Ask the expert: Map the way ahead

Your career questions answered by Dr Marie Wilson, an associate professor of management at the University of Auckland Business School and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business.

I have been working for my current employer for five years. My performance ratings have been good, and I have been promoted once.

The next step for me would be to the level of my boss, but I find it difficult to talk to her about it, without it sounding like I want her job, or making her think she is not performing well.

The promotion that you are seeking would be your first experience of managing other people, so you'll need more than just doing well at your current job to take that step.

You can prepare yourself by focusing on the skills and abilities that your manager or other effective managers display: communication; managing relationships across the business; delegating responsibilities; and coaching and developing others.

Effective managers also learn from what they do, and seek new ways to develop expertise over time.

To make the transition to managing others, many people seek out team projects and other focused activities that give them an opportunity to develop their skills in a setting with a clear focus and deadline.

Seeking feedback and developing yourself through team leadership can be a first step towards effective management.

Effective managers also learn in other ways; you would need greater industry and company awareness than you need now and there are a wide range of legal issues in the management of staff that you should be aware of.

Does your company provide training in these areas? If not, there are many courses and resources available to help build your abilities (and your CV) and demonstrate your readiness to advance.

One of the key expectations of a management role is managing upwards, so you might as well begin with your existing manager. Any performance discussion can also include career and professional development.

Use your next discussion to ask for feedback on where your career might be headed, and ask her about ways of developing any skills that might help you make the next move.

Far from being a threat, an employee who wants to gain supervisory skills may be a great asset to a manager with many projects to manage, as coaching someone else to do it improves two sets of management skills (hers and yours) while freeing up her time for strategic issues.

If you find that she does not support you, or perceives you as a threat, then you can continue to seek both feedback and support to develop these skills without her assistance, and perhaps seek a mentor or adviser somewhere else within the company, while networking to gain visibility and opportunities.