"You're Not Yet Ready" and Other Reasons for Why You're Not Getting Promoted
Product Leaders and Career Coaches Share Real Life Reasons and Tips
👋 Hola friends! Thank you for opening my email! I appreciate it.
I’m Kax and welcome to my newsletter where I write about enjoying a career in Product Management, becoming your favorite version of a Product Leader, building a Startup with zero funding, and all the human mess in between.
Raise your hand if you are worried about your upcoming promotion evaluations 🙋♀️
This would be the time of year I would get messages from Product Managers to help prepare for their conversations with their managers to secure that promotion.
Often these conversations would be full of frustration because these smart, brilliant, ambitious PMs have been working their butts off for so long only to get passed over for promotion (some even multiple times). And they’ve tried multiple strategies but none seem to be working. So by the time they talk to me (as a coach), they’re out of ideas and full of feelings.
And I get it. It sucks.
To be in back-to-back meetings all day every day, constantly having difficult conversations trying to get to an alignment that seems as elusive as the promotion itself, using all the tools in their belt to get to an agreement, pushing and pushing and pushing — and FINALLY GETTING THAT POSITIVE IMPACT that everybody’s been talking about as the most important thing in the world.
And then the promotion period comes, only to be told “Sorry, not this time. You’re just not ready yet”. And you have to muster up all the restraint in the world to stop yourself from reaching across the table, grabbing your manager by the collar, and telling them: 👇
I could wax poetic about the many possible reasons for this and what you can do to change it and increase your chances of getting that much-coveted promotion.
But I thought for this newsletter issue, I’d enlist the help of other Product Leaders and Career Coaches to share their insights from their many years of experience in the industry, managing and coaching people in their teams.
Big thanks to these awesome people for taking the time to share their thoughts on the matter. 🫶
1️⃣ Top reasons why some people are not getting promotions
Many years ago, before I understood what promotions really meant, I thought working my ass off would be enough to get me promoted. Only to be constantly disappointed by getting passed over multiple times. Then I got myself a coach who told me this:
“Promotions are not a reward but a bet on your future”
Our experts elaborate more on the topic and share the reasons why people get passed over for promotion:
Product and UX folks tend to think that promotion is about their skill set. But getting a promotion is not (only) about leveling up on your hard skills. A prerequisite for anyone's promotion is that their company is willing and able to do it. Does your promotion make sense for the business? Do they want to retain talent or have the budget to invest in people? If not, folks might not get promoted - it's that simple. Another reason that seems to come up a lot is about soft skills. Getting a promotion is also about building trust and building relationships with folks diagonally, upwards, and downwards. It's not only about what you're capable of doing but also about how people feel about working with you.
Often, the people who don’t get nominated for promotions lack the emotional awareness or growth required for the role. For example, they maybe quick to react when the priorities change and new information comes into being. So when nominating, I always look for people who respond rather than react to the situations they are placed in. They will usually be people who can find ways to progress by establishing common ground with others.
From my experience, people aren’t getting promoted because they can’t connect the dots between what they do and customer value. Customers don’t just mean paying customers but the targeted audience receiving goods or services from them. Folks who focus on their own offerings rather than spending time to understand their customers’ needs are not promotion worthy in my book. If they do get promoted, their ceiling is limited. Another reason is that they can’t simplify or articulate (a message) clearly to align people. To form organizations is understanding that individuals can do good but limited work to deliver limited impact. Which means that you need a lot of people cooperating to create large impact. Simplifying complex concepts and ideas into simple and easy to understand narrative is critical to align large groups of people. The higher you go, the more people you need to align. For folks that struggle with this ability, they are not ready to be promoted. It’s not good for them nor for the organization.
Maria Polo, Product Advisor | Fractional CPO
From my experience, people are not getting nominated for promotions because they haven’t shown enough strategic thinking. Your work, no matter if you are a PO, PM or an SPM, being able to think strategically matters, and the sooner you connect to it and learn it, the better. On the other hand, you may be learning, improving, and have some good “mentors” that help you step up tactically. But you dont have sponsors or people who would put their name out for you.
