Today I want to talk about a subject that you must hear a lot at the workplace or when hanging out with your peers or your boss in response to advancement opportunities and getting promoted:
“The economy is bad! Really bad! Our hands are tied and nothing we can do for you. Sorry!”
Excuse me for interrupting here but the economy has never stopped the joker next door or the loser in the other department from getting promoted and getting a big fat raise.
The economy also hasn’t changed matters for the Vice President at the top of the food chain from getting his full bonus and stock and then some. So why would it stop you from getting promoted?
The answer is that it doesn’t. The economy is an excuse whether used by your management to keep you stuck. What’s behind the excuse is the real reason you are not getting promoted.
Let’s talk about how you can stop blaming the economy and turbo charge your path to that promotion. Ready?
Back when I had first joined corporate America, I remember even when the economy was good – like really good – during the internet boom of 1999, there was still no shortage of big gatherings in the hallways where my co-workers and bosses blatantly complained about the state of the pending doom and the horrible economic conditions.
Huh?! It was 1999!!! Our stock was going through the roof. Everyone in the company was getting filthy rich. And the company’s pockets were so thick, they didn’t know what to do with all that cash.
And people were getting promoted and moving up the ladder left and right.
Except some people. I was among them as well as a few of my co-workers. Because management only blamed the economy when it suited its purpose, and it spread the infection down to the employees who in turn felt helpless and frustrated.
On a larger scale, both Apple and Microsoft launched their giant companies in the 1970s which was a terrible time during the American economy. In case you haven’t followed the news on them, they did fine. Stupendously fine.
The Reason Behind Blaming the Economy
And so will you if you stop following the irrelevant news and stop nodding your head in agreement when your manager uses economy as an excuse to promote you. And then start paying attention to what’s really important in getting you promoted.
There is always a reason behind the ‘blaming the economy’ and your job is to get to it and to get it to it fast. I give you some starting tips and strategies in this lesson and more in the future.
First, it takes the right mindset and paradigm shift if you recall, which we already touched on in previous strategies,
This blaming the economy tactic also creates a fear-driven state among employees. It somehow justifies that not only are you not getting promoted – no matter how stellar your performance – but that now, you must hold on to a lousy job, at a very lousy place, working for a rather lousy boss, and be grateful for it too, because the economy is bad!
Are you willing to buy all this?
Because I was naive and bought this rubbish and bet my career on it and it did not turn out well. At least not until I figured out how to turn it around.
These conversations of blaming the economy and job scarcity painted a dark, gloomy picture of life and since I didn’t know any better, I simply followed these ridiculous notions, feeling even more attached to a job I hated, and resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to get promoted anytime soon for a “good reason”!
See, this is a basket of lies and a way to distract you instead of helping you. You need to recognize it, and to deal with it professionally so you end up being one of those people that gets promoted in any economy!
Well, if I learned one thing in the process is to stop you and anyone else from listening to the same discouraging lies and instead encourage your boss to talk to you about the real reasons you are not getting promoted.
Here’s a better way to look at the economy and the state of the world in relation to your career advancement:
- The economy can neither help nor hamper your situation. Only you can.
- Things get better when you get better. You are the power and the center of what happens to you, not the economy.
- Take action and results will appear. Start with small actions to further your career and you’ll be shocked how many opportunities open up to you.
Now you have to make a decision to follow your gut and your intuition, to take a look at your career and to see the true reason why you may not be getting promoted. Now that you have chosen to set the economy aside as a factor in your career advancement, what else could be at play?
My challenge to you: Go one week without blaming the economy or anything else for everything that may or may not go your way at work.
Oh and to help you achieve this even faster, stop hanging out with those losers at work and start creating an empowering circle of influence around you and you’ll be already increasing your odds for the better.
