The Groundwork Required for Promotion
When thinking about getting promoted, your boss is necessary but not sufficient. Much of the advice I see on promotions focused on how to speak with your boss about your promotion. And while this is all very important, I have found the biggest blocker to getting promoted isn’t actually with you, your manager or your proof, it is about the cross-functional support you need to get the actual promotion.
Table Stakes
Yes, the three most commonly referenced focus areas of you, your manager and proof are important:
Understand why you want a promotion
Understand how your manager is motivated
Create proof to get promoted.
But this is necessary, not sufficient to get promoted. Most times I, and those I have managed, struggle to get promoted is that cross-functional partners don’t know who we are, thus they can’t confirm we did the work on paper. Or they don’t understand the impact.
The Real Blocker
In most cases, especially for senior roles, your cross-functional partner relationships, or lack thereof, are the biggest blockers for getting you prompted.
Fact: Not everyone who deserves to get prompted at any given promotion cycle gets prompted. There are winners and losers in any promotion cycle and it isn’t always related to the quality of your work.
Why?
Competition - In most companies, above the entry-level PM role, your candidacy for promotion is discussed but a room of people also vying to get their direct reports prompted. You are being graded on a curve against these people who are sometimes outside your purview but within the larger PM organization. Often times, your manager has to compete against another manager to get you that promotion.
Scarcity Creates Sense of Value - There is a scarcity of roles and a feeling that there must be limits to keep the bar high. There is also often a scarcity of budget, so hard calls need to be made.
No Influence is a Leadership Weakness - As a senior leader, to be effective, you need to lead across the product organization and the company in general. If you are not doing that, you will not get promoted. And this is a valid concern, if you can’t lead outside your team, you can’t be effective in the way your company requires. It is a fair skillset to be evaluated on. However, it is very political. It is not always fair and rarely impartial part of the process. It is a very gray area.
What Can You Do?
Build Relationships - You need to meet regularly with leaders outside your core product but within your manager’s sphere. You can do that by:
Set 1:1s with these leaders - Ask your boss who needs to know you for a promotion and then try to get face time with these people. Understand what will impress them and make sure they know you have done the work.
Help their teams out - Look for opportunities to support other teams when they are blocked. Or take on extra work that has cross-functional or cross-team visibility.
Present in Executive Meetings - This requires your manager’s support to get a spot to present before executives.
Volunteer for Messing Projects - A great way to get noticed is to take the lead on messy initiatives few want to manage. Take care of something that was stressing everyone and suddenly multiple people notice you. This opportunities aren’t as easy to find but when they come up, don’t dismiss them for their messiness, consider embracing them for their potential.
Document Your Work Outside Your Team - My advice on the Callout comes back. Yes, broadcasting what your team is doing weekly or bi-weekly makes all the difference in your success.
Quantify your Successes in their Language - If you only talk about your successes in metrics and language that makes sense to your team, it is hard for others to translate. When you talk about successes, do the heavy lifting of relating it to overall company impact.
The times I didn’t get promoted when I have done all the work can always be pointed back to the fact that the powerful people in the room didn’t know who I was and so couldn’t support my candidacy for promotion. The more senior you are in your career, the more important cross-functional and more senior awareness of your accomplishments and general contributions are to your promotion.
Relationship Building
You can’t wait until the last minute. Building relationships and getting visibility takes time. Therefore, while you need to build trust with your manager before you can start asking who you need to influence, don’t wait too long. Soon after you have proven yourself in a new role, ask your manager about who will be in the room when your promotion is discussed and how you can help influence them.
Resources
Helpful materials when trying to understand those you need to influence and how to speak with them:
Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash