Most of my coaching clients arrive at the promotion conversation believing one thing: that promotion is a reward for the last twelve months of work. I spend a meaningful portion of our first session trying to dislodge that idea.
Promotion is not a reward. It is a re-bid.
What I mean
A reward is something handed to you for what you've already done. It is backward-looking. It is also conclusive — once granted, the matter is closed.
A re-bid is a new contract for a new job. It is forward-looking. It does not honor the last twelve months so much as it predicts the next eighteen. And it is contestable, because the company is making a guess about you and your job is to make that guess feel safe.