12 Reasons Why YOU Need a Promotion

I'm about to publish my book: Highly Promotable and I had a problem. Multiple early readers told me this part made the introduction too long, and that it got in the way of the core story.

It seemed like a shame to just delete it, so I'm sharing it with all of you here.

I know there are many people who think promotions are out of fashion, and that we need to focus more on lateral movement. Well, they aren't my target audience. My target audience are people who need a promotion, for one or more of the reasons I share below.

So, please enjoy.

A promotion…

#1: Elevates Your Job Into a Calling

Since we spend roughly half of our waking lives working, we might as well enjoy it! Amy Wrzesniewski, a professor at the University of Michigan has found that virtually any kind of work can either be seen in one of three ways: A job, a career, or a calling. People who view their work as a calling to reach their highest potential serving an intentional purpose are not only more productive, but they also enjoy their work much more, because it generates a major source of positive energy in their lives. Working toward a promotion will help you focus more on your own meaningful, personal impact (your calling at work), so your work becomes more enjoyable.?

#2: Increases Your Pay More Than a Raise?

You’ll make far more money strategically earning a promotion than just waiting around for the next raise.?

This is because a raise means you’re a little better at fulfilling the expectations of your current role, or simply that the market value of the role increased slightly. That’s basic.?

In contrast, a promotion means you are now capable of doing work that is more important and more valuable.?

It means your organization sees your contribution in a profoundly different way.?

Raises are invisible because they don’t usually go on a resume and thus, they don’t help you find better work later. In the worst-case scenario, a raise could mean you are working yourself into a corner by becoming overpaid. But, when you earn a promotion, you are publicly demonstrating that your work is more valuable.

#3: Increases Your Impact?

As you work toward a promotion, you’ll learn to do a higher level of work. Each moment of your work at this new level is more valuable to your organization, your industry, and the people it serves. The effects of your decisions are amplified. The ratio of your effort to productivity is larger. With less effort – sometimes much less effort – you can do more good.

#4: Increases Your Job Satisfaction

Many people are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy is not an exact science, but can help us understand the difference between basic, life sustaining needs near the bottom, and more sophisticated, growth oriented needs near the top.?

Working toward a promotion can contribute to the satisfaction of every level of your needs.

Perhaps most obvious is self-actualization. Receiving a well-earned promotion can be immensely satisfying. Doesn’t it feel amazing to finally receive something you’ve been anticipating and working towards? It makes work more engaging and enjoyable.?

Because there are many incomplete versions of Maslow’s hierarchy floating around the internet, many people don’t know about the level at the very top: transcendence. Transcendence occurs when you submit yourself to something greater than yourself.

Turning your job into a calling can help you transcend as you think of your work as a deeper contribution to something much bigger than you. Think of the growing sense of fulfillment to massively increase your contribution to your company, its customers, your boss, your team, your community, and your industry.?

Whether we like it or not, most people who I have polled believe a promotion increases your social status. When you earn a higher-level position, you garner more respect and recognition from the people around you. Even your family and friends will enjoy more respect being associated with someone who is efficiently climbing the ladder.?

A promotion also helps fulfill basic needs such as your food quality, ease of access to healthcare, and the relative degree of safety you and your family enjoy due to the neighborhood and city you’ll be able to choose.

#5: Improves Your Professional Brand

As I mentioned, a promotion will permanently enhance your resume, but will also permanently lift your overall professional brand. Your professional brand is how your peers, leaders, hiring managers, and others perceive your value. Are you a young, high energy, emerging professional? Are you an experienced, serious, senior professional? Are you a seasoned manager? There are many elements to personal brand, and each promotion can lift it, if you prepare well.?

But your brand isn’t just about popularity. It’s about the measure of value you deliver. Improving your brand shows that you’re not just focused on yourself. You are the type of person who is serious about contributing to the well-being of others. Your professional brand grows with each promotion you receive.

#6: Helps You Become More Resistant to Recessions?

As you climb the ladder and increase your value to the organization, you become closer to the core of the organization and further from the vulnerable edges. As you work your way up into an organization, you have more institutional knowledge, a deeper perspective, and more internal insight than people who were hired recently from the outside.

When you are promoted, the company is essentially saying: This person is extra special to us; we don’t just want to keep them around, we want to elevate them and invest more in them.

This doesn’t guarantee against being lay off, but even if you are, you’ll have more bargaining power for your next job than you would otherwise, because you will have more experience doing more valuable work.

#7: Gives You More Autonomy and Influence

Do you ever feel like you are stuck at work? A promotion helps you feel like you’re in charge of your career. After all, you are! As you become more Highly Promotable, you will gradually experience substantially more influence. You receive more trust to do your work in your own way. You get to make more decisions. Once you adjust to your new responsibilities, you will have so much more freedom that you can use to excel in the best way you know how. It is wonderful!

#8: Offers Greater Financial Security

Money might be more important than you think. Some people have mixed feelings about making more money, thinking that attempting to increase one’s personal earnings is a greedy or a less humble approach to life.?

However, I want you to internalize that more money can be very good for your financial security. Increasing your pay is good for you and for those you support, not so you can buy more stuff you don’t need, but so you can invest in your personal relationships, your home, health, education, retirement, and maybe even your dreams.?

As you consider what financial security can do for you, also consider what it could allow you to do for others. You will be able to give to your favorite causes, support loved ones in need, and have the financial power to solve problems for others that they can’t solve for themselves.?

Money is a form of power that can be used for more good than you may currently be able to comprehend. A promotion will give you more of this power.

#9: Gives Protection Against Inflation

According to Investopedia, most employers give their employees an average increase of 3% per year. Even if you don’t feel like you need more money, without a substantial increase each year, inflation will actually cause you to earn less money over time.?

For example, in 2021 and 2022, the US experienced roughly 7% inflation per year. Most people I’ve talked to did not receive a 7% raise in those years, and until I brought it up, they didn’t realize they are actually making less now than they were last year, even though they are working the same number of hours for the same company. Based on these numbers, the average American would have seen a 4% decrease in the value of the paycheck they received from their employer, year over year. This means the average person is actually becoming poorer with each year that passes.

You need a promotion to beat inflation.

#10: Offers Protection Against Rising Cost of Living?

Apart from inflation, there is a general rise in the standard of living in developed countries, which increases the cost of living. This is easily observed in the proportion of income that people spend on healthcare, education, and housing. New homes and cars seem larger and fancier every year. Without a promotion, there is a substantial discrepancy between what you have to pay for, and the funds you have available to pay for it. And it’s happening every year. You will need a legitimate promotion just to keep up with the rising standard (and cost) of living.

#11: Enables Larger Raises and Bonuses

You’ll be happy to know that after a promotion, the dollar amount of each raise and bonus will probably increase. For example, if you’re making $100,000 per year and you get a 3% raise, that’s $3,000. Meanwhile, if you are promoted several times and are then making $200,000 per year and you get a 3% raise, that’s twice as much – $6,000. Raises compound their actual financial impact over time, like an interest amount that snowballs in your favor.?

Further, opportunities for bonuses and stock options are more prevalent as you climb the ladder. Money might not be your only motivator, but it’s definitely something to consider as you reflect on the reasons to pursue a promotion.

#12: Provides a Bigger Salary Range

Without getting too nerdy here – when you get a promotion, your ability to get more, and larger raises increases. I will cover this in detail later in the book.