For some errors, if delay would worsen the situation, you should communicate with your boss promptly or seek help from others. However, if you can handle it yourself and potentially mitigate some loss, you should start dealing with it immediately. Reporting directly to the boss at this moment might delay things further as you explain and coordinate, potentially causing more damage. The priority then is to handle the issue yourself, minimize the loss, and then find an appropriate time to explain to your boss. By actively addressing your mistakes and keeping the company’s loss minimal, your responsibility will also be less.
When reporting to your boss, your language should be concise and to the point. Excessive embellishment might make your boss think you’re trying to cover up your mistakes. However, don’t overly blame yourself either, as this might make the boss attribute all responsibility to you. Just explain the responsibility you should bear clearly. Don’t shift blame to others or discuss others’ responsibilities excessively. The boss will judge the responsibility from their perspective, and emphasizing others’ faults might make the boss think you’re deflecting blame, possibly causing conflicts with colleagues, leading to mutual accusations. Thus, simply state your mistake objectively, give your reasons, and apologize, indicating that you recognize your error.
If your mistakes have led to bias or conflict with your boss, you must actively seek opportunities to reconcile. Don’t wait for the boss to forgive you or even apologize to you. In appropriate situations, make friendly gestures, even if it’s just a greeting or a smile. Generally, bosses also do not wish to deepen conflicts, and even if they don’t immediately show friendliness, it will at least soften the relationship. Then, find opportunities to communicate with your boss to gradually resolve the conflict.
Promotion
Promotion is something every employee hopes for, not only representing better compensation but also greater authority and opportunities for growth. However, it also requires more energy and comes with greater responsibility.
To get a promotion, first, assess your abilities and energy. Some might say, “If I were in that position, I could do it excellently.” But in reality, this isn’t always the case. It’s not just about whether your work skills are up to the job, but also about your stamina, and your psychological resilience to the responsibility and pressure that come with the position. As a regular employee promoted to a higher role, you’ll need to manage both upwards and downwards, facing demands or even criticisms from all sides. You’ll find that not only is the boss hard to please, but subordinates are not easy to handle either. You might already feel the pressure from various sources during the competition for promotion. Therefore, leadership isn’t for everyone. Instead of fighting hard to get promoted only to be demoted for incompetence, it’s better to remain a diligent employee, or hone your skills for a better opportunity later.
Next, earn your boss’s trust. A successful promotion means being granted leadership authority, having more influence, and opportunities to participate in corporate decision-making. Generally, people “use only those they trust,” and bosses won’t easily entrust important roles to those they doubt. Thus, the boss’s trust is key to a successful promotion. This trust encompasses trust in your work capabilities and personal loyalty, which doesn’t form overnight but requires consistent performance in daily work. Besides work performance, your demeanor, attire, and overall behavior also significantly influence the boss’s impression. If you frequently complain or show discontent, it’s difficult to gain the boss’s trust.
As a leader, it’s not just about doing your job well in isolation. You need to understand your subordinates’ strengths to utilize them effectively, which requires knowing your employees well. Therefore, good interpersonal relationships are essential, reflecting your communication skills. That means when selecting a corporate leader, the boss looks not only at their actual work achievements but also at their interpersonal relationships, or their influence within the company. Those with good interpersonal skills, who can garner more support, have a better chance at promotion. However, good interpersonal relationships do not mean forming cliques; too much or too direct support might give the boss the impression of power showboating, which could backfire. Additionally, a normally functioning company cannot simply create a leadership position out of thin air. Therefore, to get a promotion, you must seize the opportunity when a position becomes vacant. The boss will consider promoting from within the company or hiring externally, involving multiple considerations to select the best candidate. At this time, you might already be in the boss’s consideration, or perhaps the boss has not even thought of you. In this case, you need to act based on the boss’s personality, in an appropriate setting, actively volunteer, or express your readiness and confidence in taking on the role. Don’t wait for the boss to think of you on their own, nor should you feel it’s too abrupt. Generally, a boss won’t choose someone too shy or introverted to lead the company. Appropriate initiative can make the boss see you as confident and with potential, possibly putting you in the pool of candidates. Even if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t lost anything substantial.
In fact, when you sense potential changes or personnel movements within the company, you should start vying for opportunities, communicating with the boss, or making suggestions to draw attention to yourself, thereby increasing your chances of promotion.
It’s important to note that when you are a candidate for promotion, you must be even more disciplined in your work and conduct because during the evaluation, your every move will be observed by the boss and others, and your competitors might use any mistakes against you. At such a critical moment, even a small mistake could lead to failure.
Salary Increase
Having worked in a company for many years, feeling that your abilities have improved and your performance evaluations are outstanding, yet noticing your salary has remained unchanged, with no indication from the boss of a raise, in such a scenario, consider proactively requesting a salary increase.
Requesting a raise must be predicated on your work. First, assess whether your performance and contributions warrant a raise from the boss. If you’re asking for a raise merely because of your long tenure and seniority without an improvement in performance, it might make the boss think you’ve stagnated despite your long service. In salary negotiations with the boss, your performance and contributions are your best leverage.
Timing is also crucial; if the company is considering layoffs, it’s not the best time to ask for a raise, as it might backfire. Choose a time when the boss is in a good mood or has fewer pressing matters. If the boss is agitated or busy, they might outright reject your request. Even if they later think your request was reasonable, they might not initiate a raise due to face-saving.
Moreover, when discussing a raise, avoid following trends. If many are talking about raises or some are already negotiating with the boss, or if you go with a group of colleagues to ask for raises, the boss might see it as a form of group pressure. Among these people, some might be average performers, not truly deserving of a raise, just trying to capitalize on the situation. In such cases, the boss might decide not to give raises to anyone. If the boss gives a raise only to you in front of others, it could isolate you, causing friction with colleagues.
