Most workers are looking to advance within their company. In order to score a promotion, you must consistently deliver quality results and distinguish yourself in the workplace.
So how does one go about moving up in ranks?
In their popular TED Talks, experts Susan Cain, Susan Colantuono and Margaret Heffernan share tips to stand out and advance at work.
1. Build a strong relationship with your boss
If you're an introverted employee, standing out from the herd may be more difficult, says best-selling author Susan Cain. However, introverted employees have one crucial skill: the ability to establish deep personal relationships.
In her 2012 TED Talk, "The Power of Introverts," Cain discusses the many talents and abilities employees with this personality type possess. Her presentation has since garnered over 17 million views.
Cain tells CNBC Make It that introverted employees are better able to foster one-on-one relationships with their bosses and should flex this muscle if they want to score a promotion.
"They move up one deep connection at a time to get ahead," she says.
The first step in doing so, she says, is to be proactive in reaching out to your manager and discussing your three or five-year career plan.
Cain says that having this person-to-person meeting expressing a desire to take on leadership roles is especially important for introverts.
"What happens sometimes is that people assume a quiet person is less ambitious, which is not at all true," she says. By taking the initiative to express career goals with their boss, introverts can take the guess work out of the equation.
2. Show that you're a leader
In order to be treated like a leader, you must first establish yourself as one, says Susan Colantuono, CEO and founder of the consulting firm Leading Women.
In her 2013 TED Talk "The Career Advice You Probably Didn't Get," Colantuono says that in order to move up in an organization, "you have to be recognized for using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others." The speech has been viewed over 3 million times.
You must show that you have the leadership and ability to help your company reach its maximum potential if you want to be promoted, she says.
Colantuono pinpoints the three key skills employees should have if they want to snag a lead role in the workplace: business, strategic and financial acumen.
These skills "have to do with understanding where the organization is going, what its strategy is, what financial targets it has in place and understanding your role in moving the organization forward," she says.
3. Partake in conflict
Most people try to avoid getting involved in drama at the office. However, Margaret Heffernan, a former CEO of five businesses, says, "Good disagreement is central to progress."
In her 2012 TED Talk "Dare to Disagree," Heffernan argues that successful teams and businesses are formed when people are able to "deeply disagree." However, she says that most people are afraid of confrontation, which is detrimental to their professional development. Her presentation has over 3 million views.
Heffernan explains that in surveys of European and American executives, 85 percent of them acknowledged that they had issues or concerns at work that they were afraid to raise. Why? Because they were "afraid of the conflict that would provoke, afraid to get embroiled in arguments that they did not know how to manage and felt that they were bound to lose," she says.
However, Heffernan says that conflict is simply showing that you're knowledgeable about your subject matter and are willing to be authoritative, which is a necessary skill for a leader.
The former CEO admits that these are skills that must be practiced over time. "I think we need to be teaching these skills to kids and adults at every stage of their development," she says, "if we want to have thinking organizations and a thinking society."
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See also:
3 TED Talks you should watch if you want to be successful
Billionaire Jeff Bezos says being smart isn't enough—you also need this to be successful
The No. 1 trait most hiring managers look for when interviewing candidates
