#17 “…he told me that I did really good work and it had a lot of impact, but for me to get to the next level, he needed to see me ‘championing the success of others.’”

“At the first company I worked at, promotions could only happen once per year. I first got put up for a promo after my third year, and it didn't go through. I didn't think much of it - I didn't even know my manager was trying to promote me. But then I got put up for promo again after year 4, and it still didn't go through. This was pretty devastating, because this time I really thought I deserved it. And most of my cohort had already been promoted (at least once), so I was feeling like I was getting left behind. I asked my manager why my promo didn't go through, and he said he didn't know, that we'd have to ask his manager. So, we walked down the hall and asked my skip why my promo didn't go through. He said that he didn't know either, and that we'd have to ask his manager (our VP). We finally all got in a room to talk about it a couple weeks later, and when I asked my VP why the promo didn't go through, he told me that I did really good work and it had a lot of impact, but for me to get to the next level, he needed to see me ‘championing the success of others.’ I think he also said that I needed to make my contributions more visible to people at his level (VP). (I thought that was my manager's job...?)

From then on, even though it was not in my nature, I started copying my skip and our VP on any email where I wanted them to see my accomplishments. I also got an opportunity to take on a project with high visibility. My promo went through the next year.

Note that in this company, there were no women in my management chain anywhere between myself and the CEO. I don't recall there being any female managers at all in that department while I was there.”