Want a promotion? Be in the room where it happens

No one else was in the room where it happened .....

No one really knows how the game is played,

The art of the trade,

How the sausage gets made

We just assume that it happens

Have you seen Hamilton? These lyrics are from one of the most famous songs from the musical "The Room Where it Happened" and they've been ringing in my ears this week.

I was at a lunch this week where the topic was how to increase the representation of senior women in law: specifically how to get more women through to partnership. Which is a bit ironic really since I'm sure the women don't feel they need help and that it's on their shoulders to prove themselves.

Their assumption is that if they do the work expected, keep themselves busy, keep clients happy, then surely their time will come. Well, the system doesn't work that way. How many times have I heard tell of a pipeline full of female talent ready to move on to partnership when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a man pops up out of nowhere and heads to the top of the list, sponsored, of course by another (often male) partner.

You can wait for the system to change or you can figure out how to play it. My vote is with the latter. Here are some thoughts about how to make sure your career progresses in the way you deserve.

The Room Where it Happens

At some point, over the next year or so, the likelihood is that leaders in your firm will meet.?Probably together, in a room.?The topic will be promotions, bonuses, salaries and the like.?You need to be in that room.?

Obviously, unless you’re one of the aforementioned leaders, that isn’t going to happen in a literal sense.?Instead, you need to make sure there is a person or people in that room who will make your case.?The question is how to do just that.

I’ve been in those rooms.?I’ve seen people benefit from having fantastic sponsors, prepared to go out on a limb.?I’ve heard them explain why someone should be promoted, receive a bonus or is being unduly overlooked for a plum assignment. I’ve also suffered first hand, finding out I wasn’t getting a long expected promotion simply because I didn’t have my own representative on earth in any room that mattered.?

Here’s what I’ve learnt.

Be Crystal Clear on How you will Add Value

Or, put bluntly, follow the money.?What are you actually paid to do??What is it about your role, objectives or remit that makes your firm successful?? What will be your "pitch" for partnership?

I sat alongside a colleague once. Literally. He was very annoying.

?Ostensibly, we had similar roles, we were both senior managers in a consulting team. I thought our job was to help our clients make sure their change projects had lasting impact.?He thought his job was to grow the size of our change practice. While I spent time with clients trying to overcome those last little barriers, he’d moved on to the next huge sales pitch. Which, of course, he won, thus delivering lots of work for large teams of consultants.

Guess who was promoted to partner first?

In most law firms, it's not enough to be delivering the billable hours that someone else brings in. You have to have a hand in bringing in the work. Or you need to have indispensable, unique expertise, or ... this chap explains it better than I ever could.

Be Ruthless About How to Spend Your Time

Once you know where you add value, what your pitch is, it becomes clear how you’re going to be measured.?And that tells you where to spend your time.?This means two things:?focus on the small number of tasks that will achieve the maximum results; and learn to say no.?

In his brilliant little work “the Brain Book”, Phil Dobson makes the distinction between people who are perpetually busy (active but achieve very little), those who are productive (achieve a lot but not the things that really matter) and effective (spend the right amount of energy on the right things).?The point is to focus on the few vital tasks that will achieve the most results.?The Pareto principle applies:?20% of your effort, if applied correctly, will achieve 80% of your results.?

It also means saying no, politely, to many of those requests on your time that do nothing to help progress your own goals but are all about supporting others.?This is an anathema to many women as we seem pre-programmed to say yes to everything.?

Be Strategic about your Hybrid Working Plan

Think about when and where you can best meet competing objectives.?Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work” is not a fan of open plan offices when it comes to focusing on a creatively or cognitively demanding task.?His point (I summaries 263 pages and around 60,000 words here) is that we do our best work when we concentrate and are free from distractions.?

Assuming you have a distraction free space, home might be just the place for that sort of work.?

In contrast, Lynda Gratton, author of The 100 Year Life asserts that one of the most valuable assets we have is the quality and diversity of our networks.?I agree with this too.?When you’re planning to spend time in the office, do make sure that it will afford you the chance to connect with people who matter - not just the decision makers but people who are part of your network and with whom you can generate and swap ideas.?

Be strategic about this.?And don’t limit yourself to your own office, think about your clients too.

Do You Own PR

Remember that colleague I mentioned earlier.?And yes, it was a “he”.?Not only did he focus on generating new business and sales, he made sure the right people knew what he was doing.? I assumed people would just know I was doing a fabulous job.

One thing I’ve learnt is that no one cares about your career as much as you do.?Everyone has their own sh*t to deal with and their own concerns about what the future holds.?Don’t expect people to notice how wonderful you are, especially if they never see you.?

Develop your own PR strategy. What's your message and who needs to hear it, internally and externally. Who do you need in your corner, who, vitally, will be your SPONSOR - the person in the room where it happens, remember?

What networks are you going to be involved in, who are you going to get to know, now is not the time to be a wallflower.

This is a bigger topic and I'll be writing something specific on this.

Engage the Home Team

Finally, if you are part of a bigger team at home, set some ground rules & enlist support.?Don’t become the “default parent.”?If this pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that pretty much anyone can work from home and therefore pretty much anyone can do their fair share of domestic chores and caring responsibilities.?

The more senior you get, the more likely it is that you'll be able to control your own diary. Everyone will win in the long term. ?

A final reminder, if you need one (ignore the Joe Biden bit at the front). Sing along everyone....

PS. That annoying colleague? Reader, I married him.