One Rung at a Time

How to Work Your Way Up the Corporate Ladder!

We all want to be successful, and it seems like some people have figured out some sort of secret that the rest of us don’t know. I can assure you that even though you don’t realize it you know the secret too.

This article is geared toward someone who wants to implement some positive work habits in order to get a promotion and work their way up the corporate ladder, one rung at a time.

Alone at the bottom?

Virtually everyone who is successful now had to start somewhere and most of those people started from nothing. Included in that list of people are:

Steve Jobs – Founder of Apple

Jay-Z – Famous hip-hop artist

Jim Skinner – CEO of McDonalds

Brian Dunn – CEO of Best Buy

Jim Ziemer – CEO of Harley Davidson

Ursula Burns – CEO of Xerox

Andrew Taylor – CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Some of these people started in the poorest conditions we can think of and despite that, they were able to overcome their situations and work their way to the top. There is a famous quote by Zig Ziglar that says:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Truer words could not be said when it comes to your career and advancing at work.

What’s the secret?

Now, it seems like the people I mentioned above know something that we don’t. How did they get to where they are now? What is the secret sauce? What is the recipe? I can almost guarantee that if we were to ask, their answers would be the following:

Work harder than your paycheck.

Volunteer for things that no one else wants to do.

Never stop learning and becoming more valuable to your employer.

Be a team player.

Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to pitch your ideas.

Don’t get involved in office gossip.

Be everyone’s backup – in other words, be the one person that everyone can rely on to get the job done.

Did you know these things would help you get a promotion? It makes sense, right? We all know what our job duties are and what we could to do go the extra mile. So why don’t we do that everyday?

What is holding us back from getting that promotion we are after?

I’m my opinion it all boils down to motivation and how badly we want something. When I picture a young Steve Jobs, before Apple was even thought up, I picture someone who had an idea and then never slept until that idea became a reality.

We are all motivated differently so the best advice I can give is to be honest with yourself. Know your limitations and weaknesses and make a plan to overcome them. If you are a chronic texting machine or an instagram phenom and you know these things are getting in the way of your productivity at work, make a plan to get rid of the distractions. Turn your phone off while at work, put it on silent and put it away. The fact is that you know what you need to do to take it to the next level.

I challenge you to take it there and beyond! There is no telling where you might end up.