Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How a Manager Won the Promotion Without a Title Change
Transcript
- Lucas: So earlier this week I was catching up with an old colleague from my banking days, Sarah. She runs operations at a regional lender now, and she told me something that stuck with me: she got promoted twice in the last three years — without ever changing her title. Luna: Wait — promoted but no title change? How does that even work? Lucas: Exactly my reaction. She was a VP of Operations, and she wanted to become a Senior VP. She got passed over twice. So instead of updating her LinkedIn and shopping her resume around, she did something smarter. She started acting as if she already had the broader role. Luna: I love that approach. It reminds me of something we touched on in an earlier episode — but this sounds like a specific playbook. What did she actually do differently? Lucas: Couple of things. First, she identified a pain point the COO cared about — loan processing time was lagging behind competitors. It wasn't technically her job, but she pulled together a cross-functional team from IT, compliance, and customer service to streamline it. She didn't ask permission; she just started sending status updates to the COO's admin. Luna: She got visibility without asking for a meeting. That's clever. And I imagine she kept it low-key enough not to step on toes. Lucas: Right. She framed it as 'helping us all hit our targets.' She also made sure to give credit publicly to the people on her team. That built loyalty and made her indispensable. Within six months, the COO started looping her into strategy calls. No new title, but her scope had doubled. Luna: So she effectively created a role that didn't exist. I've seen people try that and get shut down. What made it work for her? Lucas: Timing and sponsorship. She waited until the bank had a clear pain point — loan processing was costing them market share. And she found the right sponsor: the COO, who had a mandate to improve efficiency. She didn't just pitch an idea; she showed early results with a pilot that cut processing time by 18 percent. Luna: Eighteen percent in a pilot? That's the kind of number that gets attention. And by that point, she had a track record, not just a request. Lucas: Exactly. And this is the part I think a lot of listeners might find useful: when the formal Senior VP role finally opened up, she didn't apply. The COO nominated her. She went from passed-over to the only candidate. Luna: That's the dream scenario. But it took patience. She spent almost a year building that bridge. A lot of people would have left after the second rejection. Lucas: Yeah, and look — leaving is sometimes the right call. But Sarah's case shows there's an alternative if you're willing to be strategic. The key is to stop focusing on the title and start focusing on the scope of impact. Luna: And that's actually a great segue to something I wanted to mention. You know, episodes like this take a lot of research and coffee chats to put together. If you've ever gotten value from our conversations — maybe it helped you think through a career move — we'd love it if you considered supporting the show. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it makes a real difference. Lucas: Totally. And we mean it — we keep the show ad-free because of listeners like that. So thank you if you've ever chipped in. Luna: Alright, back to Sarah. So she gets the nomination, gets the Senior VP title. But her real win wasn't the title — it was the relationships and the credibility she built along the way. Lucas: Exactly. And that credibility is what I want to dig into. Because Sarah told me that after she got the promotion, she was put on a special project to overhaul the bank's digital lending platform. That project wouldn't have existed if she hadn't already proven she could deliver. Luna: So the promotion was almost a formality. She'd already earned the role in practice. I think a lot of people wait for the title to start acting — they wait for permission. Sarah flipped that. Lucas: She did. And I think there's a practical takeaway here for anyone who feels stuck. Instead of asking 'How do I get promoted?' ask 'What problem can I solve that my boss's boss cares about?' Then solve it, and let the title catch up. Luna: That's a reframe worth writing down. I also wonder about the risk factor. What if the pilot had failed? Or what if the COO had left the bank? Lucas: Good point. Sarah acknowledged that. She made sure her core responsibilities were still covered. She delegated the routine stuff so she could focus on the stretch project without dropping the ball. And when the COO did leave about a year later, she already had visibility with the CEO from the digital lending work. Luna: So she diversified her sponsors. Smart. One executive might leave, but if you've got two or three senior people who know your work, you're insulated. Lucas: Exactly. She told me she made a point to present at every quarterly business review. Even if it was just a five-minute update. That got her on the radar of people two levels up. Luna: I think a lot of people avoid those presentations because they're nervous or they don't think they have anything important to say. But Sarah proved that showing up consistently matters more than a flashy one-off. Lucas: Absolutely. And she didn't try to be the smartest person in the room. She gave credit, she asked questions, she made herself useful. That's how you build executive presence without being self-promotional. Luna: This episode feels like a natural follow-up to our earlier conversation about the quiet contributor who got promoted without self-promotion. But Sarah's story adds the element of deliberately expanding your scope even after rejection. Lucas: Yeah, that's the key difference. She didn't wait for the system to recognize her. She changed the system's perception of her by changing what she actually did day to day. Luna: So for someone listening right now who's been passed over once or twice, what's the first step? Should they start a project, or start networking internally? Lucas: I'd say start with observation. Find out what your boss's boss talks about in town halls. What metrics are they measured on? Then look for a gap — something that's not being addressed. That's your opening. Start small, get a quick win, then scale. Luna: That's practical. And it doesn't require a big budget or a team. Sarah's pilot was just her and two interns from the compliance department. Lucas: Right. And she documented everything. She kept a running one-pager of what they tried, what worked, and what didn't. That document became her calling card when she wanted to pitch the bigger project. Luna: I love that. Because a lot of people do the work but don't package it in a way that's easy for executives to digest. She made it easy for them to say yes. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the whole game. Make it easy for the decision-makers to give you what you want, because you've already shown them it's a safe bet. Luna: Alright, I think we've given listeners a lot to chew on. Let's circle back to Sarah one more time — how is she doing now? Did she end up staying at the bank? Lucas: She did. She's now running the entire operations division, reporting directly to the CEO. And she told me she still uses the same playbook: find a problem, build a team, show results, let the title follow. Luna: That's a good note to end on. Sometimes the fastest way up is to stop looking up and start looking sideways at what needs fixing. Lucas: Well said. That's it for this episode of The Promotion Memo. We'll be back next week with another story of someone who cracked the code on getting ahead.