In this current climate, unfortunately, working hard is not enough. One needs to be driving high-impact work that is consequential to the organization. Organizations are currently under pressure to curb and manage costs and promotions are becoming harder to hand out. Managers aren't actively trying to push back on individual growth, but the economic climate and recent financial pressures on companies make it harder for promotions. Visibility plays a crucial role – when managers lack clarity about an employee's contributions, advocating for their promotion becomes significantly harder.
Spaces for promotions are limited, even more so when budget becomes a huge constraint. So often, managers need to make the safest bet they can on who they will promote.
If you’re getting passed up for promotions, there are a few areas to look at here:
Have you demonstrated the ability to impact the company’s goals? Do you have the ability to think strategically and will you be good for the business in the long run? And additionally, do people know this?
How are your behaviors being perceived by your manager and/or the wider organization?
Do you have the visibility and relationships that can help you become successful at the next level, which will need stronger influence to get the alignment needed to move forward?
Promotions are not a reward but a recognition. But not just of a person’s hard work but also of a person’s potential to be successful at the next level because the next level will be bigger, more difficult, and more complex. So promoting people who have not demonstrated the skills, behavior, and impact needed at the next level can be seen as a risk that most managers are not willing to take.
2️⃣ Tips on how to increase your chances of getting promoted
While at the end of the day, it’s the manager (and in big organizations, the promotions committee that they are part of) who decides on who gets promoted or not — there are so many ways that this decision can be influenced by an individual.
Our experts share their tips on how you can increase your chances of getting promoted:
Understanding what your manager (and indirectly, your senior executives) care about and what their struggles are, is a key step towards getting a promotion. If you get to a point where you're already delivering value exceptionally well for your current level and already taking things off your manager's plate (or from other senior ICs in your team), this is a good sign. Doing this shows that you're on your way to making yourself indispensable for your team. The moment you can extend your career development and growth goals to what other people need and what your company envisions, you are more likely to position yourself ready for a promotion.
Always talk about your work in alignment with the overall organisational goals. And build relationships with key people within the organisation who can act as your sponsors, and who will advocate for you in the rooms that you aren’t in.
Tips for people to increase their chances of getting promoted is simple. Work on the two points I mentioned above (in the reasons for not getting promoted). And set measurable targets for themselves to know where they are. The process for doing so is rewarding not only to get promoted, but to get through meaningful lives.
Maria Polo, Product Advisor | Fractional CPO
Try to grow your role beyond the norm (“expanding the pie”). Think about alignment with the company’s strategy. Even if you work in an internal product, you can achieve that. Know the problems you are solving better than anyone and show passion and enthusiasm for solving those problems. Think of yourself as THE product. Are you communicating enough? Does everyone understand what you do or the problems that you solve?
While it's fair to expect managers to stay informed about their direct reports' work, employees can take charge of their career progression by actively communicating achievements and aspirations, while maintaining realistic expectations about outcomes. Also when sharing your work, document your impact through concrete metrics and outcomes – highlight specific problems solved, revenue generated, and efficiencies gained.
As we previously mentioned, spaces for promotion are limited. So it’s important to take ownership of your own promotion and be proactive about building your promotion case.
So here are a few areas to take action on:
Ensure that you can connect your work with the overall business goals. Are you contributing to making the company successful? Can YOU connect the dots?
Be the first person to talk about your achievements. Give visibility and tell your story in a way that ensures other people in the organization can also connect the dots as well as you can, especially your manager!
Build your relationships! When you understand what people in the organization care about and you can connect their own dots with the impact you have, not only will your influence grow, but you will also increase your allies who can advocate for you.
Real-time story, as I’m writing this. I shared the topic with one of my friends who is also a Product Leader and he shared a very important bonus advice:
💡 Talk to the manager to start working on a potential promotion case before (6-12 months) calibration. Often they’ll need their manager's support to have impact (i.e. navigating business context) and visibility (e.g. inviting them in conversations that they won’t normally be invited to). The decision to promote somebody is not just taken in a single moment. Instead, it’s better to look at it as a compounding of many moments that can be shaped into a compelling story that talks about who you are, what you can do, and what your potential is. And for this, you will need time.
