Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How an Employee Got Promoted by Building a Stakeholder Map
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's a story I've been thinking about — a product manager at a large financial services firm, let's call her Priya. She was in a mid-level role, managing a decent-sized portfolio, but she kept getting passed over for senior roles. And the feedback was always the same: 'You're doing great work, but we need to see more strategic impact.' Luna: I've heard that one before. It's the classic 'visibility gap' — you're doing the work but nobody knows you're doing it. Lucas: Exactly. So Priya decided to take a very structured approach. She built what's called a stakeholder map — a visual grid plotting every person who had influence over her career, from her direct boss to the VP of her division to folks in HR and adjacent teams. She mapped them on two axes: how much interest they had in her work, and how much influence they had over promotion decisions. Luna: Interest versus influence — that's a classic stakeholder analysis tool from project management, but applied to your own career. I love that. Lucas: Right. She realised something pretty quickly: her boss had high influence but only moderate interest in her day-to-day. Meanwhile, a director in a different business unit — someone she'd collaborated with on a cross-functional project — had both high interest and high influence. But she'd never thought to cultivate that relationship strategically. Luna: So she essentially discovered an accidental sponsor. That's huge. Lucas: It is. And she didn't stop at mapping. She scheduled what she called 'listening tours' — fifteen-minute one-on-ones with each person on her map, not to pitch herself but to ask what they thought was most important for the division in the next year. She came with a notebook and genuinely listened. Luna: That's a really smart move because it shifts the dynamic from 'look at me' to 'I want to help you succeed.' And it gives her inside information on what projects will be noticed. Lucas: Exactly. After those conversations, she had a much clearer picture of where the company was heading. She aligned her next big initiative — a process automation project — directly with a pain point the VP had mentioned. And she made sure to loop in that director as an informal advisor. Luna: So she built a sponsorship relationship almost from scratch. How long did it take before she saw results? Lucas: About 18 months from the mapping exercise to promotion to senior director. But the interesting thing is, she said the shift happened much faster — within six months, she noticed people were including her in meetings she hadn't been invited to before. Her name started coming up in hallway conversations. Luna: That visibility snowball effect is real. Once a few senior people know who you are, your network starts expanding exponentially. Lucas: And that's really the core lesson here — it's not about schmoozing or playing politics in a sleazy way. It's about being intentional about who needs to know what you're capable of. Priya's stakeholder map was essentially her career marketing plan. Luna: I want to push back a little though. This sounds like it works great for extroverts who thrive on meetings and one-on-ones. But what if you're an introvert? Or what if you're remote and you don't get those hallway moments? Lucas: Fair point. Priya actually considers herself more of an introvert — she said the one-on-ones were draining but she scheduled them in batches with recovery time built in. For remote workers, I think the map still works, but you have to be more deliberate about virtual touchpoints. Maybe a quarterly Loom video update to your stakeholder list, or a brief async check-in via Slack. Luna: That makes sense. The map itself — the analysis — doesn't change whether you're in an office or at home. It's the execution that adapts. Lucas: Right. And one more thing Priya did that I think is replicable: she kept her stakeholder map as a living document. Every quarter she'd revisit it, move people around, add new names. When she got promoted, she literally created a new map for her new role. It's not a one-time exercise. Luna: So it's a habit. I like that. And honestly, this is exactly the kind of concrete tool that listeners tell us they find most useful. You know, speaking of that — a quick honest thing. We keep this show ad-free, and that's intentional. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many episodes. So if you've gotten value from a specific episode or just like having a career resource that's not trying to sell you a course, that's the way to keep it going. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small community, but it makes a real difference. And it means we don't have to shoehorn in sponsored content or compromise on the depth we want. So thank you to anyone who's part of that. Luna: Alright, back to the map. One thing I want to dig into — how do you identify the right people to put on the map? Because it's easy to miss someone who's not in your direct chain of command but has quiet influence. Lucas: Priya's approach was to start with her immediate team and her boss, then ask herself: 'Who else makes decisions that affect my work? Who gets copied on emails about my projects? Who has a seat at the table when promotions are discussed?' She also looked at the org chart two levels up and identified people she admired or who seemed to have a lot of cross-functional pull. Luna: So she used the org chart as a starting point but then went beyond it to find the informal influencers. Lucas: Exactly. And she said one of her biggest surprises was discovering how much influence the executive assistant to the VP had — because that person controlled the VP's calendar and had a pulse on what was top of mind. Luna: That's a classic blind spot. People often overlook administrative staff or junior team members who have visibility into senior priorities. Lucas: Right. So her map included about twenty people in total. She categorised them into four quadrants: high influence/high interest, high influence/low interest, low influence/high interest, and low influence/low interest. And she developed a different engagement strategy for each quadrant. Luna: Walk me through the high influence/low interest quadrant. Those are the people who have power but don't really care about her work yet. Lucas: That was her boss, actually. Her strategy there was to make his job easier — she started sending him a weekly one-bullet summary of her top priorities and wins. Nothing long, just a sentence or two. That way, when he was in a meeting and someone asked about her, he had a ready answer. Luna: So she's basically feeding him lines. That's smart — it's helping him look good while keeping her on his radar. Lucas: Exactly. For the high influence/high interest quadrant — that director she'd worked with — she made it a point to share early drafts of her project plans and ask for input. That turned him into a de facto sponsor who would advocate for her in leadership meetings. Luna: And the low influence/high interest group — probably peers or junior staff who are enthusiastic but can't directly promote her. Lucas: Right. For them, she focused on being a good collaborator and building a positive reputation. They became her informal cheerleaders and would mention her work to others. And the low influence/low interest group — she didn't ignore them, but she invested minimal time, just a friendly check-in now and then. Luna: I think the key takeaway here is intentionality. A lot of people just let their network develop organically, but if you want a promotion, you need to be strategic about who knows you and what they know. Lucas: Absolutely. And the stakeholder map gives you a visual, almost scientific way to do that. It's like a dashboard for your career visibility. Priya said she literally printed it out and kept it in her notebook — it reminded her to be proactive rather than reactive. Luna: I'm curious — has she shared this map approach with her own team now that she's a senior director? Does she teach it to others? Lucas: She does. She runs a quarterly workshop for her reports where they build their own maps. She says it's one of the most impactful things she does as a manager, because it democratises access to visibility. It's not just for people who naturally network well. Luna: That's a great legacy. So if a listener wants to try this tomorrow, what's the first step? Lucas: Grab a piece of paper or open a blank document. Draw a two-by-two grid. Label the horizontal axis 'interest in your work' from low to high, and the vertical axis 'influence on your career' from low to high. Then list everyone you interact with at work — or even people you don't interact with but who affect your trajectory — and plot them. Be honest. Then pick one person in the high influence/low interest quadrant and think of one small thing you can do to increase their interest this week. Luna: That's actionable. I like it. And maybe revisit the map every month or so to track changes. Lucas: Exactly. Because relationships shift, people move roles, priorities change. The map is a living tool, not a static document. And that's really the mindset shift — treating your career like a product you're responsible for marketing, not just building.