This is a question sent into us from a member.

"I'm looking to get promoted but my boss doesn't yet see me as ready to take on leading more than the one difficult team I already have reporting to me right now. I'd like some advice on how to influence my manager to see things (and me) differently."

Answer: The first thing she needs to do is find out what her boss means by "ready."  After that,

Her first priority should be to do whatever she can to make the boss look good. And that includes delivering her expected results plus anticipating problems, having a contingency plan for fixing them if they occur, and in general, going beyond the expected. When her boss sess that kind of behavior, he'll probably begin to think "leader."

Next, get very clear on the criteria the boss uses when promoting someone and make sure she's got herself covered there. She should keep a running account of accomplishments and find ways to let the boss know what she's done. One way to do that is to start conveying matter-of-factly her top 3 accomplishments of the week during 1:1s.

And third, take the lead in anticipating what her boss' questions and concerns are about for every project she's working on, and have answers and plans for taking care of them. This should ease his mind and deepen his feeling of confidence in her strategic thinking capability. Again, this should have him thinking "leader." ability.

That's a good start.  She should do that for about 2-3 months, then ask to take on more complex work. But she shouldn't just ask, "Can you give me more challenging projects?" If she does that, she just might get what she doesn't want. Instead, she needs to know what she wants and ask for it specifically. While she's doing all of this, she has to begin cultivating relationships with people her boss considers important so that they, too, can see her accomplishments. Word is likely to get back to the boss.

(C) 2009 Denise Brouillette, San Francisco, CA. All Rights Reserved.

Denise Brouillette is the president of The Innovative Edge LLC and The Women's Edge in Leading.