Client: I was passed over for promotion 6 months ago. This time, I am working closely with my manager and my skip level on my promotion package. We’ve documented my impact and accomplishments for the case and have received support from my cross-functional partners. What am I missing? What else can I do to increase my chances?
As an executive coach who helps women and minorities move up the career ladder, one mistake I notice often is that people narrowly focus their promotion pitch on their past accomplishments. Here’s what I’ve done, and here’s the impact it had. They falsely believe that because they did a great job, they deserve the promotion.
Unfortunately, past performance is necessary but insufficient. Past performance can indicate capability. However, what is missing is timing and the potential to deliver at the next level. A great promotion case requires these two additional components.
Timing: Why should we promote you now? Why not in 6 months? What do we gain by paying you more now?
Potential: Will you succeed at the next level? What does that mean for business impact? How critical is the success of your next role or project to the business?
Businesses don’t do promotions at senior levels because you “deserve” it. They promote those who have the highest potential to deliver outsized impact and value. While past performance is an indicator of future success, it’s important to make the case that yours is the most impactful promotion to the business to make happen now.
You’ve done great work (and will likely keep doing great work). So why promote you now?
The key here is to articulate what the business will additionally gain from your promotion compared with if you continued at your current level. Ironically, this is where people who work harder after missing out on a promotion shoot themselves in the foot. By showing you can do the work without the promotion, you are giving the business less incentive to promote.
When making the case for “why now”, consider these aspects:
How does your success necessitate a more senior role? Consider this from the perspective of writing a job description for your replacement. What would be the mandatory requirements? Some common factors that up-level a role include:
Hire and lead more senior team members
Peer leveling and default invitations to small-group leadership forums
Need to represent the company externally at conferences and workshops with a higher title. For those VP-level roles, building an external brand can help make the case for internal promotions.
Do you have attractive alternatives? Whether you think it’s fair or not, promotion as a tool for retention is the business reality. Intentionally or not, managers sometimes delay promotions until it is essential to retain you. In some ways, if they give the promotion, you may be more likely to leave if you are not fully satisfied. Make it clear you don’t plan to leave, but that there are attractive alternatives should the company not allow you to operate at your highest potential.
In any company with more than 50 people, there are multiple people up for promotion in a review cycle. Unless you’re at a high-flying AI-native startup, the promotion budget is likely capped. With the on margins and profitability, VPs and executives are more frequently fighting to get their people promoted. In addition to addressing your past accomplishments and timing, it is important to articulate why your specific promotion is essential for business success.
This process looks a bit like writing your future performance review for the new role:
Articulate the criticality of the new role: How does it connect with critical business metrics? How does it impact the success of other core teams? What might be at risk if you’re slowed down by unnecessary politics?
Show the business gain: How does the promotion accelerate your impact? How does it free up your capacity through increased delegation? How does it increase your effectiveness and speed up your work?
Compared to other roles, why is your promotion potentially more critical? Is your role more closely tied to revenue and top-line growth? To a higher priority company goal? This is one of the primary reasons high-visibility projects create faster promotion paths. Or why certain functions see faster promotions than others.
The three components of a great promotion story will include past performance to demonstrate capability and potential, timing criticality, and relative importance to other roles. Having strong arguments on all three fronts will help your leadership pound the table for your promotion to go through.
That’s all folks! See you next week at 3:14 pm.
Yue
High-stakes meetings break down because we misunderstand incentives, pressures, and fears. On Feb 11, I’m teaching a free lesson on how to use simple AI workflows to anticipate conflicts and communicate with confidence. Register here.
Wondering what might be stopping you from that next promotion? Check out my The Uncommon Executive Leadership Accelerator made for mid-career leaders looking to transition from a do-er to a lead-er. Over 8 weeks, we cover the core leadership skills you need to become a top 1% leader.