7 Boring Things That Actually Get You Promoted Faster

 

People assume promotions happen because of one big moment, one high-visibility project, one perfect performance cycle.   They don’t. They happen because of small, repeatable habits that compound quietly over time.   The Mistake High Performers Keep Making Most career advice focuses on big moves. The high-visibility project. The stretch assignment. The perfectly timed promotion ask.   Those things matter, but they’re not the foundation. What actually determines whether you get promoted is how you show up in the small, repeatable moments, week after week.   Here are the boring habits that quietly separate the people who move up from the people who stay stuck.

The Unsexy Habits That Actually Work (When You Do Them Consistently) 1. Writing status updates that tell a story, not a to-do list Most updates sound like this: “I finished X, I’m working on Y, Z is blocked.”   That tells your manager you’re busy. It does not tell them you’re ready for more responsibility.   Stronger updates answer three questions: What changed? Why does it matter? What’s next?   Example Instead of: “I finished the rollout and I’m monitoring results.”   Try: “We completed the rollout, which reduced onboarding time by ~15%. Next step is stabilizing adoption. No major risks right now.”   Same work. Very different signal. Do this every week and people start trusting you with bigger scope because your work feels under control.   2. Spending 10 intentional minutes preparing for meetings This sounds obvious but almost no one does it well.   That extra 10 minutes is the difference between answering questions and shaping the conversation. Most people show up and react. People who get promoted show up with a point of view.   Before a meeting, ask yourself: What decision might get made here? What does success look like for my manager in this conversation? Where could this get stuck?   That prep changes the quality of your questions and comments. And that changes how you’re perceived. Stop telling yourself you don’t have time, and make time. Add 10 minute breaks between meetings (just set it up with your email provider) or block 15 min at the beginning or end of every day to prep for what’s ahead.   3. Translating your work into business impact out loud Executives don’t promote effort. They promote impact.   If you only talk about features, tasks, or hours worked, you’re making it harder for others to advocate for you.   I know you’ve heard this advice a million times, but what have you done to upgrade your communication, instead of just winging it?   Get in the habit of translating: Did this save time? Reduce risk? Increase revenue? Improve customer experience?   If you don’t connect the dots, no one else will. This is how you move from “great IC” to “business thinker” while doing the same work…   4. Repeating your value in 1:1s (without making it awkward) Visibility isn’t bragging. It’s memory management. Your manager is juggling a lot. They will forget your wins unless you remind them.   A simple pattern that works: One win from the last week Why it mattered What you’re focused on next   Not once. Every 1:1. Over time, your impact becomes familiar. Familiarity is what turns into trust and advocacy.   5. Following up on stretch opportunities more than once I’ve seen so many professionals raise their hand once and then wait. They’re worried about looking pushy or rude, but once is usually not enough.   The most successful entrepreneurs know that “Business is in the follow up” and it’s the same in your career. Opportunities often go to the person who stays engaged, available and top of mind.   A simple follow-up sounds like: “Just checking back. Still really interested if timing opens up.”   Don’t stop at the first “no”, or “not right now”. Take a minute, evaluate, improve, try again. That’s not pushy. It signals ownership. I heard “no” when I applied to my first VP role. I followed up with the hiring manager a few months later, offering some perspective. The next day they asked me to come interview again.   6. Turning vague feedback into visible action “Be more strategic” is not actionable feedback. When you hear it, your job is to clarify it.   Ask: “What would someone at the next level do differently in my role?”   Then make those behaviors visible: Broader framing Clear tradeoffs Fewer details, more direction   Feedback only works when others can see the change. I wish every manager knew how to give actionable feedback, but unfortunately most don’t. Don’t stay stuck because your manager can’t give constructive feedback.   7. Tracking your wins as you go Do you remember your biggest wins from 6 months ago? The exact numbers, the impact and who knows about it? Things move so quickly we often forget or minimize our impact when we look back.   That’s not great if you want to show how far you’ve come and how you’ve grown. Keep a simple running doc that captures your wins: What changed Why it mattered Who it impacted   This becomes your future promotion case without the the last minute scramble. It will also fuel your executive narrative and show your impact.

Your Next Steps The real takeaway? None of these habits are impressive on their own. They only work because they compound.   Most people try them once, don’t see immediate results, and move on.   The people who move faster do the boring things long enough for the compounding effect to kick in.

The 90-Day Plan to Become the Obvious Choice for VP

 

So if I had 90 days to shift how senior leaders saw me, here is the exact action plan I would follow.