3️⃣ Flipping the Switch and a Hard Truth
One of the biggest motivations I hear from PMs for wanting to get a promotion is to “have more influence” or “to have more control”. Maybe it’s because they’ve been feeling unheard in their current roles or getting buy-in for new initiatives has always been challenging.
Unfortunately, a new title doesn’t guarantee that people will take you seriously, much less agree with what you’re bringing to the table. On the contrary, when you get that new title, you need to already have the ability to influence others.
So a key takeaway from this issue is that promotions are not only about who you are and what you can do today. Promotions take into consideration your capability to have an impact and your capacity to have more.
So here’s an opportunity to reflect:
“Do you really want to get to the next level - understanding that the next level has more complexity, bigger scope, and stronger expectations? Or do you just want the title?” Both can be true at the same time but it can’t just be about the latter.
Lastly and unfortunately, the hard truth about promotions is that it’s never 100% objective. There are things between the lines that are chock full of biases that are hard to articulate— that’s why company job ladder descriptions can sometimes be very vague (e.g. you have to be a good communicator but the definition of good can mean different things for different people).
This is where having a deep understanding of the company’s goals and how you have impacted it (and how you can impact it further), having strong work relationships (especially with key decision-makers), and having the ability to manage-up can make a huge difference in your promotion case so you have more evidence that support your pitch.
If you’re looking to get promoted but you seem to find your path constantly blocked, or you’re ready for your next challenge whether it’s in your current organization or a different one - I’d love to help you define your level-up strategy! Let’s book a call and discuss how this might look like for you.
If you want to learn more about the contributors to this week’s newsletter:
Meltem, Career Coach has a decade of industry experience in both in-house and consultancy roles. She’s now a Career Coach and helps tech professionals (re)build their careers. She uses a unique framework inspired by UX methodologies to help her clients grow their careers with passion and self-awareness.
Hima Tk is currently the Lead Product Manager at Culture Amp. Prior to this, she’s been in various leadership positions, founder of various startups, and mentor.
Jeanus Ko is currently the Director of Product at Rekor. Prior to this role, she held various product leadership roles in multiple sectors and has been working in Product Management for over a decade.
Maria Polo is currently a Product Advisor and Fractional CPO working with various startups to help set up their product organization for success. Previously she’s worked in leadership capacity for Fintech and Mobilitytech companies. She’s also an instructor in All Women.tech teaching Product strategy.
Parv Sondhi is currently the Director of Product in Vida Health. Before this, he was a Product Manager at Apple and Stubhub, a startup founder, and a lecturer at UCLA Berkley.
No 5 things this week, since we have a pretty meaty issue already. But I’d love to know what you think about what our contributors have shared. Did they resonate? Would you like to add more? What other tips can you share to help other people build their promotion cases?
If you got to this part of this newsletter, thanks for staying with me til the end. And thank you for sharing with me topics that you’d like for me to share my thoughts, feelings, and violent reactions on.
❤️
Kax
PS. Here are more ways for us to connect:
Follow me on Threads or LinkedIn for less filtered thoughts, feelings, and violent reactions. 😂
Learn more about my 1:1 coaching services. I typically work with experienced Product Managers and new Product Leaders who want to achieve their product and career goals. (and if budget is a constraint: join incitefulapp and you can get coaching for free!)
Thank you for real-world tips on increasing your product management contribution! I enjoyed the perspectives from the coaches and have new ideas to deliver at a higher level.
This is one of the of your best posts Kax!
Great and definitely valid advice & insights! One thing I would add - worst time to discuss promotion with your manager is when performance cycle is just around the corner. If your manager told you that you’re not ready - it only means this conversation was not open early enough.
The higher you go up as a PM, the more prepared you need to be for next and next promotion. This means that PMs need to open such conversation right after the last performance cycle and align on expectations with their managers, to ensure they have a clear growth plan.
If they are mad at their managers that they won’t put them for promotion - well, looks like expectations were not aligned early enough 🤷♀️