3 Steps for Analysts to Grow into Senior or Lead Roles

Anthony Soltero -

Every career starts in an entry level position, but you don't want to stay there.

That's career death.

The goal is to grow and grab that next promotion into a senior or lead role.

You need a reliable process to learn skills, build a reputation, and make an impact. If you have one, it will be straightforward to provide value and prove that you are ready for that next promotion.

Here's how you do it.

1) Identify a skill-gap on the team

No team is perfect.

This means there are gaps that can be filled. The people that fill these gaps get recognized and promoted. That person should be you.

Identify the skill-gap by observing your team and peers. What skills are missing? What projects are less successful than others? Where do the mistakes occur? Which projects take too long to complete?

The skill-gap could be related to any skill, technical skills, leadership skills, project management skills, writing skills, communication skills, etc.

Pick a skill-gap that you can excel in. One that comes naturally to you. One that you can master better than anyone on your team.

Then specialize in it.

2) Specialize your skillset to close skill-gap

Once you've identified the gap, close it.

Make it the focus of your daily work. Learn what's needed to be the expert and implement your new knowledge. It's not enough to keep your knowledge in your head, you have to take action.

If the skill-gap is low-quality code, make your code impeccable. Eliminate bugs, optimize performance, and follow industry best practices.

If projects are delivered late and suffer from scope creep, manage efficient projects. Gather clear requirements from stakeholders, agree on deadlines, communicate often, and deliver on the desired results.

If your team doesn't have AI knowledge, incorporate AI in your work to increase productivity in a way that enhances the value of what you do.

Do this with focus and you will carve a niche for yourself in your team.

3) Train team members to build that skill

Now it's time to scale your impact.

Train up your peers to learn the skill you've just mastered. Take the focus off of yourself and place it on the team. You're showing your manager that you care about the team's success, not just your individual accomplishments. This is a key attribute of seniors and leads.

Here are a few strategies you can use to train the team:

  • Hold knowledge sharing meetings where you demo your new work and teach the team how they can implement it themselves.
  • Offer advice and ideas to individual team members when collaborating on a project. Don't make it overt, they don't need to know that you're training them up. Give them examples of what you've done in the past and how they might implement it in their project.
  • Tell your manager about the skill you've developed and ask for their support to spread it to the team (sometimes it's better for communication to come from the manager).
  • Make your work public to the team. Train them indirectly by showing them what you've done and learned. People will naturally feel the competition and want to level-up themselves.

As you take these steps, you will:

  • Increase the capability of your peers.
  • Help the team accomplish more.
  • Make your boss look good.
  • Build your reputation.
  • Get promoted.

You'll gain a deeper understanding of the skill and what it takes to raise the level of the team.

Once you master one skill gap, move on to the next one.

Now there are no limits to growth.