Step 1: The VP Mirror Before you do anything else, you need to stop guessing how you’re perceived.   At senior levels, promotions are less about output and more about risk. Executives ask themselves whether promoting you feels safe, predictable, and aligned with the business.   The VP Mirror forces you to see yourself the way decision-makers see you, not the way your performance reviews read.   Run The Perception Audit Answer yes or no: Do I know who actually influences VP promotion decisions in my organization? Do I know what those people care about at the VP level? Can I clearly articulate how they currently describe me in one sentence? Does that description emphasize strategy, judgment, and outcomes, or execution and effort? If a VP role opened tomorrow, would they say “ready now” or “strong potential”?   If you answered “no” more than twice, you’re not behind. You’re operating without a mirror. That’s the fastest way to work hard and stay stuck.   Your Action: Write down: The 3–5 people who shape VP decisions What you believe each one would say about you today What you need them to say about you to be seen as ready   This becomes the baseline for everything else.   Step 2: The One-and-Done Visibility Plan Once people realize there’s a perception gap, they usually jump straight to “I need more visibility” and try to be everywhere. That’s a recipe for burnout.   Visibility is not about being louder or busier. It’s about sending the right signal, consistently, at the right altitude with the right people.   Senior leaders don’t notice who is everywhere. They notice who shows up talking about decisions, tradeoffs, and outcomes.   That’s why I teach a one-signal-per-week visibility plan. You invest your time in one action that gives you the right kind of exposure and doesn’t burn you out.   What counts as a real visibility signal? A visibility signal answers one question for senior leaders: “Can I already imagine this person operating at the VP level?”   Examples: Presenting a recommendation instead of a status update Leading a cross-functional discussion tied to a business priority Reframing a problem leadership is already debating Sharing an executive update that answer questions before they are asked   Same work. Different altitude.   What doesn’t work Speaking more without changing the substance Volunteering for extra work that stays invisible Being busy in the wrong rooms   Your Action: Plan the next four weeks of visibility. For each week, write: Where will I be visible? (email, meeting, 1:1, slack) Who will see this? (Manager, Skip, leadership, cross functional) What do they need to see? (Decision, strategy, impact…)   This is what strategic visibility is all about. Specific and targeted action that put you in front of the right people and create the right perception. Inside my program we provide a quarterly visibility plan with weekly action items so you never have to wonder “am I doing enough?”   Step 3: The Sponsor Matrix Senior promotions are a team sport. They happen when someone senior is willing to bet on you. Mentors advise. Supporters encourage. Sponsors advocate when you’re not in the room.   Sponsorship does not come from coffee chats or long relationships alone. You may have a standing one-on-one with your cross functional SVP but that doesn’t mean they’ll go to bat for you. Sponsorship comes from shared wins at the right altitude, with the right stakeholders.   Identify Your Sponsor Matrix You don’t need to be everyone’s BFF, in fact, you probably shouldn’t. What you need is to identify the 3 stakeholders beyond your manager who matter most for your promotion.   That list usually includes: Your skip level SLT members C-suite / Board   Then ask: What do they care about right now? How does my work make their priorities easier to achieve? Where could a shared win naturally exist?   Your Action: Choose one person from your Sponsor Shortlist and get on their calendar in the next 30 days with a value-led agenda. Less “let’s catch up” more “This [project] can help with [their agenda]”.   Step 4: The Reputation Ladder As you grow, your reputation must move up the ladder. Most high performers are described like this: “She gets things done.” “He’s reliable.” “They execute really well.”   That’s not wrong. It’s just not senior enough.   At the VP level, reputation sounds different: “She’s very strategic” “He can handle ambiguity.” “They make strong decisions under pressure.”   The Reputation Ladder is about intentionally moving your narrative to the next rung. It’s how you shape how people see you, instead of letting them make their own assumptions.   A great example of executive narrative done well is the 60-second executive introduction formula (I break down it down here). It’s how you go from: ”Hey, I’m maya, Director as ACME corp” to: ”Hey, I’m Maya, The Director of Marketing here at ACME corp. My team and I are focused on aligning marketing and sales to hit our revenue goals. In the last 8 months we’ve completely overhauled our brand positioning, a $1m project that has already landed us 2 new logos with 3 more in the pipeline. I’ll be happy to connect and share more offline.”   Your Action: Write two short paragraphs: Paragraph 1: How you’re typically described today Paragraph 2: How a VP-ready leader should be described   That delta shows you exactly what needs to change.   Step 5: The Promotion Case You won’t see this as a requirement anywhere, but a promotion business case is non-negotiable. If you don’t make the case for your promotion, no one else will do it for you.   A Promotion Case is not: a resume, a performance review, or a list of past accomplishments.   It is a future-focused argument for why the business benefits from you operating at the next level.   A strong Promotion Case answers: What scope am I already operating at? What problems do I own beyond my role? What decisions do I influence? What outcomes have changed because of my leadership? What additional value could I unlock at the next level?   This is not something you “send cold.” It’s something you use to anchor conversations with your manager and sponsors.   Your Action: Start a win bank to track your scope, impact and influence. To nail your future facing plan ask yourself: If I was promoted today, what would I do differently? That’s your plan.   The 90-Day Execution Plan Here’s how this actually turns into action.   Days 1–30 Complete the VP Mirror perception audit Draft your current vs. desired Reputation Ladder Identify your Sponsor Shortlist   Days 31–60 Build and execute your One-Signal Visibility Plan weekly Start creating shared wins with at least one sponsor Refine your executive narrative   Days 61–90 Synthesize everything into a Promotion Case Align with your manager on readiness and timing Strengthen advocacy behind the scenes   Copy-Paste Checklist: Are You VP-Ready? Use this as your working list.  I’ve completed a VP Mirror perception audit  I know who influences VP decisions and how I’m perceived  I have a 4-week One-Signal Visibility Plan  I’ve defined my Sponsor Shortlist (3 names)  I’ve drafted my Reputation Ladder narrative  I’ve started a future-focused Promotion Case

