Getting Ready for a Promotion

I learned an uncomfortable truth about promotions from one of my long-time clients. For years, he’s been wanting to get promoted, and has been passed over. We finally figured out why. He was stuck being the best operator. What he was really being evaluated for by the executive management was something he’d never considered, nor invested into - his Executive Presence. 

He thought that being ‘go-to-person’ was his ticket to success. However, it was really a crutch. 

If you are the only one who can solve a specific problem, or run a specific project, your manager is probably hesitant to promote you. You’ve made yourself indispensable, but at your current level.

What we need to focus on is shifting from “Doing” to “Deciding.”  This is why judgement is a key requirement in leadership.

In your current role, your value is based on Attention to Detail and Subject Matter Mastery. That’s how you got there. But if you’re not seeing any progress, it may be due to a lack of Vision.

To play at the next level, your job isn’t to be the smartest person in the room anymore. It’s to build a process where you can handle the complexity, but your team can solve the problems. When you shift your disposition from fixing to enabling, people start to see you differently. 

Decision-makers are not mind readers. They are busy thinking about their own impact and careers. They are generally not tracking your wins - unless you send this to them on a regular cadence. 

Don’t wait around for your annual review to explain your value to the company. It’s important to start speaking their love language: strategy, revenue, priorities, team health. Try to make it easy for them to advocate for you. If it’s hard to summarize your impact in two sentences, you need to polish your clarity. 

In many companies promotions are not decided by the manager, but by a team of people who know of your work. As such, sponsorship is the real currency that actually matters. Firstly, who are these people? And what’s the best way I can build relationships with them and update them on a regular basis?

Another gap I notice is that people wait too late to talk about their career trajectory. Start in January if you can. Ask your manager and the sponsorship team, “What are the specific gaps between where I am and where I need to be?”  If they can’t tell you, there is a need to focus on your Self-Awareness and Communication skills.

It’s generally in your favor to own your narrative. I’ve had clients who have created “promo packages” where they create a summary of what their impact:

-Data: Revenue growth, costs saved, scaled achieved

-Leadership: Moments where they influenced with authority

-Growth: Being honest about what’s failed, what they have learned, and how they have evolved

When he brought this to the table, the dynamic changed. It became less about asking for a promotion, and more a strategic conversation about his future at the organization. 

Promotion is an exercise in confidence - not about you on you, but about the organization on you. It’s an organization deciding that you are in position to handle more ambiguity and greater complexity than you do today. 

Next Steps: If you feel like your career progression has slowed down, evaluate yourself against the 12 Pillars of Executive Leadership. Are you showing up with Confidence? Are you a model for Executive Presence?

Are you thinking about your next steps? Book a 1:1 chemistry session with me