How To Climb The Corporate Ladder Like A Boss

Climbing the corporate ladder is a dream for many. Budding employees want to get right to the top of their firms and gain all the responsibility that comes with it. 

But getting there is challenging. If you live your entire life as an employee, it’s hard to step out of that rut and really begin to think like an executive. 

In this post, we show you how to get out of the wage-employee mindset and really fulfill your potential in your career. Here’s what you need to do to access the top rates of pay and get the lifestyle you want. 

Your job isn’t to go to work and complete tasks (as your senior manager keeps telling you). Instead, it’s to network with the people who matter. 

Climbing high on the corporate ladder has very little to do with competence. Sure, you have to avoid making serious mistakes. But what really counts is how your peers view you. Ultimately, it is they who will choose whether you can ascend the ranks or not. 

Your job should be to convince them of the strength of your character and ability to take on responsibility. You should be someone they can go to when they have a problem and fix it. Once you start resolving other people’s problems, they will respect your abilities and begin to consider you a leader, even if the box-and-line chart says otherwise. 

Related to this, you’ll want to be a team player. In other words, you need to be someone who brings everyone together every day. 

Lone wolves are often geniuses. But they don’t tend to get very far because of their outright refusal to help other people. Even if it is better for them to work alone in the long-term, they simply don’t gain the social capital they need to move their careers forwards. People don’t know, like, or respect them. 

That’s why you should be a team player, even if you know that it will lead to a less efficient outcome. Working with other people, even if they are slow, shows that you are a part of the company ethos. You believe in playing as a team, which is ultimately what a business is about. And, therefore, people view you as capable of managing it. 

If you want to know how to become a CTO, CEO, or CIO, you need to be an asset to the company. Essentially what that means is that you need to become someone they can’t afford to get rid of. Your skills must be so central to the success of the firm that they will do literally anything to keep you, including promoting you to the senior ranks. 

Becoming an asset is tricky. And, frankly, not everyone is in a position to do it. But if you sense an opportunity, go for it. The more you can prove yourself, the better. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re cleaning toilets in the boss’s private bathroom, it’s critical to always act above your station. When your peers interact with you, they aren’t thinking about your regular job title. All they care about is how you present yourself, the way you speak, and the problems you solve. 

If you can act above your paygrade, people will begin assuming that you deserve a different paygrade. The more convincing you can be, and the higher your consciousness, the more likely a promotion will come your way. 

Of course, when you do this, you’ll want to avoid stepping on people’s toes or trying to run the company. But you should have a commanding presence. People should want to look up to you. And if no one else can give answers, you should be the one to give them. 

If you’re trying to climb the corporate ladder, you’ll need a plan. Ideally, you should be able to map out which job you want, and by what age. 

For instance, you might be 25 now and in a junior position. Your plan might say that you want to be a manager at age 29, a senior manager by 33, and an executive by 37. 

While that type of plan might sound ambitious, it’s something that highly focused people achieve with relative swiftness. In fact, if you start early enough, you can get to board level by the time you reach 30. 

Your plan should also include any necessary education you need. For instance, if you need to take a management course, do it now. If your company won’t pay for it, tell them that you’re paying for it on your own dime. Do whatever you can to arrange your financial affairs to grow your income in the future. 

Employers tend to insist on rather narrow job descriptions for employees. In other words, they do a good job of boxing them in. 

Part of this is to satisfy regulatory requirements. But part of it comes down to the fact that most employees find even limited tasks challenging. Getting them to think out of the box is virtually impossible. 

Therefore, it’s a good idea to dream beyond your job description. Make it clear that you're there to push the company forwards, not just collect a paycheck. That attitude will set you apart from 95 percent of your colleagues, and it’s something that senior management will notice. 

Nobody wants to work harder. But that’s how people get ahead in corporations. They get in 15 minutes earlier than everyone else. And they leave 15 minutes later. 

Hanging around in the office for longer is something that gets the attention of management, particularly old-fashioned, older managers. And that can create opportunities to progress. If you’re in the office working when everyone else has gone home, you are much more likely to get noticed and stand out 

Remember, most of your colleagues are clock-watchers. They want to get out as soon as they can. If you don’t do this, you’ll stand out.