4 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Promoted

“They just don’t realize your value” isn’t one of them.

As another year comes to a close and performance appraisals commence, many young professionals are walking out of their annual reviews feeling deflated and defeated.

Another year over — and another opportunity for a promotion missed.

Not being promoted when you think you deserve to be promoted is frustrating. But what makes that experience even more frustrating is working for a boss who can’t or won’t articulate why you’re not ready.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not making an excuse for those bosses and their incompetence. They should be able to tell you where you’re missing the mark and help formulate a roadmap to help you fix it. It’s actually their job to do so.

What I am here to do is fill in the blanks for them in the meantime because, after more than a decade as an HR leader, I have noticed a few common things that tend to derail employees from getting promoted. And if you take some time to quietly reflect on these and get real with yourself, you might be able to pinpoint the issue even without your boss’s help.

Here are 4 common reasons why you might not be getting promoted.

You lack executive presence

Most people struggle to define what ‘executive presence’ is. Gerry Valentine, an executive coach, told Forbes that “executive presence is about your ability to inspire confidence.”

“Confidence in what?” you might be asking.

I believe ‘executive presence’ refers to someone‘s confidence in your professional maturity and your ability to flex your approach to the situation at hand, whatever that situation may be. For instance, is the way you speak to your VP the same way you speak to your college roommate? Because it shouldn’t be.

People with executive presence are mindful of the changing situations and people around them at all times. Early in my career, I was responsible for my company’s university relations program, which meant that I handled the hiring of all of our interns. I was less than pleased to find out one day that one of my hires had, unbeknownst to him, been riding the elevator with our Chief Marketing Officer while regaling a fellow intern with the tale of his drunken weekend escapades.

Not a good look, and not a good way to get promoted.

You are not emotionally intelligent

Having started my career as an individual contributor, I couldn’t wait to be promoted into management. I felt like I would know I had ‘made it’ once I had a team under me, and that’s what I was gunning for.

Before that could happen, a few things needed to change with my emotional intelligence, and I was lucky to work for a leader who took the time to tell me what those things were.

If you’re into personality tests and familiar with the DiSC, I am a strong D. This means I am super results-oriented, less emotional than most, and can be a little too direct in my communication style.

My leader pulled me aside one day and explained why those things could be a problem for me. If I wanted to be a leader of people, a focus on results was important but not at the total expense of my team’s feelings. People have emotions, and emotions are messy. I needed to figure out how to normalize at least some emotion at work if I wanted to grow into a leader.

You have a negative attitude

Early in my career, I was really good at stumbling across problems, marching down the hallway to my boss’ office, and dropping those problems into her lap for her to solve.

But here’s the thing — everyone can find problems at work. That’s the easy part. Companies don’t pay you to point out the problems that they probably already know to exist. They pay you to use your brain to think and bring forth solutions to those problems.

As a young professional, you have a unique ability to do this because you have what the veterans don’t — you have fresh eyes and a new perspective. Use it.

Next time you stumble across a problem, and you’re tempted to complain about it or demonstrate an overall negative attitude about things that are less than ideal, challenge yourself to bring the problem to your boss with 3 possible solutions to that problem.

They don’t have to be perfect solutions, either. Each will have pros and cons, and your boss might not even choose one that you came up with, but he will know that a) you are thinking and b) you are solutions-focused.

You don’t go above and beyond

Sometimes I see people who show up to work every day, do their job, do it well, and then expect to be promoted after a couple of years. Let me let you in on a little secret:

Doing just the job is not enough.

Whether it’s right, wrong, or indifferent, people who get promoted are usually the ones who are doing something more than what’s outlined in their job description. Not only that, they’re doing it without being asked to.

When was the last time you asked your boss what you could take off their plate? Do you ever volunteer the fact that you’re having a slow week and can take on more, or do you quietly sit back and hope no one notices that you’re trolling Reddit all day?

The people who go above and beyond consistently — not just once or twice a year — are the ones who see the payoff. Why?

Because they’ve demonstrated that they can do more than what they were brought on to do. They’ve demonstrated a hunger for learning and trying new things. They’ve demonstrated that they’re willing to inconvenience themselves to lessen the workload of the broader team.

They say that all of the most important decisions about you and your career will be made when you’re not in the room. As someone who has sat in on countless talent reviews, succession planning meetings, and interview debriefs, I can attest to this.

Senior leadership is constantly evaluating whether they have confidence in your judgment, performance, and potential for future opportunities. Whether you realize it or not, every moment at work is an interview for what comes next. So make the most of those moments.

Because you never know who you’re riding the elevator with.

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