone will hear it and take action.

To identify what sets you apart, ask yourself: What you are known for? What types of problems do people frequently come to you to help solve? Take that skill and find a friendly way to share your gift with others to build relationships and add value to the team. For example, if you’re good at presentations, offer to provide feedback on a colleague’s dry run before their next big meeting. Or host a brown bag roundtable on best tips for presenting to executive management, where your team members can share their top recommendations.

If you can start demonstrating this capability now, management will more easily think of you in a role with additional responsibility.

2) Understand how others see you — and shift your perspective from “me” to “we.”

As you grow in your career, find opportunities to <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2017/10/get-the-actionable-feedback-you-need-to-get-promoted">get feedback </a>on how you show up to others. This will help you become aware of behaviors that may be decreasing your effectiveness and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90572513/why-managing-impressions-is-critical-and-doesnt-make-you-inauthentic">avoid blind spots </a>in self-awareness that can slow your career progress.

Let’s review a previous client of mine, Aaron, who was told by his boss that he “just wasn’t ready” for promotion despite consistently exceeding his goals.

When I interviewed his colleagues, I discovered that Aaron was being blocked for a promotion two levels up in his organization by an executive who believed Aaron “wasn’t a team player” due to the way he’d led a turnaround. Aaron had been handed the leadership of a highly tenured and underperforming team with a mandate to “fix it,” and he went to work like a steamroller, reengineering operations and successfully hitting goals. But his success came at the expense of several long-time employees leaving and slamming Aaron’s reputation on their way out. The executive with the power to promote Aaron now viewed him as a “lone wolf” achiever.

After Aaron and I worked together on how he achieves goals, he is now involving his team on strategy planning, listening more, and talking less — and the senior executive is noticing his shift from “me” to “we.

3) Mentor others to develop your leadership skills.

As the great <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2020/03/jack-welchs-approach-to-leadership">Jack Welch </a>said: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

You may not be managing a team yet, but your earliest opportunities to lead others could come from volunteering. We learn best when we are teaching others.

One easy way to do this: Reach out to a person outside your business unit that would welcome your help and commit to spending an hour with them once a month for a year to work on an issue they raise. A few years ago, I mentored a young woman who was brilliant — and painfully shy. From a different business unit, she approached me as a safe confidant. She recognized that her lack of assertiveness was impacting her ability to influence and be heard. Over a monthly coffee, we worked out an action plan with small behavior changes to increase her confidence and executive presence that really added up over time. She was ultimately promoted, and I enjoy following her continued success.

A bonus — when you help others, you’ll feel great, and they will thank you for it. I love receiving notes from former team members and colleagues about what they’re doing now and how our work together helped them. It’s one of the reasons I became an executive coach.

4) Learn how to work productively with personalities you find difficult.

Each of us has preferences in working and communication styles, and usually there are some people that we have greater difficulty working with than others. The earlier you can identify the specific personality characteristics that are <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2011/10/the-secret-to-dealing-with-dif">challenging for you </a>, the more time you have to develop strategies for working effectively with them.

This is important because until you do, history will repeat itself. The triggering traits will resurface in other colleagues. When you take accountability for getting along with coworkers of all types, you eliminate friction and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/31/getting-ahead-isnt-a-nasty-business-us-study-reveals?CMP=share_btn_tw">make it easy </a>for management to promote you.

Remember, too, that relationships change over time. People mature, get promoted, and go on to work for other companies. One day you may find yourself reporting to your frenemy. Or they may leave to go work for your dream company, where you’d love an introduction. Take the long view and invest in your relationships — even those that don’t come easily.

5) Set healthy  boundaries in your work relationships.

It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that extra hours will get you that promotion. However, to advance and take on more responsibility, it’s really not about saying yes to everything. Rather, know <a dir="ltr" href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/how-to-say-no-to-things-you-want-to-do">which things to say no to </a>. Be judicious and diplomatic, and learn to delegate.

Some things you should say yes to: Volunteering for cross-functional task forces and other opportunities to broaden your network, learn new skills outside your comfort zone, and earn the support of other executives outside your direct reporting line.

But be intentional; aim for projects that are revenue-generating or strategic, such as those that will increase the efficiency and output of your organization. Avoid purely social ones (like the office party) or those that lack the necessary sponsorship to get off the ground. Start forming your diplomatic “no” skills early. Just because you may be more junior in seniority does not mean you need to take on everything that comes your way.

Once you’re consistently achieving results, your promotability comes down to relationships. If it’s clear to management that you attract followership among your colleagues and achieve results through others, the next time a promotion opens up, they’re likely to bet on you.

<ul><li><div dir="ltr">Amii Barnard-Bahn, a former Fortune Global 50 executive, is a  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.barnardbahn.com/">consultant </a> and speaker who specializes in accelerating the success of  leaders and their teams. Her clients include Gap, Adobe, Chegg, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Bank of the West. Download her free  <a dir="ltr" href="http://bit.ly/PromoteHBR" rel="noopener">Promotability Index </a>® career assessment.  </div> </li> </ul>

Promotions Aren’t Just About Your Skills – They’re About Your Relationships

You "just aren't ready" for a promotion

Share your gift with others

Understand how others see you

Mentor others

Learn how to work with difficult personalities

Set healthy boundaries

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The double standard of the return-to-office

How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It

Negotiating Your Next Job

Promotions Aren’t Just About Your Skills – They’re About Your Relationships

You "just aren't ready" for a promotion

Share your gift with others

Understand how others see you

Mentor others

Learn how to work with difficult personalities

Set healthy boundaries

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The double standard of the return-to-office

How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It

Negotiating Your Next Job

It's time to
Read like a Pro.