Don’t Allow a Missed Promotion to Affect Your Performance

Not landing that team leader position, project manager spot, or badly wanted promotion can evoke feelings of depression, despondency, and negativity toward your company and other staff. Resist the temptation to fall into one or more of these patterns. Unless you have solid factual proof to the contrary, don’t take this management action personally.

Typically, you should accentuate the positives. You must be performing well to be considered for promotion. Use this fact to motivate yourself to perform even better in the future. Performing or acting poorly will accomplish nothing, but further prove that management made the right choice regarding who they selected and who they did not.

Much as sports fans criticize their team’s head coach or manager for making poor decisions, it is tempting to criticize management for selecting the wrong person for promotion. However, give some credit to management for having additional information that is not available to you. Be realistic and fair. At least try to understand why a coworker was selected instead of you. You’ll feel better and, hopefully, begin to look forward – not back – at your career.

Five Tips to Help Recover From Missing That Promotion

Here are some suggestions to help you recover from missing that promotion you wanted so much.

1. List your strengths on paper. Typically, you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of skills you have and the areas in which you excel. This exercise generates self-confidence and pride.
2. Eliminate all negative emotions. The psychological hurt from missing a wanted promotion can be more damaging than any other aspect of being bypassed. It is imperative that you energize your psyche. Congratulate the “winner” in the promotion sweepstakes. Even tell other coworkers what a great job they’re doing. These positive actions will make you feel much better too.
3. List three to five reasonable career goals. Visualize yourself in your dream job in the future. What would it look like? What would you be doing daily? What type of company might it be? Putting your top goals on paper, with some specific steps to achieve them, allows you to take positive action.
4. Decide to get in physical shape. Good physical condition, beyond the obvious health benefits, helps you reach a good psychological place. You don’t have to go on a mission to become a body builder; even short walks are a great start to feeling better physically and mentally. You will project a new-found self-confidence to management or potential new employers.
5. Honestly analyze your future promotion possibilities at your company. Are there more team leaderships or other promotions on the horizon? Should you consider entering the job market to improve your promotion picture? Even if it appears you should consider changing employers, you’ll feel better as you are taking action to improve your career. Should you make this decision, consider using one of the top employment search firms, like Kelly Services, to help you locate the right company and position for you.

A missed promotion is disappointing, but often can give you the motivation to better define your career and future plans to improve your employment picture.