3 Options to Consider When You've Been Passed Over for a Promotion
We’re living in an age where regular folks are going into space. You can buy “magic Internet money.” Dogs have their own birthday cakes.
And STILL, to this day, smart, competent women who are doing double time at work (and at home) are getting passed over for the promotion and pay raise they deserve.
It’s not right, and it’s infuriating.
If your sexist and racist employer doesn’t acknowledge your contributions or your potential, CHANNEL your well-founded anger to TAKE ACTION.
Below are three options that you can take.
In this post, I’m guiding you to my podcast Negotiate Your Career Growth, where you can help yourself to step-by-step strategic insights, real client case studies, and word-by-word scripts to help you get started with any or all of the three options that are available to you right now.
THREE STEPS are:
1. Vote for yourself. Get on your own side.
2. Get vocal. Have conversations. ADVOCATE.
3. And if that still falls on deaf ears, vote with your feet.
So first things first, VOTE FOR YOURSELF.
In episode 5: From Tears to Terrific: How I Healed My Impostor Syndrome, I share my personal experience with impostor syndrome, starting from when I was told that I didn’t belong in the States as a young immigrant kid in New Jersey. Then I walk you through 5 steps high-achieving women can take to overcome impostor syndrome.
In episode 8: How to Get Better Paid, I debunk three common and pervasive MYTHS that keep smart women overworked, dissatisfied, and under-communicating their wants and wins. They are Comfort Fallacy, Tiara Syndrome, and Perfectionist Fantasy.
(MORE bonus: check the show notes for a replay link to the full How to Get Better Paid webinar).
Okay, now let’s take a pause. If you’re like me and you get overwhelmed easily by large amounts of information and if you’re already feeling confused about where to start, please know there’s absolutely no way to do this wrong.
Really. Just listen to your gut and pick ONE podcast episode to start with.
Or if the feelings of anxiety and overwhelm simply get in the way of taking any action, stop and watch the replay of Leadership Lab from minute 24:40 to minute 26:10. I teach a DEAD SIMPLE grounding exercise that you can do in literally 90 seconds, without leaving your seat or doing a dozen sun salutations.
Let’s move on to step two: ADVOCATE for yourself.
Episode 1: Self-Advocacy is an Act of Service Here’s the paradox: When you advocate for yourself, in the smart and strategic way that I teach, you serve yourself for sure, but you also SERVE the greater good of your organization (assuming they listen, of course). When done well, you will have your bosses THANKING you for how you speak up for your growth.
In episode 16, I team up with another coach, so you have 6 word-by-word scripts and actionable tips to help you ask for the raise you deserve and get it.
You’ll learn what to say to your network so you equip yourself with real data points, how you can feel empowered rather than indebted at the negotiation table, and what to do when your boss lacks good communication skills and doesn’t give you constructive feedback on how you can advance.
In episode 18: Transitioning to Leadership and Navigating Office Politics, I’m interviewed by Harvard Law grad and Feminist Rockstar Kara Loewentheil, along with two of my peer coaches. I speak to my experience of being a woman of color in the workplace and provide strategic insights on exactly how you can ask for the promotion without pissing off your boss as you transition into leadership.
And if your advocacy falls on deaf ears, VOTE WITH YOUR FEET.
In episode 23: Redefining Leadership in the Shape of You, you’ll hear me coach a client who received a 360 review with completely polarizing feedback from different folks in her organization. (BIG HINT: Since that episode taping, that particular client secured a new job with higher pay elsewhere.)
In episode 12, The Confidence to Negotiate as the Only in the Room, my client Brandy Walton talks about how she went from giving 150% of herself, burning out, and lacking confidence in one job to having confidence in her worth, giving herself grace, and negotiating for a higher paying job elsewhere.
In episode 17: From Minimum Wage to CEO, I’m joined by my former client Grace Anniskett, who started her career making minimum wage, floundering among toxic people who didn’t believe in her, and ended up more than quadrupling her income, after rebuilding her self-confidence, choosing to VOTE FOR HERSELF, and becoming her own CEO.
I promise you, when you vote for yourself, when you intentionally grow the skill of self-confidence and strategic self-advocacy… well, you have NO IDEA what the potential for the upside can be.
It's beyond what you can imagine for now. I guarantee it.
With love and fire,
Jamie
