Climb the Corporate Ladder Without Burning Bridges

So you just started on a new team, or you’re looking for ways to stand out with a group you’ve work with for a while. You want to build yourself into a company for the long haul, but how? The answer will have you reconsider how you recognize your coworkers, build a team, and act on feedback.Outlined below are three key ways you can keep current and act decisively to take the reins and reel in recognition while building positive behavior and encouraging employee engagement. This is only a baseline for climbing the corporate ladder, however, in doing so, we’ll make sure you don’t fall too far behind, either.

Recognize co-workers

Recognition is an important and often undervalued motivator for employees. It helps to encourage position behavior and can promote long-term performance in temporary and permanent positions within your company.If you’ve recently been hired onto a new team or a new company, you have to understand what forms of recognition will be the best motivator for your fellow employees. This is important in building relationships that last. Even a ‘thank you’ or ‘nice job’ can go a long way. Be sure to emphasize recent accomplishments on long-standing projects. You can do this during a staff meeting or in an online forum for employees only. The most important aspect is to show your appreciation. Employees that build with organizations make recognition easy and highly visible to others in the organizations to promote similar behavior. When you recognize another person, it should be simple and impactful. Depending on how closely you work with an individual, you may be delivering small amounts of praise daily, and it may come from other members of senior leadership, supervisors, or clients as well.You may have to shift your approach based on which generation you’re acknowledging. Millennial employees may appreciate on-demand feedback and instant recognition. Baby boomers and Gen-X employees may appreciate a more discrete form of recognition. You may want to seek out parties in all forms of leadership to gain expertise in the particular areas in which you have interest. Being forthright and acknowledging them may promote a positive behavior, including your attitude, which will increases levels of employee engagement and can secure a place while the organization grows around you, and with you.

Build a care-focused team

The top leaders, managers, and employees of today are customer- and care-focused. When you understand and anticipate the needs of both internal and external customers, you promote the organic trust that keeps momentum within large or growing organizations. Meeting and exceeding needs of others in a timely, efficient, and economic manner will keep your name in conversations when senior leadership is pondering who to promote.To ensure you’re meeting and exceeding expectations, meet with your manager and direct reports and assess whether you have the proper resources to do so. You can evaluate your departments' response time with input, and review how to prioritize time and resources. While this may seem tedious, periodic meetings can be more supportive to discuss concerns with internal and external stakeholders. Make sure you’re getting to hear from interns to executives. This is important for when you go to share the results from your team in order to develop action plans to improve and build upon existing relationships. You shouldn’t rely on a manager to keep track of your progress or goals attained. Doing so on your own will show your willingness to engage and go the extra mile when it’s time to meet with your direct reports or senior leadership, and if you aren’t given recognition, at least you’ll have data to bring with you while you climb the corporate ladder elsewhere.

Act on feedback

After you have learned to recognize your fellow coworkers and found out how to provide feedback, make sure you involve others in understanding the feedback and determining an action plan moving forward. Nothing destroys credibility like providing information that wastes time and isn’t employed or filed away for future use. Lack of action is never good.If you’re a manager or your new job has you working on a team, it’s important to share any key insights you can derive from your work. This may help others understand your job and how to help you succeed, and they often will once they know how. If you don’t interact with others on a regular basis, be sure to ask for input and suggestions when the option is available. This will allow you to discuss any barriers to improvement which may get lost in translation if you were only to send a note or forward an email. Be specific with who you work with and create plans together, and when possible, take the lead. Be involved in every step of the process and make sure that you’re the one communicating progress and success to necessary teams.

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