When is the perfect time to ask for that promotion?

The boss could ask you if you are indeed qualified. PHOTO | FILE 

By DR FRANK NJENGA

Qn. “I am eyeing a certain position. The person in that position will retire soon. Do I just walk to my boss’ office and say ‘’I think I am suited for the position.’’

Take a deep breath and imagine a conversation such as you now propose to get yourself into.

Imagine the boss is sitting behind his big desk and you walk in dressed in your best clothes on a Monday morning and after the usual pleasantries you, in a manner of speaking, say something like “I think I am suited for Sang’s job as sales manager.”

Depending on factors that are almost too many to contemplate, you could get answers that range from “of course, that is what we have been grooming you for in the past two years… I am surprised you ask the question. Your appointment comes up at the next board meeting and is a matter of formality. Make sure the HR department makes adequate plans for his farewell party.”

In the alternative the boss could take a look at you and say something like “you simply don’t get it do you! We are in the middle of an investigation for fraud in the sales department, you are one of the suspects and you want me to consider you for promotion. Go to the HR department and pick up a letter of suspension and go home right away.”

Other possibilities obviously exist. The boss could for example ask you to sit down and gently ask you if you are indeed qualified to replace Mr Sang.

He might want you to explain what experience you have and how you think that experience and Mr Sang’s present job are matched.

Put another way, you might have found the boss in a good mood and it is possible that you have landed yourself in an interview that the boss has been planning for you in the past few days. Your sudden question could be, as they say, God sent.

At the other extreme, you might confront the boss at the worst possible moment. Unknown to you, the board had retreated to Naivasha for the weekend and things are not looking good for the company.

A look at the overall performance meant that the company might have to issue a profit warning. This means that there will be at least a 25 per cent drop in profits for the current year.

The reality is that the company is about to announce the biggest loss since inception, and the entire weekend was spent trying to formulate a turnaround strategy.

Under the stress and weight of the board, the boss had, on the night before you asked him about Mr Sang’s job, downed half a bottle of gin to calm his nerves.

As you would learn later, when he got home from Naivasha that Sunday night, he found his wife fuming and raging because he did not turn up for the grandchild’s baptism, and must have taken a girlfriend to Naivasha and definitely was not at the board meeting!

The fact that his blood pressure had gone up is because he forgot to carry his BP medication, a fact made worse by the sweating and trembling because his blood sugar was too low.

He had injected himself with insulin for the diabetes but had not eaten because of the tension around him! The wife said he was sweating because of guilt.

When you asked him about Mr Sang’s job, you were the last straw in the heap of his problems and no wonder he threw you out without a further word.

So far, no consideration has been given to your personal attributes and whether you truly believe you are qualified to take up the job.

Indeed it is possible that Mr Sang’s job will exist no more after his retirement. The conversation that your boss (when in a good mood) might prefer to engage in is how the department you now work in might be changed for the benefit of the company, after Mr Sang’s retirement.

Mr Sang was brilliant in selling soap products in the rural areas. He has, for the past 30 years had a way with chiefs and sub-chiefs in the countryside.

He had found a (non corrupt) way of selling his name and products around chiefs’ barazas, and had found a team that had its way with school headmasters.

His strategy was very much driven by personal contacts at the community level.

Going forward, and because the company had bought a beauty line to expand its product base, marketing had to become more modern, and aimed at young men and women in their late teens and early twenties.

Getting products to them was beyond Mr Sang and that is where you come in with your IT based distribution ideas.

You plan to get products moving through Face book and Twitter and had found a way of getting high school old boys and old girls network on social media!

The boss might be convinced to give you the job that very morning!