Why promotions are denied

Doing your best to support all of your colleagues will only help your professional reputation. A stalwart attitude will deflect any passing pity people may be tempted to feel for you.

After your emotions have settled, set up a meeting with the powers that be to discover why you didn't get the promotion. She suggests assuring your supervisor and colleagues that there won't be any consequences for being honest. Bring questions to your meeting, so you can learn how to overcome any professional shortcomings or lack of specific skills, and try to get your employer to recommend and help subsidize some professional-development courses that might improve your skills on the job.

Request specific situations that made your superiors doubt your ability to handle the new position. And finally, ask for suggestions as to how you can better improve your performance. After you learn why you didn't get a promotion, you may come to understand that you're not perceived as management material, and even the best in-office PR campaign would be futile.

To climb to the next notch, you may need to start a job search so you can move on to a new employer. Sure, it might feel slightly awkward when you bump into your manager at the coffee maker the next morning, but offer a smile to let them know it's fine and that you're moving forward. You should never quit a job because you were denied a promotion or raise. In fact, that's definitely the wrong reason to quit your job.

But sometimes this punch to the gut will lead to clarity albeit not immediately. Maybe you'd thrive better in a different work environment or in a new job position altogether. There are always new opportunities out there, and sometimes that's a nice thing to keep in mind. Click on the following link for more advice on how to get ahead. If looking for another dream job is the right option for you, spruce up your resume with a free resume critique from TopResume.

Let's stay in touch. Subscribe today to get job tips and career advice that will come in handy. Career advice is on its way. Your information is secure. Please read our privacy policy for more information. Menu Next Steps Where shall we send your critique? Email Address Get my critique. Thanks for submitting your files Thank you! Your critique is on the way. Read our expert career advice. Uploading your resume Thank your manager The first thing is to take a minute to process what just happened and then swallow your pride.

Learn how Insperity can help your business. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Discover how we can improve your business. Home Blog Practical guide: how to deny an employee a promotion. Subscribe When you are ready to subscribe click here. Sign in with Sign in with. Resist the tendency to put off or rush the conversation. But having this type of conversation with an employee either too late or too quickly may be detrimental for several reasons: Employees may quit if they come away feeling disrespected.

Employees may become disengaged or poor team players. It may damage team morale, as other employees who also have aspirations of being promoted may be watching how you handle things. Prepare your talking points in advance. Save development planning for a later conversation. Inform the incoming employee of the situation. Provide advancement opportunities for all of your employees.

Though Ralph had been considered for the GM role both times, in each instance there were bona fide concerns about his readiness. She was also known for developing talent. Working for her was not for the faint of heart, but she challenged her staff members, and they grew in the process.

He was luring talent that was good but not great; Kelly was attracting A players who wanted a push. He was a go-to guy for implementing corporate initiatives, a master of continuous improvement. But senior management had seen no evidence of his ability to conceive a large-scale change that would produce a quantum leap in performance. Can strategic thinking be developed? Managers and HR professionals often provide intentionally vague feedback for fear of losing a good employee.

Further, although most leadership competency models refer in some way to important management skills and attributes, they typically fail to distinguish nice-to-have from nonnegotiable skills. At higher levels, where Ralph hopes to play, it matters less. In fact, at most companies, cohesion tends to fall short at senior levels thanks to rivalry and ego, but teams function pretty well nonetheless. But when he was being considered for the GM jobs, strategic thinking became a much higher priority.

And, as predictable career paths become more or less extinct, the confusion for people seeking advancement just gets worse. Nonnegotiables are the fundamental factors without which an executive will not be considered for promotion. Deselection factors are characteristics that eliminate an otherwise qualified candidate from consideration. Core selection factors are what ultimately dictate promotion decisions.

The factors may differ at your company, but the ones highlighted in the exhibit are pretty typical. Ralph passes the test on the nonnegotiables and the deselection factors but falls short on several core selection factors, like thinking strategically, building a strong executive team, and having the organization savvy to work effectively across internal boundaries.

Although he periodically gets feedback from s, such reviews—unless combined with confidential face-to-face interviews by a third party—are rarely sufficient to illuminate the core reasons behind a stalled career. One obvious way to get insight is to approach your boss and colleagues directly for their opinions, though their input might be of limited use.