How To Move Up The Corporate Ladder – The No Scheming Way Up

Many expect to read short cuts when they search for tips on how to move up the corporate ladder. The fact is clear, there are no short cuts no matter how much one wants to believe in it. It is all too easy to think that the way up the corporate ladder is through connections and networking.

There is no denying there are the lucky few who know how to move up the corporate ladder via short cuts. Maybe they know someone important. But fact remains to sustain being in that position, it takes skills and knowledge. Not to mention the respect and trust one would have to earn in order to command the authority to lead and manage.

How to move up the corporate ladder? There are a few tried and tested tips – if you like to call them – that may even sound cliché but they have worked for ages.

1. Be a Leader

This may sound counter-intuitive considering that you are a newbie at work. How does one become a leader when one is at the bottom of the hierarchy? Be a leader means to take a leadership stance. Which means to inspire and motivate. You know how to move up the corporate ladder if you know how to develop cooperation amongst colleagues. Learn to keep morale high regardless of good or bad times in the office.

The thing to remember here is not to issue instruction. You are not the boss yet. Even when you are the boss, you need not issue instruction, even though a boss’s request is often times seen as instruction. You need to take charge. Taking charge here means to take responsibility for what your role and responsibilities are. Do not sit by the sidelines waiting for instructions. Take initiatives and get people to give their best.

2. Generate Ideas

Ideas are currency in the corporate world. Now, it doesn’t mean you go hand your boss ideas after ideas. That will drive him/her nuts! Come up with ideas to improve the system in the office whether it is productivity in your department or even as simple as how to keep staff motivation high.

Of course, if it has got to do with directly increasing the bottom line, all the better. Ideas can come from anyone. Even though you are a junior in the office, it doesn’t mean you cannot come up with a good idea. Maybe your ideas can be crafted and molded better in the hands of someone with more experience. In that case, do not be afraid to share credit. Learning how to share credit is something you need to learn if you want to know how to move up the corporate ladder.

3. Be Willing to Work Hard

You knew this was coming didn’t you? Be willing to work hard is probably the toughest to swallow for many newbies at work. If you want to know how to move up the corporate ladder, you need to ask yourself how badly do you want it? Do you want it bad enough that you are willing to work hard for it? Work really hard for it? To climb the corporate ladder takes lots of personal sacrifices. Is it something you are willing to do?

There are no special formulas for how to move up the corporate ladder. Wherever you start, you need to work hard. We hear of people getting that promotion based on connection all the time. Sure it happens. But rest assured any managers worth working for would rather give the promotion to someone with a winning attitude rather than connections. Besides, chances are people who know how to move up the corporate ladder that way cannot sustain their position. And they hold it with a ghost in their heart knowing they did not earn it.

4. Do Not Scheme

Which brings me to my next advice on how to move up the corporate ladder. Do not scheme. Please, whatever you do and however tempting – do not scheme. The amount of time you take to plot your moves and plan your strategy is better used for generating ideas, working hard and improving yourself. Doing all these positive things has more long-term benefits than you know.

Now that is not to say you should not have a career plan. Yes, plan your career path. What you need to learn, skills to improve, maybe even places to be transferred to should be carried out in order to reach your goals. What I am referring to here is scheming when to do what, who to see, what important meeting to impress whom and plotting it all the way. When you plan to outsmart, impress and compare, you will run out of stamina. Such behavior is not sustainable without it taking a toll on real performance. When you scheme people will notice, higher ups will notice too. They will find it hard to trust someone like that at the top. Think about it. Is it worth it playing games?

When you do the right thing and do things right, the answer of how to move up the corporate ladder will come naturally. Work hard and deliver the results beyond the expected and you will soon be moving upwards.

Long Yun Siang or Long, as he is popularly known runs career-success-for-newbies.com