Always a director, never a VP

One of my recent clients had been acting at the Director level for many years.

She had wanted the VP or even C-Suite title for years, but for reasons unknown to her, she still hadn’t been promoted to that level.

It seemed odd because

➡ She was sought after by previous employers for her organizational strength. Several leaders had invited her to join their new teams when they moved out and up.

➡ She was well-respected for driving change in chaotic environments with little to no structure, and establishing process and order.

➡ She had been thanked for putting her magic touch on everything from software development processes to agile best practices, HR operations, Finance, Communications and Governance.

➡ She had built teams from scratch and leveraged previously ignored resources to do great things.

➡ She had delivered exceptional performance, and came to work with a highly-accountable mindset that inspired her teams.

Although very experienced and senior in her career, she was humble and positive, her demeanor light. She was someone all of us would love to work with and be around.

To top it off, when she shared her compensation level with me, I knew she could EASILY earn $50-75k more than her most recent role. 💰💰💰

Why was this person NOT getting promoted??

Because she wasn’t directly asking for it.

👎 She had not spent time gathering support and executive sponsorship from other leaders at the organization.

👎 She did not keep a record of her accomplishments in writing.

👎 She did not prepare and present her accomplishments at strategic intervals throughout the year (just once at her annual review.)

In short, she simply shouldered as much responsibility as humanly possible and took for granted that her work would speak for itself.

Does this sound like you? Let's talk.

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