Your Next Steps This list above? That is your next move. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Don’t try to do it all at once, but stay consistent. One action every week for 90 days will get you closer to a promotion than you’ve ever been.

The 3 systems that took me from overworked Director to thriving VP

 

If you want to grow into VP without sacrificing your sanity, you need three simple systems running in the background: A system for relationships A system for communication A system for visibility   Let me show you what that looks like in real life.

1. The Relationship Capital System For most of my career, I secretly thought networking was for losers.   In my mind, it was something people did when they didn't have real results. I had results. I worked hard. I figured if I just kept delivering, the right people would notice.   Then I joined Microsoft.   On my very first week, my manager looked at my calendar, then looked at me and said: "You need to spend at least 20 percent of your time building relationships. That is part of your job." I hated hearing that. I did not want to "schmooze."   And, to be honest, I was terrible at it at first.   But once I stopped resisting and actually learned how to network the right way, everything changed.   Those relationships opened doors. They made it easier to get approvals. They made tough conversations smoother. They created a chorus of people who could vouch for me when I was not in the room. Eventually, those same people were the ones advocating for my promotions.   That is when I understood something uncomfortable but true: My work alone was never going to decide whether I got promoted.   Every leadership team wants social proof. They want to know other leaders trust you, like working with you, and believe you are ready. If you ignore networking, you are basically leaving your promotion up to chance.   That is why you need a Relationship Capital System.   A relationship capital system is how you build real, sustainable relationships with stakeholders. The kind that does not require sucking up or doing more work. The kind that builds trust and rapport over time and turns leaders into advocates and sponsors.   Here is what my system looked like in practice: I mapped out the three to five most important stakeholders for my role and my next step. Then I did a listening tour. My first meetings were not about me. They were about them.   What do they care about? What are their goals and KPIs? Where are they stuck? What does success look like for them this year?   Once I understood that, my job was simple: find ways to be useful that lined up with what they already cared about.   Sometimes that meant sharing customer insights they did not have yet. Sometimes it was looping them in early on a project that affected their team. Sometimes it was pressure-testing a strategy with them before a big meeting.   To make this repeatable, I built a tracker. Five columns: Name of stakeholder What they need most / what they care about How I can add value Last touchpoint Next touchpoint   My rule was simple: three to five stakeholders, one meaningful touchpoint periodically. Not spam. Not "just checking in." Something that actually helped them.   That is a Relationship Capital System. It is focused. Strategic. Process-based.   You are no longer trying to be nice to everyone and chase every leader. You are intentionally investing in the few people who can truly move your career forward.   This is what I teach inside of Success Builders so you never have to sit there wondering, "Who should I talk to?" or "What do I even say?" You have a simple process to follow to build trust and rapport over time.   2. The Executive Communication System Being a strong communicator is how I got my job at Microsoft in the first place.   When I was interviewing, they did not ask me to prepare anything extra. But I knew that if they could see how I thought about the industry and the role, it would change how they saw me.   So I created a presentation about the exact space my role would focus on: What I had done in that industry, what I learned, and where I saw opportunities.   I walked them through my thinking. Not just what I knew, but how I would apply it.   That deck got me the job.   Later, communicating like an executive is what helped me become a VP, and then land my second VP role in a completely different country. I became the person who could take complex information and make it simple, relevant, and actionable for senior leaders.   That is what an Executive Communication System does.   It becomes your core engine of influence, because it is how you take everything in your head and share it in a way that makes leadership not just understand you, but want to support you.   Most people overcomplicate this.   