Why Do You Want A Promotion?

In defense of doing a job longer than the minimum required time before moving on.

“You’re my fifth rep in five years... should I even bother putting your name in my contacts?”

“So, when are you planning on moving on? Next month?”

“Man, I really like your products, but it’s just hard to sell them when I don’t know who my rep is going to be next year.”

When I started in my sales territory, just over a year ago, I sat down with each of my ag retail customers and asked them to tell me, honestly, their experience with my company. Nearly every single one said something like the quotes above: good company, solid portfolio, but lacking consistent representation in the area. In a business like mine, it’s all about relationships, and since what we sell is all about row crops, the sales cycle is a full year. Needless to say, it’s hard to make meaningful progress, the type of progress which truly lasts, in one sales cycle. I can’t help but wonder if the same is true for most jobs. Yet, somehow, my generation—and our culture—behaves as if the opposite were true.

As a young person just beginning in my career, I find the following sentiment is overwhelmingly common, coming from both peers and my elders: "Oh I’m so glad you’re enjoying your current job, but what do you want to do next?”

Can you relate? Even for those of y’all still in school, you likely have pressure to figure out not just the first job out of college, but what job you want after that one, and so on. We’re constantly shown examples of the most apparently successful people in our companies, those who have moved from one job to the next, often as rapidly as possible, to continue their upward trajectory. We’re left believing the only way to measure if we’re succeeding in our career is if we’re getting promoted as often as the other guy who started when we did. But, is this really true?

Now, before you call me a success-hating old curmudgeon-stuck-in-a-mid-twenties-body, let me stop you where you are. There is nothing wrong with promotions, “moving up” in your company, or taking on a new role: the problem is taking the new job simply because it’s a new job. I know many, many folks who have found both success and fulfillment through many moves up—or across—their company, when they felt they had more to give in a new role, having added all the value they believed they could in their previous one. But I also know many, many folks who have found success and fulfillment in one role for decades. I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with doing the same job for 40 years or doing fifteen different jobs in that time; no, I believe my generation must simply be very, very careful of making pointless changes in our careers.

There are two reasons I believe this is important:

1) When we’re good at our jobs, people are impacted when we leave those jobs.

I’ve felt this acutely in my role, because I very quickly came to realize just how much it impacts my customers when reps leave. My desire to be a stable presence in my territory is not just about the sales numbers for my company; it’s about being a reliable person who my customers can count on, ultimately making their jobs easier. No matter what job we have, if we work with people, and we do well in whatever it is we’re tasked to do—whether mopping floors, teaching algebra, or writing business plans—we leave a void when we move on. Now, again, this doesn’t mean we should never leave a role, but my challenge to my generation, myself included, is to actually think about what that means. And, if we do ultimately decide it’s time to move on, are we leaving things in as good a position as possible for whoever will take our place?

2) When we focus too much on what’s next, we’ll miss out on the value of what’s right here and now.

The other reason I believe we should be careful of how much we focus on where we want to be next is because of our human inability to truly and effectively multitask. We think we can focus on two things at once, but we end up leaning far more towards one. So, what happens when we are always thinking about where we wish we were or want to be next? We tend to miss lessons we could be learning right now, joy in what’s right here. When we treat each job like a stepping stone to the next, we’ll likely fail to truly serve the purpose we’re intended to serve in our current role. Are you trying to take care of your customers to truly serve them, or are you trying to make it look like you’re taking care of your customers so your potential new future boss can be impressed? Are you maintaining relationships with your team so you can help each other do your current jobs well and enjoy your life at work, or are you always thinking about how they could help you get a new job in the future? (These questions can be convicting, can’t they?) If we find ourselves improperly motivated by the next rung on the ladder, we would do well to pause and remember what we’re called to do on the rung we’re on.

Deep down, I think we all just want to be good at our jobs, and somewhere along the line we started to define being good at our jobs as being promoted to a new one. I haven’t been on God’s green earth all that long, but long enough to see that the stories we tell ourselves—and each other—are powerful. I can’t help but wonder if we would focus more on growth and success within our titles, rather than growth and success through our titles, we might find less of a craving for a new title. If you manage people, why not try emphasizing opportunities to improve and grow responsibility within your peoples’ current roles rather than just focusing on other jobs? If you’re on a team with people who are really good at their jobs, tell them! If you know a bright young person who is excelling in their current role, you might try not telling them they’ll be your boss one day: maybe they will be, but they’d probably be more content in the meantime if they simply feel appreciated for the work they’re currently doing and receive encouragement for how they can continue to grow within that work.

To take us back to the original theme and constant undercurrent of The Next Step: it’s not that we shouldn’t ever think about the future; instead, we must choose wisely how we balance living abundantly in the present while making plans for the future. You and I are created to do good work where we are, right now. Why don’t we focus on that for now, and see where it takes us?

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Journal Prompt of the Week

Do you often find yourself wishing for the next job? Do you believe you are truly called to it, or are you caught up in the promotion-fever of our generation? What can you do, right now, to pursue contentment where you are?