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By Randall Kaplan
Most of us have been in some version of this situation. We’ve taken on more responsibility, stayed with a difficult project, and helped the team through a demanding stretch. We feel ready for the next step. Yet every time we think about raising the subject with our manager, we hesitate.
That hesitation is understandable. A promotion conversation puts our ambition in the open and invites someone else to evaluate it. Extreme Preparation® can help us enter that conversation with a clearer case and a better understanding of what the decision requires.
Before we ask for a promotion, we need to understand the responsibility behind it. A new title may bring decisions, expectations, and obligations that are different from the ones we handle today.
Written promotion criteria can help. When those criteria are unclear, an earlier conversation with our manager can establish what readiness looks like. That gives us time to develop the evidence instead of learning about a missing expectation when the decision is already being made.
Our manager may know that we’re busy without knowing everything we contribute. We should be prepared to explain a few accomplishments that connect directly to the next role.
The strongest examples have enough detail to make our contribution understandable. What problem were we addressing? What responsibility did we own? What changed because of the work?
Reliable numbers can help, but precision matters. If we can’t support a number, a clear description is better than an impressive estimate. And when the outcome belongs to a team, giving others appropriate credit shows judgment as well as respect.
The purpose is to make the relevant work easy to evaluate. A concise record of a few meaningful contributions usually serves that purpose better than a long inventory of everything we’ve done.
Our manager may support a promotion and still need approval from a department head, HR leader, or committee. Those people may never hear the conversation we rehearsed so carefully.
That changes what we should prepare. A concise promotion brief can help our manager explain the request accurately after we leave. It could identify the next role, two or three examples of work at that level, a remaining development gap, and the responsibility we’re ready to take on.
For example, “I’ve been helping other teams” is difficult to evaluate. A description of a project we coordinated, the handoff problem we addressed, and the documented result gives someone else material they can discuss. Every claim should be supportable, and team contributions should receive appropriate credit.
Extreme Preparation® means thinking through that second conversation too. What objection might a decision-maker raise? What evidence would answer it? What would our manager need to verify before supporting us?
We’re making it easier for the people involved to evaluate a real case. The organization still needs the role and the resources to support it.
Timing deserves preparation too. Some promotion decisions involve several people and happen before the formal review meeting. We should understand the process early enough to participate in it.
A dedicated conversation gives our manager time to consider the request. We might introduce it this way:
“I would like to discuss my readiness for the next level. I’ve pulled together examples of the responsibilities I am handling, and I would appreciate your assessment of what is strong and what I still need to demonstrate.”
That opening makes the purpose clear while inviting an honest response. A coach or trusted colleague can help us rehearse the discussion, especially the questions we would prefer not to hear. That rehearsal should help us remain thoughtful when the conversation takes an unexpected turn.
Once our manager responds, listening becomes part of the work. An encouraging answer calls for clarity about the next step. A “not yet” calls for an understanding of why.
A gap in experience requires a different response from a budget constraint or an unavailable position. Vague feedback needs enough detail to become useful. If we’re told to show more leadership, we need to understand which behavior would demonstrate it.
We can ask those questions without arguing with every observation. In Prepare to Shine, I discuss how easily our own thoughts can interfere with listening. That is especially relevant when the subject is our future and the answer is difficult to hear.
“Keep doing what you’re doing” can sound encouraging while leaving the path unchanged. A more useful conversation establishes what evidence is missing, where we can demonstrate it, and when the decision will be revisited.
If the concern is that we haven’t managed a project independently, the next step might be an agreed project with defined responsibility and a review afterward. If there is no available role, we need to understand whether that may change rather than treating more effort as the answer to every obstacle.
Extreme Preparation® extends from the evidence we assemble to the objections we anticipate, the conversation we rehearse, and the commitments we follow through on. Our ambition deserves that level of care.
My podcast In Search of Excellence explores the preparation and decisions behind career growth and achievement.
Randall Kaplan is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and executive coach. He’s a co-founder of Akamai Technologies and the founder and CEO of JUMP Investors, which has invested in more than 100 early-to-late-stage companies, including Google, Seagate, and Lyft. For 25 years, he’s coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives. He created Extreme Preparation® to help people pursue their boldest ambitions, overcome the obstacles standing in their way, and change the course of their careers, businesses, and lives.
He also interviews some of the world’s most successful people, including Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Mike Tyson, David Solomon, and David Rubenstein, on his podcast In Search of Excellence, which has reached as high as #3 in Entrepreneurship and #10 in Business on Apple Podcasts.