Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Creating a Cross-Functional Newsletter
Transcript
- Lucas: Let me tell you about Priya. She was a mid-level marketing manager at a regional bank with about 15,000 employees. Not a small company, but not a giant either. And she had a problem that a lot of people in large organizations have: she had no idea what anyone outside her immediate team was doing. Luna: Right, the silo problem. You're in marketing, you talk to marketing people, maybe you talk to sales, but IT and compliance might as well be in another country. Lucas: Exactly. And Priya realized this wasn't just her problem. She'd be in meetings with senior leaders and they'd ask questions like, 'Has anyone from operations looked at this yet?' and nobody knew. So she decided to do something about it. She started a weekly internal newsletter called 'The Intersection.' Luna: The Intersection — I like that name. What was in it? Lucas: Each issue had four sections: one update from a different department, a 'person to know' spotlight — usually a junior employee doing interesting work — a quick data point from the bank's quarterly results, and a forward-looking item like an upcoming project or regulatory change. She curated it herself, reaching out to team leads across the bank every week. Luna: That sounds like a lot of work for someone whose actual job was marketing. How did she find the time? Lucas: She treated it as a side project. She spent about two hours every Friday afternoon pulling it together. And she was smart about it — she didn't ask for permission. She just sent the first issue to her own team of twelve people. Then she asked each of them to forward it to one person outside the team. Within a month, it had spread to about 400 readers. Luna: Word of mouth, no approval needed. That's a classic way to build momentum without getting blocked by process. Lucas: By month three, she had 1,200 subscribers. And this is where it gets interesting. The COO of the bank — a woman named Deborah — saw the newsletter and emailed Priya directly. She said, 'I've been trying to get a handle on what different teams are working on for six months. This does it in five minutes. Can you add my assistant to the distribution?' Luna: Suddenly Priya has a direct connection to the COO. That's the kind of visibility that can change your career. Lucas: It did. But it wasn't just about the connection. Priya started tracking metrics. She used the bank's internal email platform to measure open rates and click-throughs. She found that the 'person to know' spotlight had the highest engagement — people wanted to see their colleagues recognized. So she leaned into that. She started including a short Q&A with each spotlighted employee. Luna: She was thinking like a product manager, not just a newsletter writer. She was iterating based on data. Lucas: Exactly. And that's one of the things that got her promoted. She didn't just create something useful — she could prove it was useful with numbers. By month six, the newsletter had a 78% open rate and was being read by over 2,000 employees, including most of the executive team. When the internal communications director role opened up, Deborah — the COO — told Priya she should apply. Luna: So Deborah became her sponsor. She didn't just like the newsletter; she actively advocated for Priya. Lucas: Right. Priya got the job. And she told me that the newsletter was the single biggest factor in her promotion. It demonstrated strategic thinking, cross-functional awareness, and the ability to execute without a big budget. Plus, it made her known to people who never would have noticed her marketing work. Luna: I can see how this applies beyond newsletters. The core idea is finding a gap that affects a lot of people and filling it with something lightweight but visible. It could be a Slack channel, a monthly roundtable, even a shared Google Doc. Lucas: The medium matters less than the pattern. Identify a communication breakdown that senior leaders are frustrated by. Build a simple solution. Measure the impact. And let the thing speak for itself. You don't have to pitch yourself — the work pitches you. Luna: That's a really clean framework. One thing I'm curious about: did she face any pushback? I imagine some managers might not want their team's projects highlighted without approval. Lucas: She did, actually. A couple of department heads were wary. They worried she'd share something that wasn't ready for prime time, or that the spotlight would create jealousy. Priya handled it by giving them a preview of every issue that mentioned their team. She'd send a draft and say, 'I'm planning to include this unless you have concerns. If you'd rather not, no problem.' She gave them control, and that built trust. Luna: That's smart. She treated them as partners, not obstacles. And by giving them veto power, she actually got more cooperation than if she'd just pushed ahead. Lucas: Exactly. Within a few months, those same managers were sending her suggestions. 'Hey, could you feature this project?' or 'My team just finished a big compliance overhaul — would that work for the next issue?' She turned skeptics into contributors. Luna: That's the kind of influence that gets noticed at promotion time. You're not just doing your job; you're building relationships and making other people's work visible. Lucas: And it's worth noting that Priya didn't wait for her boss to assign this. She saw a need and acted. That's the kind of initiative that stands out, especially in a large organization where most people are just following their job description. Luna: If today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps us keep bringing stories like Priya's. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate that. And it means we don't have to run ads or sponsorships. So if you've gotten value from the show, that's the place. Luna: Back to Priya. One thing I think is underappreciated about her approach is that she didn't just create content — she created a community. People started replying to the newsletter with their own updates, and she would incorporate them. It became a two-way channel. Lucas: That's a great point. The newsletter became a feedback loop. She'd include a 'reply to this email' call to action, and she'd get tips, questions, and kudos. She'd then feature the best responses in the next issue. That made readers feel like they were part of something, not just passive consumers. Luna: And that kind of engagement is exactly what a director of internal communications needs to be good at. So when she applied for the role, she had a portfolio of proof, not just a resume bullet point. Lucas: Exactly. She could show the open rates, the reader comments, the executive endorsements. She had a narrative. 'I saw a problem, I built a solution, here's the data, here's the impact.' That's a lot more compelling than 'I managed social media campaigns.' Luna: I think there's also a lesson here about timing. Priya started the newsletter about eight months before the internal comms director retired. So when the role opened up, she was already the obvious internal candidate because everyone knew her name. Lucas: That's a strategic insight. She didn't know the job was going to open up, but she put herself in a position where, if something did, she'd be top of mind. That's the difference between waiting for opportunity and creating the conditions for it. Luna: So for someone listening who wants to try this: what's the first step? Should they just start sending an email to their team? Lucas: I'd say start smaller than you think. Pick one pain point you hear about frequently. Maybe it's that people don't know what the product team is shipping, or that new hires can't find basic information. Then create a one-page summary or a weekly digest. Send it to five people. Ask them to forward it if they find it useful. Let it grow organically. Don't try to get executive buy-in upfront. Luna: And track everything. Even if it's just a spreadsheet of subscribers and open rates. You'll need that data when you make your case later. Lucas: Absolutely. And one more thing: give it a name. 'The Intersection' is memorable. It signals purpose. If you call it 'Weekly Update' it sounds like a chore. A good name makes people feel like they're opting into something, not just getting another email. Luna: That's a nice touch. I also think Priya's story shows that you don't need a big budget or a fancy tool. She used the bank's existing email system. The innovation was in the curation and the consistency. Lucas: Consistency is huge. She never missed a week. Even when she was on vacation, she pre-scheduled it. That reliability built trust. People started looking for it on Friday afternoons. It became part of the rhythm of the organization. Luna: And that consistency reflected well on her. It showed she could manage a recurring project without oversight. That's a leadership quality. Lucas: So here's the takeaway: if you want a promotion, find a communication gap that frustrates people — especially senior people — and fill it with something simple, measurable, and consistent. Let the work speak for itself. And don't be afraid to start small. Luna: And if you have a story like Priya's, we'd love to hear it. You can reach us at the show's email or through our website. Lucas: Next week, we're looking at a case where an employee got promoted by building a cross-functional training program. See you then.