They think they need to sound "more professional." They obsess over filler words. They write longer and longer emails and proposals that still fall flat.   So they try harder. Write more. Talk more… But all they create is more noise. Trying harder will not fix a broken communication approach.   You need a system.   For me, that system starts with three simple questions. Before I send anything or open my mouth in a high stakes situation, I pause and ask: Who is this for? What is the main goal? What do they need to quickly understand?   If you run every email, Slack message, update, and presentation through that filter, everything you say becomes more intentional.   Then you pair those questions with a recurring cadence of touchpoints that build your reputation over time instead of in random bursts: A weekly one-on-one with your manager where you talk about impact and priorities, not just status. A monthly update to your skip-level, aligned to their goals. At least one company-wide or org-wide touchpoint each quarter where your work is visible at scale.   Now your communication is not just "good." It is consistent, targeted, and tied to outcomes decision makers care about.   And we are living in an age where you do not even have to figure this out alone. You can feed a GPT who you are talking to and what your goal is, and get help shaping the clearest, most strategic version of your message.   That is exactly what my clients do with our custom GPTs and their weekly touchpoints. They are not spending hours wrestling with the perfect sentence. They are using a system to make sure every important piece of communication lands the right way and builds their reputation.   This is what makes communication a strategic lever, not a volume game.   3. The Strategic Visibility System I have lived both extremes of visibility.   At first, I wanted nothing to do with the spotlight. I put in zero effort to be seen and told myself my work would speak for itself. So I stayed in the background, worked harder, and waited.   Nothing happened.   Once I realized visibility mattered, I swung hard in the other direction. I tried to be everywhere. Joining every meeting. Offering to help with everything. Saying yes to anything that might theoretically get me "seen."   That did not work either. It was draining and unsustainable.   What finally clicked for me was this: There is a sweet spot in the middle called strategic visibility.   This is where you get seen by the right people, at the right time, with the right message. You are not trying to be everywhere. You are intentional about where you show up and how.   A Strategic Visibility System is how you build your reputation on purpose. You do the work. Then you make sure that work is actually seen and valued by the people who make decisions.   This is not about doing more. It is about distributing the impact of what you are already doing. And yes, it really can work for you 24/7, because once you build the system, it keeps running in the background.   For me, the game-changer was creating an actual visibility action plan. Not hoping. Not, "If someone asks, I'll share." I moved from reactive to intentional.   One action per week. One stakeholder per week. One moment where I intentionally reinforced my value and positioning.   That might be a short update tying my work to a key business priority. Sharing an insight in a meeting where the right people are present. Volunteering to present outcomes at a forum where I had not traditionally been visible.   It is a simple structure: three core stakeholders, one intentional visibility action each week. It is not loud. It is not needy. It is not "look at me." It is a distribution system for your hard work.   Do something once. Share it with multiple people in a leveraged way. Let that momentum compound. This is what it looks like when you do it right (you get this template when you work with me)

If you are exhausted from chasing every room and joining every meeting, you do not need more hustle. You need a better system.    Your Next Steps So here is the real question: Do you actually have systems for these three things?   Not just ideas. Not "I know I should network more." Not "I try to communicate clearly." Not "I know I need to be more visible."   Real structure. A repeatable way to do this every month without overthinking it.   Because knowing is not the problem. Everyone knows they should build relationships, communicate well, and make their work visible.   The gap is doing it consistently in a way that does not burn you out.   These three systems are how you protect your time and energy and still grow into VP. They let you spend less effort each time, get better results, and stop relying on hope or luck.   If you want a simple place to start this week, do this: Pick one of the three systems. Choose one small action that starts the process. Put it on your calendar as a recurring reminder.