How to Get Promoted at Work
Feeling stuck in your current role? Learn how to get promoted with practical advice on performance, visibility, and skill-building to move your career forward.
If you’re feeling stuck in your current role, overlooked for opportunities, or unsure what actually leads to promotion, you’re not alone. Even if you're showing up, working hard, and doing what's asked of you, there are many reasons you may feel like progress has stalled.
The important thing I need to say at this point is: don't simply assume it's a personal failure.
More likely, it’s a lack of clarity around what the decision-makers in this scenario are really looking for. I’ve put this guide together to give you a practical roadmap to a promotion. This is based on the advice I share every day with Learning People alumni, who I helped find jobs after qualifying from our courses, but now are ready to take the next step in their careers.
We’ll focus on three things that genuinely move the needle: performance, visibility and skill-building. That includes being intentional about your continued professional development and how it supports long-term progression at this stage of your career.
Written by
Chelsey Murray is a dedicated Careers Services Consultant at Learning People, bringing a wealth of recruitment experience and deep expertise in the tech and project management job markets.
What's on this page?
Jump to:
- 1. Understand What Promotion Really Means in Your Organisation
- 2. Perform at the Next Level Before You Have the Title
- 3. Increase Your Visibility
- 4. Build the Skills That Make You Promotion-Ready
- 5. Have an Honest Conversation About Progression
- 6. Create a Simple Promotion Plan
- Conclusion: Forging Your Path to Promotion
- How to Get Promoted at Work FAQs
1. Understand What "Promotion" Really Means in Your Organisation
One thing I’ve learned over the years is this: what getting a promotion entails is different from organisation to organisation. The way progression works in one company can look very different in another, even for the same job title.
Doing your job well is usually the baseline. Being seen as ready for the next role is something else entirely.
I often encourage people to look beyond their job description and pay attention to what gets recognised. Who gets trusted with difficult, business-critical decisions? Who’s relied on when things wobble?
Managers tend to promote people who show
- initiative,
- reliability,
- sound judgement,
- and early signs of leadership.
They're not just looking for strong task delivery within your current job description.
Once you spot those patterns of who is viewed as valuable, who has a "seat at the table", who is turned to in moments of crisis, and which attributes or experience they share, promotion criteria become far clearer.
2. Perform at the Next Level Before You Have the Title
One thing that often surprises people is that promotion decisions are usually forming long before a role is formally advertised. The formal process for this is called "succession planning". Most businesses will have an idea, or even a documented plan, that states who would move up into a role if the person in that position were to leave.
By the time a vacancy appears, managers often already have a good sense of who feels “ready”. That’s why waiting for the title before changing how you work can prevent you from being selected.
Showcasing your readiness doesn't have to mean taking on more than you can handle, as my colleague Sophi explains.
Reaching up doesn't mean taking on everything and burning yourself out...
Acting at the next level is more about how you think and prioritise.
Instead of just completing tasks, start owning outcomes. Ask yourself how your work affects the wider team or the business, and adjust accordingly.
I see this mistake being made by people I work with as a career advisor: people who get stuck by working harder rather than smarter. Extra hours don’t always help if the impact isn’t clear. What does help is linking your work to results: reduced risk, improved efficiency, happier clients, smoother delivery.
When your performance speaks in business terms, it’s much easier for decision-makers to picture you in the next role.
Fact: More Than Half of UK Learning & Development Professionals Report a Skills Crisis
In the UK, 57% of learning and development professionals say their organisation is dealing with a skills crisis, driven by a growing gap between current employee capabilities and future business needs.
For individuals aiming for promotion, this creates a clear opportunity. Proactively building in-demand skills can help you stand out as someone who’s ready to support where the business is heading, not just where it is today.
3. Increase Your Visibility
This is the part many people struggle with. You can be doing great work, but if the right people don’t see it, promotion becomes harder. I wish it weren’t true, but good work alone often isn’t enough in busy organisations.
The key is healthy visibility, not self-promotion. There’s a big difference.
Visibility is about clarity. It helps others understand what you’re working on and the value it brings. Ego doesn’t need to come into it.
Simple habits make a real difference.
- Share progress when a piece of work moves the needle.
- Speak up in meetings, even briefly, when you have something useful to add.
- Put your hand up for projects that stretch you or solve real problems, not just the ones no one wants.
Over time, this builds a reputation for reliability and problem-solving. That’s the kind of visibility managers trust when promotion decisions come around.
4. Build the Skills That Make You Promotion-Ready
In my experience, it's pretty common: strong performers who do everything asked of them, but still hit a ceiling. More often than not, it comes down to skill gaps. Not obvious ones, but the kind that only show up when you’re being considered for more responsibility. At that point, effort isn’t the issue. Readiness is.
This is where structured upskilling really helps. Instead of hoping experience alone will carry you forward, targeted learning speeds things up. That might mean formal training, such as a course that supports progression into more senior roles, or taking a step back to run a proper skills audit to pinpoint what’s missing.
Hard, soft, and leadership skills for a promotion
As roles become more senior, expectations shift. Employers look closely at leadership and soft skills, not just technical ability. I’ve lost count of how many times someone has told me, “But I’m good at my job.” And they usually are. What holds them back is not fully understanding what soft skills actually are or how they show up day to day, especially under pressure.
Just as important is knowing how soft skills and hard skills work together as you progress. At higher levels, employers want people who can apply expertise through others, not just deliver it themselves.
From what we see across employers, skills in tech, IT, Cyber Security, and Project Management tend to speed up progression because they’re directly tied to how organisations operate and manage risk.
When you can step into conversations about systems, data, security, or delivery with confidence, you’re often seen as someone who adds value beyond your immediate role.
Fact: Nearly Four in Ten UK Workers Are Considering a Job Move Due to Lack of Progression Pathways
In 2025, 39% of UK employees said they expect to look for a new role within the next 12 months, with lack of progression and limited development opportunities among the top reasons.
This suggests many people don’t feel a clear path forward in their current role, reinforcing why being proactive about promotion conversations and skill development matters.
5. Have an Honest Conversation About Progression
If progression matters to you, make sure you say so, explicitly, to the people who matter. This will most likely be your line manager, or possibly the leader of the team you want to move up in or into.
This conversation doesn't start with, "I want a promotion". You should:
- speak about the impact you’re having now in your current role
- outline the responsibilities you’re already taking on that go above and beyond your job description
- explain where you’d like to grow next.
- ask what “ready” looks like in their eyes.
When feedback comes back, try to treat it as useful data, not a personal criticism. This will be crucial information to help you plan the next steps in your development.
6. Create a Simple Promotion Plan
Ambition on its own doesn’t get you promoted. What helps is turning that ambition into a simple, workable plan.
Tip: I usually encourage people to think in three to six-month blocks rather than distant, fuzzy career goals. It keeps things realistic and easier to act on.
Decide:
- what you’re focusing on
- what success would look like
- how you’ll know you’re making progress.
Check your assumptions along the way. If something isn’t landing as expected, that’s useful information, not a failure. Adjust and keep going.
Momentum matters more than perfection here. Small, consistent steps build confidence and make your progress visible long before a promotion title appears.
Conclusion: Forging Your Path to Promotion
Promotions are rarely handed out just because time has passed and you've fulfilled your job description consistently. They’re built, step by step, through choices you make about how you work, how visible you are, and how deliberately you develop your skills.
It’s completely normal to feel frustrated or stalled at points, even when you’re doing good work. If you’re serious about moving forward, taking control of your development will always get you further than waiting it out.
And if you’d like some personalised guidance, you can book a free consultation with one of our career experts to start planning your career future.
