‘Eat The Frog’ and Get Promoted

If a new year promotion is on your wish list, read on as HR expert April Kearns shares an interesting approach to making this a reality in 2024.

I recently read an interesting article in Insider Business on a successful Silicon Valley employee and his account as to how he worked his way to the top of organizations such as META and Google - he called it ‘eating the frog’ This is where you do the jobs that your boss hates and get rewarded in return. This got me wondering how many people in their roles consciously ‘eat the frog’ with an aim to climb the corporate ladder and who this comes naturally  to without a second thought?

I am naturally a people pleaser. Not always a great quality to have and once a therapist even called me a brown noser (and no I didn’t go back to her for a further session). However, what I have found is that my line managers have always found value in my helpfulness - I’m willing to get my hands dirty and do the jobs that they don’t want to do. This, in my mind, is what I have been hired for, no? This could be classed as ‘eating the frog’. But have I ever done this with an aim to achieve a promotion - honestly, with a hand on my heart, I can say no. I have done this with an aim of building a reputation that makes me hard to replace and a trusted brand ambassador to the business.

So, what does ‘eating the frog’ look like for someone who is proactively looking for progression and not just merit? 

• They are generally very good at their current job. 

• They figure out what their line managers don’t like doing. 

• They learn how to do these jobs.

• They then take this load from their manager and do that job well too. 

Simple, right? However, fighting the urge to want to learn to do the more glamorous parts of your profession may make you forget that this is a pretty handy career strategy to pay attention to. ‘Eating the frog’ will see you playing the long game, you will take time improving the accuracy and time it takes you to do your current tasks, whilst quietly observing your line managers priorities, work patterns and likes and dislikes. Once you have mastered this strategy, you should find yourself as a trusted go to team member with an increased likelihood of progression. 

As we are at the start of the year, why not build a little ‘eat the frog’ into your strategy for success this year and see what happens?