Have you ever gone for a promotion and not been successful?
How did it feel?
You are likely to experience a range of emotions:
- disappointment that you haven’t been successful
- embarrassed and humiliated that your peers have been promoted and you haven’t
- angry at the ‘powers that be’ who clearly don’t recognise what an amazing job you do
- self-doubt about why you weren’t good enough to merit the promotion.
Being passed over for promotion can be especially difficult when you work for a large organisation where many people are considered for promotion at the same time.
It can feel like a very public disappointment when the timelines are transparent and there is a mass public communication about the outcome of the promotion process.
So, if you have gone for a promotion and not been successful, what do you do?
- Keep Calm
Easier said than done but try to take a deep breath and don’t do anything rash.
Your initial reaction is probably going to be one of anger, complaining to your boss, picking up the phone to a recruitment consultant to start looking for another job or sharing your disgruntlement with any colleague that will listen.
Now is not the time to vent your frustrations publicly. Share with a trusted friend (preferably somebody that works for a different organisation), a partner or family member but keep your frustrations away from the workplace.
- Acknowledge your emotions.
If you have been passed up for promotion it is perfectly natural to feel disappointed, angry, jealous, frustrated and all the other emotions.
Take the time to acknowledge how you feel. You might find it helpful to journal about how you feel. On the surface you might feel disappointment but when you take time to reflect it may be a much deeper and stronger emotion such as rejection.
When you have identified the emotions that you are experiencing, sit with them for a while. They will feel uncomfortable and unpleasant but allowing yourself to experience the emotions will let you process them so that you release them and allow them to pass.
- Be gracious and congratulate the successful candidate
This is probably the last thing you feel like doing but you need to grit your teeth and get on with it. It is likely that you will need to have a working relationship with this person in the future. They might even be your new boss, so it’s important to establish a positive working relationship.