Meeting Their Preferences――The Principles Behind Career Advancement

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This post was last edited by Fengdong Pingling on 2016-9-16 at 11:17. Meeting People’s Preferences――The Principles Behind Career Advancement――One Piece. From the workplace discussion QQ group 346194899. All rights reserved; please do not copy illegally. Many people are familiar with the term \"career advancement,\" but few truly understand the principles behind it. Honest and upright people, especially those who focus on technical work, will say that whether one can advance in the workplace depends on how well one performs at work and how others perceive them. Gold will always shine, and hard work leads to success; yet in the workplace, many people with strong technical skills fail to become leaders. Those who disagree with the above view would say that whether one can be promoted to a leadership position depends on whether they possess leadership skills, management abilities, and the capacity to inspire others. Yet there are also people who have good relationships with others but still do not get promoted in the workplace. Some people also say that in the Chinese workplace, relationships play a key role; whether you can get close to your superiors and know how to flatter them is what determines whether you will get promoted. ……………What I want to say here is that those who speak as mentioned above are one-sided; they’re not entirely wrong, nor entirely right, because they consider things from their own perspective. But if we want to advance in our careers, we need to think from the perspective of leaders in order to find the right answers. Therefore, meeting others’ preferences is the fundamental principle for advancing in the workplace. How can one cater to their preferences? Professional competence is a prerequisite for meeting their needs. In the workplace, first and foremost you need to have basic professional skills. Whether you can excel is another matter, but you should at least score 60 points – this is a prerequisite for managers to keep you around, as well as a condition for promotion. If your basic professional skills are inadequate, then who will want to hire you? Even if your manager is your relative and wants to help you, he still has to consider what other people will think. Previously at TCL, a purchaser in the procurement department resigned, creating a vacancy. The senior management wanted to promote their relative to that position, but the procurement manager strongly opposed it; as a result, that relative didn’t get the job, because he had no skills at all – who would want him? Sometimes, companies need people with business skills; for example, in startup companies, those with strong business abilities usually rise to higher positions first. Familiarizing oneself with the rules is the foundation for meeting their preferences. In different workplaces, companies, industries, and periods, there are varying rules for promotion. For example, in large IT companies where people work in technical roles, there is no such department as procurement; everything relates to software development. Many tasks are carried out independently, as part of project-based work, and most of these tasks involve division of labor, so it’s clear at a glance who is responsible for what. In such environments, there is a greater emphasis on technical skills. But in many companies, things such as sales, procurement, production, and quality are all handled together by everyone, and internal management is lax; promotions are determined based on the subjective judgment of managers, which means it’s necessary to play the card of building interpersonal relationships. In sales-oriented startups, the board of directors focuses on performance. When it comes to promotions, some influential clients may hide certain orders from being recorded, resulting in a 30% drop in performance. Do you think you can still get promoted in such a situation? Therefore, different workplaces, companies, and periods have different rules regarding promotions. Identifying the main contradiction is the key to addressing what matters most. There are certainly many rules for advancing in the workplace, including business skills, teamwork, the ability to respect supervisors, management capabilities, and so on. But we need to identify the key issues among all these rules and focus most of our efforts on them if we want to advance quickly. Generally, the main issue in most workplaces lies with the managers: you follow those who decide on your promotions, you demonstrate the skills they require, and you do the tasks they need you to carry out. This is the true way to achieve promotion. The goal of striving in the workplace is to get promoted, and whether you agree or not, the principles behind career advancement in the workplace must be viewed from the perspective of management, rather than from your own personal perspective. Professional competence is a prerequisite; when it comes to promotion, leaders also need to consider whether you are capable of doing the job and whether you will cause them problems ； Familiarizing yourself with the rules is the foundation; if you’re not aware of the game rules, you won’t be able to pass no matter how you play ； The key is to identify the key people who hold power and influence. It’s crucial to know who those people are, as it determines your chances of promotion. It’s also important to know whether you can respect your supervisors, flatter them, and help them solve problems, among other things……