How to get a promotion and a payrise

If we all knew the answer to this question then life would be great.

From my experiences coaching and training thousands of finance professionals, unfortunately most have no idea how to do it. Nor do they understand the dynamics at play to increase your chances of getting one.

So let’s break this down to understand the hoops you have to jump through to get a promotion or pay rise.

Firstly – you get promoted to your level of incompetence.

Repeat that and absorb it – you get promoted to your level of incompetence.

This is actually a thing. It’s called the Peter Principle.

What it means is over the space of your career you will continue to get promoted until you reach a level where you are no longer competent. You are incompetent. At that point you fail, promotions dry up, pay rises cease and if you are unaware of it you probably look for another job thinking things are unfair.

Hoping to get a promotion into that new job and a pay rise.

But reality dictates you will likely move sideways instead, into the same role in another company.

Why because you get promoted to your level of incompetence. Your own organisation won’t promote you as they think you are incompetent.

And another organisation or recruiter is not going to put you into a role you have never done before. That is a risk. Especially when there are other candidates out there who have done it before. That’s less risky and a safer decision.

It happens all of the time. It happened to me in my career when I was looking to step up from manager to director level and had to look externally as my boss wasn’t going anywhere.

Secondly most finance professionals have no idea how to position themselves for a payrise/promotion.

When I say position yourself you need a run up at it. It is a give to get concept. You have to do the work first to get the payrise. Prove your value.

Unless it is a promotion or you are way below market rate, it rarely works to argue for a payrise before you have taken on increased responsibility.

If you start providing more value than your current pay grade requires, it’s a reasonable argument to your boss. I am doing more and would expect to be rewarded for it. Especially if you take on some of the responsibilities of your boss’s role.

The power of reciprocation will bleed through them where they will go into bat for you – they will be feeling they can not operate without you and will likely support the argument for a payrise internally.

And thirdly when I ask those who I train and coach to lay out their argument to me I get some form of data analysis of market rates, or a threat to leave if they don’t get it.

This does nothing but annoy your boss. Market data is so fluffy as no two finance jobs are the same. Companies are different, industries are different, it’s just not comparable.

And if it is I can guarantee you HR has some data to dispute yours – and as they are HR they will win every time.

Threats to your boss that you will look elsewhere also don’t often work. A switched on boss will simply reply “so why are you still here if you can get paid more elsewhere” – and stop you in your tracks while you ponder the answer.

So how do you solve all of this?

Back to the original point – you get promoted to your level of incompetence.

And you have to prove to others that you have yet to reach that level.

Take on more responsibility when the chance arises.

Put your hand up for special projects.

Be proactive around problems in the business others have and help to solve them.

This will not only prove your capability but it will expose you to other people and functions in your organisation.

The higher you go the more you work with other functions outside of your functional competence ie outside of finance.

And in senior roles those people sometimes have a say in your appointment.

Show others you have yet to reach your potential and they will be more inclined to promote you into it or reward you for your achievements.

Luck comes at the intersection of hard work and opportunity. It’s not luck to be promoted or get a payrise. It’s hard work and opportunity. Control the hard work component so that when the opportunity comes you can take advantage of it.