I’m a quiet achiever and sick of being passed over for promotions
Unfortunately, it sounds like your colleagues have done a better job at being their own cheerleaders, writes Dr Kirstin Ferguson.
Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions about workplace, career and leadership in her advice column Got a Minute? This week: a quiet achiever looking for praise, an underutilised prayer space and a young worker being ghosted.
During a recent period of organisational change, I took on significant leadership responsibilities, ensuring strong team performance and staff support. However, when leadership roles were officially filled, this wasn’t recognised, and I was not considered for progression. I believe this may have been influenced by limited visibility of my work and how it was represented by others. What strategies can I use to ensure my contributions and leadership impact are clearly recognised in future, so I am fairly considered for a promotion?
It sounds like the core problem has been hoping your results would speak for themselves. Unfortunately, your colleagues have done a better job at being their own spokesperson and so this is something you might like to consider doing – in your own way – from here on.
Keep note of all your contributions as you achieve them. Big or small, just keep a list of them. Whenever you lead something, fix something, do a job that wasn’t yours, write it down. Be sure to also note the benefits and positive outcomes of what you do, too – not just the actual task. This will then become your long list of things you might otherwise forget next time you are asked to put yourself forward for a promotion. It will even help in your annual reviews and performance conversations.
As your own personal cheerleader, also make sure you are being proactive in having those career discussions with your manager. Let them know in one-on-one meetings what you have been working on. Tell them your aspirations for the future. Make it clear you are committed to the company and want to do what you can to succeed. This isn’t about self-promotion or being conceited, it is simply about making sure you are accurately assessed for all you contribute.
My workplace has a reflection room, or prayer space, which is underutilised. Management have started to put a security pass requirement on the front of the room to measure exactly how many people are using it, and at this stage it’s one person about four times a week. It has been brought up to potentially change it to a cafe, which would be used every day by most staff members who usually have to walk 10 minutes to get a coffee and lunch. How can we collectively get behind the idea of a cafe and remove the prayer space, without seeming xenophobic? We appreciate our employer being very fair a