2 Reasons You Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Being Passed Over For Promotion
They Don’t Know You. You Have Options.
Over the years, I have known quite a few individuals who have become demoralized — even embittered — when passed over for promotion.
From one perspective, it makes sense.
You join an organization with high hopes. You bring your training, your enthusiasm, the best of what you have to offer. And you expect that if you follow-through — if you keep showing up — you will be rewarded.
Sometimes, that does happen.
You do your best — and are rewarded.
Proper promotions are a beautiful thing.
But that’s not always the case.
Sometimes we bring the best that we have to offer — and receive little.
Instead, those who fit the “promotion profile” — in terms of appearance, education, experience, or personality — zoom past better qualified colleagues because they fulfill an implicit ideal.
When this happens, it’s natural to feel a sense of disappointment.
But seriously, allowing a sour disposition to become the rule of the day is a mistake.
A complete waste of time.
Why?
Because while being passed over promotion for unjust reasons is unpleasant, it does not reflect poorly on you as an individual. Much to the contrary, it reflects poorly on your employer — and their leadership.
When organizations promote people based on implicit ideals rather than on their potential and actual capacity, they demonstrate, above all things, that their organization is not the type that you would want to work for anyway.
More than that, such organizations, and leaders, demonstrate the fact that they do not know people.
1. They Don’t Know You.
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” — Psalm 139:13–14
“Look past the exterior, and see that there is much more within.” — Lincoln Patz
Implicit leadership theory (ILT) teaches us that individuals subscribe to cognitive representations of the world around them — how it works, how it feels, the way each of its moving parts interrelate — including the leaders within it. These implicit leadership theories, then, serve as working assumptions which people use to decide what a leader is like — or ought to be like.
Tall.
Talkative.
Aggressive.
Attractive.
The list goes on.
Of course, the obvious problem with ILT is that it is, once again, based on assumptions.
And assumptions represent little more than personal skew.
Bias.
Subjectivity.
Likes and dislikes.
Things taught, learned, and picked up along the way.
In the long run, considerations such as these — which reflect personal skew — should not weigh in substantially when it comes to choosing an organization’s next cadre of leaders.
Sadly, they often do.
And when they do, gifted candidates are often passed over simply because the decision-makers doing the choosing are unwilling to look beyond their own personal leanings in order to evaluate candidates properly.
When organizations and their leaders choose to pigeonhole people into tiny compartments — and to promote a favored few based on quirky, personal preferences — they lose out.
So do their employees.
If you know that you have what it takes to excel within your organization — and you also know that those in control of the promotions process have brushed by you for reasons which can only be described as frivolous — don’t allow yourself to feel discouraged.
You DO NOT want to spend the next 5 or 10 years of your life slugging away for an organization that is unwilling to recognize your value.
Instead, do your best as a matter of principle…and be wise.
Open your eyes.
Sharpen your skills.
And get out of Dodge as quickly as possible.
2. You Have Options.
“The path to your success is not as fixed and inflexible as you think.” — Misty Copeland
The second important reason you shouldn’t feel bad about being passed over for promotion is this:
You have options.
Your employer may want you to believe that their organization is the best thing since buttered bread.
That you should feel privileged to work there.
That their organizational culture is head and shoulders above the rest.
That if you walk away, you’ll never find another job.
But that is not true.
What is true, however, is that your organization and its leaders should feel privileged that you trusted them enough to join their team.
So, if they don’t get it — or don’t want to get it — remember that you are a free agent.
You are loaded with gifts and talents that God has given you — and that will make room for you in the marketplace when you put them to work.
Instead of succumbing to the workplace games leading to nowhere, take stock of all that you have to offer — and begin preparing for chapter number next.
It could be another job.
It could be your own business.
It could be returning to school so that you can pivot into your next career.
Whatever the case may be, don’t be sucked into the lie that you can do nothing but what you are doing right now.
You are not stuck.
You do have options.
Call To Action
Ready to say “goodbye” to the lesser life you’ve become used to? Snag my free guide: “The Personal Pivot Checklist” — a compilation of simple, yet highly effective strategies to help you recognize your God-given gifts, identify your purpose, and begin building a life worthy of you.
Click here to get the guide right now!
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