How to Get Promoted to VP
May 24, 2026
THE CORE INSIGHT
Most directors who want to be promoted to VP are solving the wrong problem. They are optimising for performance when the actual gap is perception. They are working harder when what is needed is working differently. They are waiting to be noticed when they need to be deliberately positioning. The promotion to VP is not a reward for being an excellent director. It is a recognition that you are already operating at the VP level and the organisation cannot afford not to formalise it.
Why most directors never make VP
The promotion to VP is one of the most misunderstood transitions in professional life.
Most directors who get passed over for VP are not passed over because they are not performing. They are passed over because the people making the decision do not yet see them as a VP. And perception, at this level, is nearly everything.
The directors who get promoted to VP are almost never the ones who worked the hardest or produced the most. They are the ones who made it easy for decision-makers to imagine them in the role. They demonstrated VP-level thinking before they had the title. They built the relationships that put their name in the conversation when the opportunity arose.
If you have been a high-performing director for more than two years and the VP conversation has not happened, something structural is in the way. Here is what it almost always is.
The four gaps that keep directors from making VP
Gap 1: The commercial fluency gap
VP-level conversations are business conversations. They happen in terms of revenue, margin, market share, competitive positioning, and customer lifetime value. Directors who speak primarily in the language of their function hit a ceiling when they try to enter those conversations.
The directors who get promoted to VP can translate their function's work into business outcomes with the same fluency a CFO or CEO uses. They do not just report what happened. They explain what it means for the business and what the right move is in response.
If you cannot answer "what is the ROI of your team's work in the past quarter?" without reaching for a deck, this is your gap.
Gap 2: The visibility gap
The people who make VP promotion decisions have limited direct exposure to most directors. They hear about your work through your manager. They see you in large meetings where you rarely speak. They do not have enough direct experience of your thinking to confidently advocate for your advancement.
This is the visibility gap and it is responsible for more stalled director careers than any performance issue.
The fix is not networking events or coffee chats. It is deliberate contribution in spaces where decision-makers can observe your thinking directly. Volunteer for cross-functional projects that senior leaders sponsor. Present at forums where the executive team is present. Write the internal memo that gets forwarded up the chain.
Gap 3: The sponsorship gap
There is a difference between having people who like your work and having people who advocate for you in rooms you are not in. Mentors give you advice. Sponsors give you access.
Most directors who plateau at director level have plenty of mentors and no sponsors. Nobody senior enough is putting their reputation behind a recommendation for you when the VP conversation happens.
Sponsors are not cultivated through relationship-building conversations. They are earned through demonstrated performance in their direct line of sight. Find the most senior leaders who have had direct exposure to your best work. Find ways to increase that exposure deliberately. Then once the relationship has substance, make your ambitions explicit.
Gap 4: The authority gap
This is the most subtle and the most damaging. It is the distance between how you perform and how you are perceived to perform.
Directors who plateau at director level often communicate at their current level rather than the level above it. They hedge in meetings when they should take a position. They present options when they should make a recommendation. They ask for permission when they should act and report back.
These are small habits that compound into a perception ceiling. The people above you form a view of where you belong based on how you show up in every interaction. If you consistently signal that you are operating at director level, you will be seen as an excellent director rather than a future VP.
The fix is deliberate communication at the level above. Stop presenting options. Make recommendations. Stop hedging. Take positions. Stop asking whether to proceed. Proceed and communicate what you did and why.
What VP-ready directors do differently
They think about the organisation's problems, not just their function's problems. They show up to leadership meetings with perspectives on decisions that go beyond their direct area of responsibility. They are seen as business leaders who happen to run a function, not functional experts who attend business meetings.
They build succession deliberately. They have someone who could step into their role. This signals to senior leadership that they are ready for the next level. You cannot promote someone to VP if nobody can replace them at director.
They manage upward as a strategic activity. They have clarity on what their CEO and their CEO's peers need from their function, and they shape their team's priorities around those needs rather than around what feels most important internally.
They make the conversation explicit. The most common reason high-performing directors do not get promoted to VP is that they never had the direct conversation. They assumed their performance spoke for itself. They hoped their manager would initiate the discussion. Neither happened.
The most effective VP promotion conversations sound like this: "I want to be considered for a VP role when the right opportunity exists. Based on what you see of my work, what would I need to demonstrate over the next six months to be the obvious choice?"
That conversation changes the dynamic immediately. It signals ambition without entitlement. It invites honest feedback. And it creates a shared framework that makes the next review cycle a progress check rather than a surprise.
A practical 90-day plan for directors targeting VP
Days 1 to 30: Diagnose your specific gap
Get honest feedback on which of the four gaps is most relevant for you. Ask your manager directly: "What is the gap between where I am and where I need to be for a VP role?" Ask a trusted senior peer. Ask a coach. Then commit to the specific gap rather than trying to improve everything at once.
Days 31 to 60: Build visibility with one key decision-maker
Identify one senior leader above your current manager who has limited direct exposure to your work. Find a genuine way to contribute in a space they can observe directly. Not a networking conversation. Actual work they can see and evaluate.
Days 61 to 90: Have the promotion conversation explicitly
Schedule a conversation with your manager and the most relevant senior leader. Not a performance review. A specific conversation about your VP readiness and what the path looks like. Come with your own assessment of where you are strong, where the gaps are, and what you are doing about them.
The professionals who get promoted to VP are almost always the ones who made it easy for the organisation to say yes. Your job in the next 90 days is to remove every barrier to that yes.
If you want to work through your specific situation and what is standing between you and the VP title, a free 15-minute discovery call is a good place to start. Or if you are not sure whether coaching is the right fit right now, the Coaching Readiness Assessment takes under two minutes.
Corby Fine, MBA, ICF
Executive Career & Leadership Coach
Corby Fine is a certified executive coach (ICF) and MBA with 25+ years of leadership experience across startups and enterprise. He specialises in career transitions, leadership development, and helping senior professionals build their Wisdom Portfolio. He is the host of the Fine Tune Podcast and the author of the weekly Segment of One newsletter..
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