What is the Fastest Way to Level Up my Career?

What if you could make actual progress toward your next promotion. I mean like this week. If you could start making marked progress this week to level up your career, would you do it? Picture it, you’re doing work that you love. Something that is making a positive impact on the people you work with and the world around you. It is challenging work but in the best possible way. You get to use your unique gifts and talents. Best of all, the people you work with respect and applaud what you bring to the table. Would you start making progress toward that this week, even today if you could?

There is no skinny pill to put you there. You’ll notice I didn’t say you could get into that job today. It takes work and dedication, but the good news is there is a focus that will get you there fastest. Even without a designation, years of experience in the specific role, or a new degree, you can be making great strides toward the role you want to be in right now. (Would you rather watch and listen to this blog? Check out YouTube!)

Where do you focus to level up your career?

To level up your career you have to learn to lead and influence people. Leadership is the single most transferable skill. Regardless of if you want to take on a role with supervisory or management duties, or you treat your career more like a jungle gym, considering lateral and adjacent moves. Learning to lead and influence people is the fastest way to level up because it focuses you on building a skill that you apply to your technical work.

I know, that sounds counter intuitive right? It isn’t necessarily the technical job skills that will level up your career. That is because it isn’t the person with the best ideas, or even results that gets promoted. It’s the one who can communicate them in a way to lead people to adopt them. What that means for you is when you learn to use your communication to influence actions and decisions, you’ll get more visibility on all that great work you’re doing and leading right now. and the real value is getting in the right ‘rooms’ with the right person who is looking for the exact skills set and can give you the next promotion.

Don’t believe me? Let me tell you about Jesse

Jesse was incredibly detail oriented and could dissect and analyze data better than anyone I’d seen. He would be head down focused on his work for days at a time and then immerge with unbelievable insights in beautifully color-coded workbooks. The problem was his company was starting to question if his role was even necessary.

They were absolutely taking for granted the work he was doing. He thought that his dedicated head down work would one day get him noticed, but instead it had people completely missing the value he was bringing to the organization! Originally, he thought he would get a new software for his workbooks. Maybe he was leaving it all too simple and they wanted it more sophisticated. He was looking for help asking for the budget when he came to me. However, more sophistication is almost never the answer. Instead, he learned to lead through his communication in his role and coached his boss up on everything he brought to the table.

Jesse’s influence enabled his boss to realize what his skills could be doing for the organization. While his skills may not be needed in that role, he had a wealth of talent that would be better used in a higher profile position. He continued his coaching and got the promotion he deserved sharing his skills with the company rather than the department. Within a few months he had the CFO of the company saying, ‘it’s such a comfort to know you’re on this and we don’t have to worry about it anymore.’ And having that promotion, and then knocking it out of the park like that is what you want too isn’t it?

‘But I don’t have time to do more’

Now I know, you are already working so hard. You might be thinking that you don’t have time to add a long to-do list to everything else that’s on your plate. I get it, there are only so many hours in the day and we have a whole life outside of the office. Have you considered that there could be a swap? Are there things you’re doing now that you’re hoping will level up your career that just haven’t been working?

Jesse replaced learning and transferring all of his workbooks to a new software with learning to communicate and influence his boss and those above her. We didn’t add, if anything we reduced. We focused his energy on the right work that would get him to the next level. What that really means for you is that you get to become the hero that prioritized the right work in the right way to make the most significant impact, for yourself and the company.

Why do leaders consistently level up the quickest?

Jesse’s story might sound isolated. It isn’t, at this point he is just one of those people in his office. You’ve probably seen those people in your organization too. The people who never seem stressed. They always have a pulse on what’s going on, and only seem to spend time on the work that needs to get done without spinning on projects that go nowhere. Those are the leaders. Regardless of their job titles, leaders confidently have a direct impact on performance. They are not only leading themselves to get results but are influencing others to follow suit. They use the technical skills they have to support the most impactful projects.

Leaders are the ones out in front visible, sharing wins on those projects and discussing solutions where they fail. That transparency builds stronger relationships and more trust in the long run from all levels of the organization. The adage of how it’s not what you know but who you know comes into play. Who you know and who you’ve developed trust with creates more opportunities for you as a leader to grow and take on bigger challenges. The person who can influence and take lead doesn’t just have the skill, they are building relationships, solving problems, demonstrating creativity, and so much more.