Hi Friend
Welcome to your weekly dose of personal and career fuel
Let me tell you what happens in the room where your promotion gets decided.
Your name comes up. Someone says they think you are solid. Someone else nods. Then someone asks who is really behind this person. Who has seen their work up close. Who is putting their credibility on the line for this candidate.
If the answer is silence, the conversation moves on.
That is not politics. That is how every significant career decision at a senior level actually gets made. Not on performance alone. On whether someone in that room cares enough about your advancement to stake their reputation on it.
That person is not your mentor. Mentors give you advice. They tell you what worked for them. They make introductions when you ask.
That person is your advocate. An advocate puts their name behind yours when you are not in the room. When the question is who is ready and who is not, an advocate is the one who says this person. I have seen it. I will own this recommendation.
Most professionals at director and VP level have several mentors and zero advocates.
And they wonder why the promotion keeps not happening.
