Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How a Quiet Employee Got Promoted by Owning the Escalation Process
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot on this show about owning projects that are visible, that get you in front of senior leaders. But there's one category of work that's almost guaranteed to get executive attention — and most people avoid it like the plague. Luna: Let me guess — you're talking about owning the stuff that's already on fire. Lucas: Exactly. The escalation process. When something breaks, when a client is furious, when a deadline is missed — that's when the C-suite suddenly cares about who's handling it. And yet most companies have a messy, undocumented, reactive approach to escalations. Luna: Right, it's usually whoever shouts loudest or whoever the boss happens to call. Lucas: Exactly. So today I want to tell you about Priya — mid-level operations manager at a regional logistics firm I spoke with a few months ago. She worked at a company that moves temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. Think vaccines, insulin, that kind of thing. Luna: So failure isn't just a late shipment — it's potentially spoiled medicine. Lucas: Exactly. In Q4 of 2025, they had a major incident. A shipment of flu vaccines destined for a chain of clinics in the Midwest arrived at the wrong warehouse, sat unrefrigerated for about six hours before anyone noticed. The client was furious, the CEO got involved, and the whole thing was a mess. Luna: I imagine the post-mortem was brutal. Lucas: It was. And Priya noticed something. After the dust settled, she saw that the escalation — who to call, when to call them, what authority each person had — was completely ad hoc. The warehouse manager thought he should call the client directly. The client's contact thought she should call the CEO. It was chaos. Luna: So she decided to fix that. Lucas: She built what she called a tiered escalation framework. Three tiers. Tier one: operational issues that a team lead could resolve within an hour — like a missing pallet, a data entry error. Tier two: issues requiring a department head — like a route deviation that might delay delivery by more than four hours. Tier three: anything with client-facing impact or regulatory risk — that goes straight to a VP or above. Luna: And she documented who had decision rights at each tier. Lucas: Yes. She also added clear triggers. For example, if a shipment's temperature deviates by more than two degrees for more than fifteen minutes, that's an automatic tier-two escalation. She built a one-page decision tree and a simple runbook. No fancy software — just a shared Google Doc that got approved by operations and legal. Luna: So what happened when she rolled it out? Lucas: First, she pitched it to her direct boss as a pilot for one product line. Her boss was skeptical — thought it was over-engineering. But she asked for a four-week trial on just the insulin shipments. After two weeks, the average time from incident to first response dropped from eighteen hours to under three. The VP of operations noticed. Luna: Eighteen hours to three hours — that's a massive improvement. Lucas: It is. And here's the thing — the VP didn't just notice the metric. He noticed that Priya was the one who could explain exactly what happened, who made the call, and why. She became the go-to person for any escalation question. That's visibility you can't buy. Luna: So she got promoted? Lucas: Within six months. She was promoted to senior operations manager, with a mandate to roll out the framework across all product lines. And she got a sponsor — the VP of ops became her advocate in leadership meetings. Luna: That's a great story. But I want to push back a little — isn't there a risk that owning escalations just makes you the person who deals with everyone's crises? You become the firefighter, not the architect. Lucas: That's a real risk if you just jump in and start putting out fires. But Priya didn't do that. She built a system that reduced the number of fires. And she documented the process so that others could follow it. She made herself the expert, not the bottleneck. Luna: Right, so the key is to design the process, not just execute it. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a second layer to this. After the escalation framework was running, she added a post-mortem loop. Every tier-two or tier-three escalation triggered a brief root-cause analysis within forty-eight hours. Those analyses were shared with the relevant teams. So she was also fixing the underlying problems. Luna: So she wasn't just managing crises — she was preventing them. Lucas: That's exactly what her VP said when he nominated her for the promotion. He said, 'Priya doesn't just handle the hard calls — she makes sure we have fewer of them.' And that's a reputation you want. Luna: I think there's also something to be said about timing. She did this right after a high-profile failure. The organization was ready for change. Lucas: That's a great point. Escalation processes are rarely a priority when things are going well. But after a major incident, there's a window where leadership is actively looking for solutions. Priya walked through that window with a concrete plan. Luna: So for someone listening who wants to try this — what's the first step? Lucas: Look at the last three escalations in your area. Find the common pattern. Is it always the same type of issue? Is it always the same person making the call? Then ask yourself: what's the simplest rule you could write down that would have prevented the confusion? Start with one tier, one product line, one region. Luna: Yeah, don't try to boil the ocean. Just pick one pain point. Lucas: And here's a tactical tip: when you document the process, include not just what to do, but who has the authority to make each decision. That's the part that usually paralyzes people. If you clarify decision rights, you're already adding value. Luna: And then share it with your boss as a draft, not a finished product. Ask for feedback. That makes them feel involved, and it also protects you if something's off. Lucas: Exactly. Priya's first draft had a few mistakes — she had the wrong contact for tier-two temperature deviations. Her boss caught it, and she fixed it. That collaboration actually strengthened their relationship. Luna: So let's say someone does this — they build a small escalation framework for their team. How do they get visibility beyond their immediate manager? Lucas: Share the results. After the pilot, Priya sent a one-page summary to her VP with the before and after metrics. She didn't ask for anything. She just said, 'Here's what we tried, here's what happened.' That's what got the VP's attention. Then, when the VP asked her to present to the broader ops leadership team, she was ready. Luna: So it's not just doing the work — it's packaging the work for the right audience. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing — she made sure to credit her team. She mentioned the warehouse leads, the client services rep who helped design the triggers. That made people want to work with her on future projects. Luna: That's smart. It builds goodwill and also shows you can lead. Lucas: Alright, so before we wrap up — and I promise this connects — a quick thing. You know, we keep this show ad-free, and that's intentional. We don't want to interrupt the conversation with a commercial. But the reality is, producing seventy episodes of a careers podcast takes time and a bit of server cost. Luna: Yeah, and it's only possible because a small group of listeners chips in through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's not a big ask — just if you've gotten value from an episode, especially one like this where you might actually use the framework, that's what keeps the lights on. Lucas: Exactly. No pressure, no perks, no guilt. Just a genuine heads-up that listener support is what keeps this ad-free. And now back to the topic — because I think there's a bigger lesson here about career strategy. Luna: What's that? Lucas: Owning the escalation process isn't just about fixing problems. It's about positioning yourself as the person who makes the organization more resilient. That's a quality that every executive notices, especially in uncertain times. Luna: And it's especially powerful for quiet employees — people who aren't naturally in the spotlight. Because escalations force the spotlight to find you. Lucas: Exactly. You don't have to be the loudest person in the room. You just have to be the one who can answer the question when something goes wrong. If you build that reputation, promotions tend to follow. Luna: So if you're listening and you're thinking about your next move, maybe look at the pain points in your organization that everyone avoids. That's where the opportunity is. Lucas: And if you want a template to get started, we'll put a link to a simple escalation framework in the show notes — based on what Priya used. No strings attached.