Corporate Ladder

What exactly is Corporate Ladder  and How you can Climb it quickly

Most people are fascinated by the terms Corporate Ladder, what is it, and what’s so special about it?

Corporate Ladder is the fictional version of the hierarchy used in Corporate World. From trainee to  CEO or board member, a corporate ladder consists of every interim level of an organization hierarchy in its steps. Now, what people are most fascinated about this fictional ladder is “How to climb this ladder up to the top in the minimum steps and minimum time”. Here are some possible tips and tricks to that :

Connections 

There is a reason why people go to those boring parties filled with boring people and that is to meet new people and make new connections. One thing that can make your career in bare minimum steps is the “right connections”! In the Corporate world, if you know right people at the right point, you can really turn an opportunity into your new Job Title very easily. Turns out if you officially get to know an opportunity today, the word had been already been out to the inside circle a month prior. So, you are actually late at the very first day!

More than that connection can also serve as life boat for your career at the time of need. Corporate world is a dangerous place and crisis as inevitable so at the time of need the insiders would probably help you dodge that on time or at the worse situation can help you settle at a safe place.

Always watch over your shoulder

The Higher you climb up the so-called Corporate Ladder, the greater are the chances of you becoming the target of any Corporate Shenanigan or any espionage. So it becomes very very important to always watch over your shoulder all the time, I have witnessed situations when people only got promoted to get axed at the next iteration.

Your team is important but other wider team is even more important: The opportunities within a team are limited and so does the scope of growth and eventually the canvas for an artist gets limited. So, at some point in time, you have to look outside for overall growth. For instance, if there are 2–5 opportunities opening up within your team, the chances of such opportunities outside the team in a wider network would be 10 times more. Also once you start climbing the ladder you’ll reach a designation where the opportunity for the next promotion will be very rare, so either you have to wait for an indefinite time or you can look outside.

Visibility at the wider level

One thing that my mentor always keeps suggesting me was to be more visible within the “Wider Teams”. There is a very basic rationale behind it.

Consider this, In a room full of people fighting for their respective sub-ordinate your boss should be able to fight for you. So, if 5 out of 6 judges haven't even heard your name before, you have already lost the battle! So you need to be more engaging in the tasks that can showcase your talent at the Intra team level and even better if at the whole department or organization level.

Do what's ‘NOT’ mentioned in Job Description

One thing that my manager always said me while at the time of appraisal meetings was “You did everything that was expected out of you but nothing OUT OF THE BOX!” That always uses to piss me off as if making Clients happy by providing deliveries on time, helping your team members wasn't enough for them now they even want me to get myself in a box and think out of it!

But the more you grow in your career more you witness and agree that its important to do what's expected if you want to keep your job and stay where you are, but it's even more important to do the unexpected if you want to grow!

Keep checking your worth and keep circling the wagon 

It's good to stay in a company and play the game but one should always know their market worth to get the best for themselves. So, keep yourself updated and always put yourself in the market to fish for anything great!