Michael Goh

Use the performance appraisal process to indicate your interest in a certain post or position. Have these interests documented. Have an honest discussion with your manager to find out where are the skills gaps and work on concrete steps to close them. Look for opportunities to work with or add value already to the target department/division/superior while working on closing the skills and knowledge gaps.

One can increase and build visibility and credibility by making an effort to add value to your internal stakeholders. How are you supporting their interests and objectives? What value can you bring to the other department via your skills and know how? Make these visible by contributing, participating, engaging in discussion. Volunteering information and insights. Participate in cross functional, cross divisional projects. Some times it might seem like extra work. But these are the efforts that helps get one noticed. Effective use of internal communication platforms, finding opportunities to share success stories could also help.

Consistency in delivering value added content. Effective use of short reel videos to provide bite sized insights. Use of effective # to increase viewership from those interested in the topics you talk about. (You could even try using Bard or ChatGPT to find out which are the most popular #s related to the topics that you share). Craft your post with the intention to give more than to receive. It would come through the post and be evident to the reader.

At work, we often want to show our best self and project a positive image. With your mentee and coachee, it is important to establish a safe environment to talk about failures, anxiety, challenges and all other negative feelings and fears. The mentee/coachee needs to know and feel that there is no judgement. Just a genuine desire to support and help, for his/her development and progression. Assurance of confidentiality is also important.

Like the stock market, our career progression does not move up in a straight line. There are ups and downs. Successes and failures. While we celebrate the successes, it is also important to learn from the failures. These learnings make us stronger. Allow us to be better mentors and coaches to next generation leaders. They help build resilience. Some times we have to move sideways in order to move upwards. Lateral moves could be an opportunity to simply take up roles that provide new learnings, development of new skills, and a good time of waiting for the next "bull run".

The desire to get promoted usually starts with accepting challenges that would have you step out of your comfort zone. Many are reluctant to step out for fear of failure. Having moved into multiple roles with no or low experience in the past, I can look back and say that many of those initial fears did not materialize. Had I not taken the step out of my comfort zone, I would not have realized my potential. Not every step out of comfort zone will lead to immediate success. One might face failure and defeat initially, but if one can learn from these failures, you come out stronger, having collected another new badge of experience that would help in days to come.