If people dont know you, how are you going to be promoted? Kalau the bosses tak kenal you then it’s quite hard la
Getting promotion is not just about doing your job well. It’s about your networking skills and how well are you connected. How strong is your cable!
Fathiyah Muen wrote about this beautifully when she described the PIE approach to career advancement. Performance, Image and the E is for Exposure.
I can write a whole long list of what you need to do for exposure, networking and making connections but today is just about one thing, satu aje, about Showing Up.
Showing up at work. When I was working in the US, one of my team lives 4 hours away from our office. We discussed about her career aspiration and my advice to her was ‘if you want to progress in the company you have to show up in the office enough times so that people know who you are’. I don’t know what is the right frequency for enough times but when people know who you are then you have done it enough times. She did take my advice and put in the hardwork of turning up and she has made a great career for herself.
This is not something that is written in any manual or guidebook but it is one of those unwritten rules that everybody knows or should know. When you don’t show up, when you don’t show your face in a meeting, when you don’t join any of the optional company events, people do notice, management team do notice and they make a mental note of it that so and so never participate in company activities. Kena tunjuk muka tau!
So join in and show up. And when you do, be proactive. Jangan la duduk diam-diam je. For example in a company meeting, berani sikit and be the first one to ask question during Q+A. Do you remember who was the second or third one who ask questions? Exactly! So be the first one to ask question to increase your visibility.
There are many things that are beyond our control when it comes to promotion but showing up is well within your control. So the next time when you feel a bit malas to join in something, just think again about the unwritten rule of showing up.
