10 Maxims To Ensure Your Performance is Promotion Worthy

Do you want promotions in your Finance career?

Ever feel like those promotions are passing you by or being given to other people?

Well, read on, because I’ve got 10 maxims. If you remember and act on these, you will increase your promotion-readiness astronomically!

In my Finance career framework – which I call The Roadmap From Accountant to CFO – I have defined five ‘promotion triggers’ (as I call them). These are five capabilities/competencies which act as the trigger points for your readiness for the next level in your career once you reach a certain level in them.

What I’m outlining here are things that relate to the two foundational promotion triggers, and they apply whatever level you’re at. Learn these maxims early in your career and you’ll be flying!

So, here we go:

1. The Bare Minimum Never Impresses

If you’re trying to make a good impression, why would you cut corners and produce something that only just fulfils the requirements?

I know sometimes time is in short supply, but if you’re consistently turning things in last-minute, looking scruffy, something is wrong.

I’ve seen a lot in my time. I’ve seen appalling handwriting, bad spelling and unintelligible writing. I’ve seen printouts of spreadsheets with no formatting, too small to read, headings out of line, sometimes subtotals and totals that didn’t add up. And ironically, it’s not unusual to find this kind of thing delivered right on the deadline or ‘fashionably late’.

By contrast, I’ve also seen exceptional work – reports that are brief, to the point, easy to read and understand. I’ve seen nice formatting that assists in understanding. And quite often I’ve been shown a draft well before the deadline and been asked, “is this ok? Am I along the right lines?”

I can tell you, it’s noticeable and it makes a difference to the impression you make, and therefore your promotion chances.

2. Grab Opportunities To Do Scary Things

Sometimes Finance people moan and groan when they get invited to be involved in a project. They see it as an additional burden that they don’t have time for.

On the contrary, this is your chance to impress AND learn!

It may be scary, because you’ve never done it before. But, if they’ve asked you, they believe you have something to contribute. Do the best you can. You’ll make friends and you’ll be always seen as a helpful person.

3. Consult People Who Know More Than You

In your job and in your big scary projects, you will come across things you don’t know, but you need to know, in order to do a good job.

Ask someone. Don’t just say, oh well, I’ll just do the best I can.

And if you don’t know who to ask, ask someone who you should ask!!

It makes you stand out as committed to great performance when you don’t settle for second best, but go and track down all the help you can find.

4. Know Who Will Judge Your Work (and How)

You always need to know who will be using your output, because they’re the ones who will say whether it meets their needs or not. Their praise, or complaints, will be heard by those who have a hand in promotions.

Sometimes, your manager might just give you a piece of work to do, but not tell you why or who for. Be sure to find out.

5. Work Out How To Know You’ve Done a Good Job

If you know who is using your output and judging your work, then you can ask them ‘what good looks like’. What will they be really pleased with or really disappointed with?

And feel free to probe, in case there are possible trade-offs. For example, if you’re asked to do something fast and to a high standard, ask if there are elements that you can compromise on in order to meet their deadline. Or ask them if the deadline can be extended so that you can get it absolutely perfect.

Stephen M.R. Covey points out, in his book The Speed of Trust, that this kind of probing can build trust and credibility, because it shows you actually care and want to put thought into the standard of what you produce. It makes the person feel valued.

6. Plan and Schedule Your Time to Focus on What’s Important

You will always get more important stuff done if you plan time to do it, protect that time by scheduling it, and then make sure you do what you planned.

Like me with this newsletter – I have the time scheduled in my calendar, and I’m now using that time to get it done, because it’s an important priority for me.

Stephen R. Covey said, “don’t prioritise your schedule. Schedule your priorities.”

Oh, and clearly, to schedule time for the important things, you have to know what’s important!

7. Be Ruthless About Time-Wasting

Following on from scheduling your priorities, the implication is that you’ll be trying to ensure that you’re only spending time on important stuff. Unimportant stuff will just distract you, meaning you’ll get less done or have to compromise on the quality.

People who ‘get stuff done’ are impressive, and are commonly first in line for promotions.

Now, a bit of chit chat is useful in the office, to maintain friendly relationships and make communication easier. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Too much chinwagging, Facebook scrolling, TikTok glaring, daydreaming, will sap your productivity and give you a bad reputation.

8. Stay Balanced

Long hours don’t impress anyone if your output is rubbish. And long hours are unproductive in the long run if you’re always knackered!

You MUST balance your life. Human beings have four dimensions – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. You need to stay healthy in all four to be “fully engaged”.

To learn more about this, see Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw!

Also see Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarz’s excellent book, The Power of Full Engagement.

9. Ask For (And Listen To) Feedback... Even If It’s Critical

Asking for feedback on both one-off pieces of work and regular work makes a statement before you even act on it – it says, “I care about the work I do and I want to get better at it.”

Never argue with or challenge feedback. A person’s perception is their perception, and it’s important. They may well be missing part of the story, but that’s part of your assessment. It’s not their fault that they’re missing part of the story!

Listen to understand.

And if you have to respond, only ask questions to clarify, so that you really understand.

Don’t worry about criticism. Take the emotion out of whatever was said, and reduce it down to what was actually wrong. And then do something about it. Nobody is perfect. Don’t be afraid to get things wrong!

10. Find Better Ways To Do Things

Finally, following on from that, give yourself feedback. Be self-critical. Always be thinking of how to do things better.

When I think back to my early career, I never asked permission to change or improve things. I don’t think I was even conscious of it. I just did it. Every month I would make some improvement (or change) to the management pack. Every year I ran the budget process differently, trying to make it better. I’d ask for feedback, but I also had my own ideas.

I think that if the things you do are never the same, month after month, but show signs of movement towards improvement, people always respect that and appreciate it.

And Finally

One final point, don’t doubt yourself! Aim high! And learn the lessons from the results, the good ones and the disappointing ones.

Follow these ten maxims and day by day, month by month, and you will grow and develop and your performance will improve, and pretty soon you’ll find yourself stepping up a level...

... and then you use the same principles to keep going!

The Finance Career Growth Masterclass and Mastermind Group - COMING SOON!

I am currently working on pulling together a new free online course: The Finance Career Growth Masterclass.

In it I’ll be taking you through the critical success factors for modern Finance careers, giving you principles for planning job moves and helping you to identify your development areas.

This will also include an exclusive online community – The Finance Career Growth Mastermind Group, with discussion forums, challenges and monthly live Q&A calls.

If that sounds like something you’ll be interested in – get on the list to be first through the doors when it’s launched in a few weeks:

CLICK HERE to find out more and add your name to the ‘wait list’.

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CFO Readiness Builder

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And if you think that’s something you’d like to do, I’d encourage you to use the button on the page that allows you to “Schedule a Discovery Call” so that I can help you with any questions and let you know about our current special deal.

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About the Author – Andy Burrows

I’m Andy Burrows, and I’m Founder and CEO of Supercharged Finance, a provider of online learning and coaching, aimed at helping Finance professionals get better at helping the businesses they work for.

I qualified as a chartered accountant in the UK, and have worked for more than 25 years as a senior Finance professional in a variety of businesses of different sizes and sectors.

I’m now a popular writer in Finance and Accounting. In 2019 Anders Liu-Lindberg described me as one of the "Top voices on LinkedIn for Finance, accounting and FP&A". And in 2024 I was given official LinkedIn Top Voice status (see the little blue badge on my profile!)

If you’d like to hear even more from me, go to my profile and click the follow button!