Why you’re being overlooked for VP

 

How VP Promotions Really Get Decided Promotions into VP roles are not merit badges for effort. They are strategic decisions.   Senior leaders look at a bigger, more complex, more visible set of problems and ask one thing. If we give this person that scope, does the business feel safer and move faster?   Inside calibration rooms, no one is studying your last twelve status reports. Leaders are scanning for signals that show you can operate at their altitude. Those signals fall into three buckets.   Perception of leadership Do you lower the noise or add to it. When you speak, do hard things become simple or more complicated. In the first two sentences, do you surface a decision, a tradeoff, and a next step. Or do you list activities and caveats. At the executive level, clarity under pressure is the currency. Your stance, your structure, and your brevity create the perception of leadership. That perception moves decisions.   Trust at scale Directors can still win by doing more. VPs win by scaling more. Leaders look for proof that your results come from systems, operating processes, and decisions that work through other people. Not late night heroics. They notice when meetings end with owners and dates. They notice when momentum continues without you in the room. That is what trust at scale feels like.   Strategic fit Timing matters. Promotions accelerate when your bets point at the problems the company must solve in the next two quarters. Alignment is not politics. It is listening, translating, and tying your outcomes to the metrics that matter now. When your plan matches their goals, leaders feel safer moving you up.   If you remember one line from this section, remember this. At VP altitude, the bar is not did you deliver. The bar is can we trust you to make the business safer and faster when the stakes are high.   Your job is to make the answer to this question “hell yes”.

Four Patterns That Keep High Performers Overlooked Most professionals who get stuck at mid-management are not missing talent. They are trapped in old behaviors that create the wrong perception of how others read their talent. Let’s see if you can recognize yourself in one or more of these:   Pattern 1: Doer optics You move fast and solve problems by yourself. That instinct made you invaluable early on. At this stage, it works against you. Executives see someone who keeps the trains running, not someone who decides where the tracks should go. The more you prove you can handle it all, the more people give you more. Not a promotion. More work.   Pattern 2: Invisible above the manager line Your manager knows your value. Their peers do not. Promotions are decided by the people two levels up who have to feel your impact. If your updates are not visible to them, or if they read like status updates, the conversation ends before it begins. Executive promotions require visibility. They can’t promote what they can’t see.   Pattern 3: No sponsor bench Executive promotions are a team sport. Someone has to say your name in rooms you are not in and vouch for you. Think of it like getting 5-star reviews in real life. If you have not cultivated senior sponsors, you are fighting with no one in your corner. Without advocates it will be hard for your manager to make a case for your promotion.   Pattern 4: No business case for you People like you. They respect you. But could they argue why you should be VP right now. If the answer is no, you are vulnerable. Decision makers want low risk. Without a tight narrative that ties wins to company goals, spells out insights, and names the bets you would make when you have the VP scope, you won’t stand out (and at this level the competition is fierce).   The cost of these patterns They are silent career killers. They stop you from being seen at the next level no matter how hard you work. Over time the cost compounds. More work, same title. Peers leapfrog you.   You’re perceived as reliable but not executive material. The longer it sticks, the harder it is to scrape off.   The VP Shift Model Don’t worry, you do not need a new personality to level up. You need new signals. The VP Shift framework (the one I teach inside of my coaching. program) shows you the three levers you need to work on. When these levers are visible, decision makers start reading you as executive.   Confidence This is not about speaking the loudest. Confidence is about having clarity and conviction. The confidence to push back and protect priorities. The courage to make the hard call even when it’s uncomfortable. People feel safer when you speak because the noise drops and the can see the path forward.   It also means you don’t second guess yourself or try to outsource decisions. You learn to quiet the voice that says you’re an imposter and show up regardless.   What it feels like: Being comfortable in every room you step into, no matter the stakes. Facing hard conversations instead of avoiding them, and making fast decisions without guarantee for success.   Executive presence Presence is not polish. It is a pattern. Rooms feel calmer and more decisive when you are in charge. Conflicts turn into tradeoffs. Meetings become decision factories. People leave with energy because ambiguity got converted into motion.   What it looks like: Taking space, but still making room for others. Thinking strategically at the organization level, not just your scope of work. Getting buy-in and budget approvals because your communication lands just right. Driving change and massive impact with authentic leadership - people just want to follow you.   Strategic visibility Visibility isn’t about bragging - it’s about adding value. It allows you to be in control of how your impact travels to the people who decide on promotions. Your work becomes visible above the manager line. You connect your wins to company goals and make it easy to advocate for you.   What it includes: A monthly update to senior leadership that ties outcomes to company priorities. Speaking up at all hands or asking strategic questions at big meetings . A living business case document capturing both past and future success stories.   Assessment: Are You Being Seen at the Right Level Okay so now you know how decisions are made and what matters most. Time to take a quick assessment to learn where you stand. Check the boxes that apply:   1. Perception of leadership [ ] A senior leader has recently seen me make a clear decision tied to a company priority. [ ] My peers would describe me as strategic and decisive, not just hardworking and reliable. (If the words point to effort instead of altitude, you are being boxed in as a doer).   2. Trust at scale [ ] Recent outcomes can bee attributed to a system or process I built, not personal heroics. [ ] If I stepped away for two weeks, results would hold steady. (If everything depends on you, leaders will not see you as safe to scale).   3. Strategic fit [ ] I can clearly name the company’s top three problems this half. [ ] I can show how my team’s work ties directly to at least one of them. (If you cannot connect the dots, your impact is invisible where promotions get decided).   4. Advocacy [ ] I know which senior leaders would advocate for me if promotions were decided tomorrow. [ ] Those leaders have great success stories to make the case for me. (If no one is advocating for you, performance alone will not get you into the conversation).   If you are not exactly checking all the boxes, it’s time for a change. But understand this: it’s not that you are not good enough or not doing enough. It’s about signal. The people above you aren’t experiencing you as a VP, and that gap compounds over time.   The Cost of Staying Overlooked What happens if nothing changes? If you keep doing more, waiting for recognition, hoping this is the year your manager finally puts your name forward.   More work. Same title. You become indispensable at the wrong level.   Peers leapfrog you. Not because they are better, but because their story sends the right signal. Credibility debt grows. The label great operator, not quite executive sticks more with each cycle. Burnout creeps in. Effort without recognition turns into frustration, then exhaustion.   The good news? Perception is not permanent. With the right shifts, it can change in a single promotion cycle.   Rafael worked for the same company for 10 years, and for 10 years he heard “you’re not there yet” when he brought up a promotion. He had 5 different managers but he was never considered for the role. He did above and beyond, but it seemed like it didn’t matter.   12 months after joining my program he was promoted into a Sr. Director. He didn’t take on more projects or put in more hours. In fact he did less. He spent his time positioning his wins, getting visibility (including a shout out from the CEO) and building relationships with the decisions makers.   He changes his perception.

Your Next Steps Here’s the bottom line: getting promoted into executive leadership isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about being experienced differently by the people making decisions.