Every leader and organization thinks about what will happen when great talent leaves the company. Some chose to do something about it by developing a strong culture to retain people and some have open door policies to encourage people to talk about career goals in order to create specific jobs. These both come back to a basic concern of losing talent and the time, money and energy it takes to replace good talent. Ok, so what does this have to do with a promotion? I am using this as a foundation to understanding the mindset of the organization and talent relationship. How this directly relates to you in a super simple statement...your boss is terrified of losing you and having to replace your skill sets on their team. Now really great leaders know this is a foregone conclusion that the chicks will eventually leave the nest and they need to prepare, but let's face it most bosses are not great leaders. They have come to rely on your performance in some way to make their life and job easier and secretly would love to keep you there forever. Here is the tricky part. Identify the things that you need to improve upon to get a promotion at the same time you are helping someone fill in for the things you would no longer be responsible for completing. The idea is to bridge the transition gap for your replacement so performance for the team/ organization does not suffer in your move. Someone always has to file reports, make coffee, and clean the toilets.

I did leave one minor but very important part out of this process. Really the cornerstone to the philosophy and theory behind a promotion...you need to be good at your job. If you haven't mastered your current position I would highly recommend against doing this as you soon might find that management likes your replacement more than you and the promotion is substituted for a pink slip.

Last important part to this process. This should be an open dialog with both your boss and the person that you are training. All parties should be on board with the process as this should add value to each individual as well as the organization. Set goals and milestones for what each person needs to learn and master to get to that next step in their career. The transparency will be surprisingly refreshing and energizing. Keep other staff members in the loop of the tasks that each individual is adding to their plate so they can adjust accordingly and you can avoid the snarky “I don't do that anymore, ask so and so to do that”.

Just remember, in order to climb the ladder someone must hold the bottom.