Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How an Employee Got Promoted by Creating a Career Wiki
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this project manager, mid-level, at a regional bank — we'll call it Riverbend Financial, about four thousand employees. She kept hearing the same complaint from colleagues: 'I have no idea what it takes to get promoted here.' Luna: Right, the classic opacity problem. Especially at smaller banks where there's no formal career-path tool. Lucas: Exactly. So she did something about it. Over three weekends, she built a career wiki — an internal website, nothing fancy, just Google Sites — that laid out role-leveling rubrics for her division, sample sponsorship memo templates, even links to past promotion packets that people had shared. Luna: Wait — she had access to past promotion packets? Lucas: She solicited them. She asked ten recently promoted colleagues if they'd anonymize and share their packets. Eight said yes. That became the core of the wiki. Luna: That's smart. It's one thing to create a template, but real examples are gold. Lucas: Absolutely. And the wiki took off — eight hundred unique visits in the first month. That's a lot for a division of maybe eight hundred people. Luna: So everyone in her division checked it out, plus some from other divisions. Lucas: Right. HR caught wind of it, asked her to present it to the VP of Talent. Three months later, they formally adopted it as a company resource. And within six months, she got promoted to senior project manager. Luna: Nice. So the wiki was basically her promotion packet. She demonstrated the exact skills the company needed: initiative, systems thinking, ability to scale impact. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a great example of what we've talked about before — finding an information gap and filling it. But this one is particularly effective because it's visible, it's useful, and it can't be ignored. Luna: Yeah. And honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We keep this show ad-free, and listener support makes that possible. Lucas: Absolutely. So back to the wiki — the key insight here is that she didn't wait for permission. She identified a real pain point and solved it on her own time. Luna: Three weekends. That's a significant investment, but the ROI was huge. Lucas: Let's talk about why it worked. First, information asymmetry. At most companies, especially in banking, the criteria for promotion are fuzzy. Managers have their own heuristics. A wiki standardizes that knowledge. Luna: It also reduces the power of informal gatekeepers. Suddenly, anyone can see what it takes, not just people who have the right mentor. Lucas: Exactly. That's point two — it democratizes access. The employee who built it becomes a visible resource, which builds her brand as someone who thinks about the whole system. Luna: And it's hard for leadership to ignore something that eight hundred people are using. It's a proof of concept. Lucas: Right. She basically ran a pilot that cost the company nothing. HR could adopt it without risk. And when they did, she got the credit. Luna: I've seen this happen in other companies too. There's actually research — people who create internal career resources are promoted at higher rates, often within a year. Lucas: Because it signals leadership. You're not just doing your job; you're improving the system. That's exactly what senior roles require. Luna: So what's the takeaway for someone listening? If you see a knowledge gap about promotions, you could build something similar. Lucas: Start small. You don't need a full wiki. Maybe it's a one-page FAQ, or a shared folder with examples. The point is to make the invisible visible. Luna: And ask colleagues for their materials. Most people will share if you anonymize it. Lucas: That's the key — ask. She asked eight people, got yes from six. That's a 75 percent hit rate. People want to help. Luna: And once you have that nucleus, you can expand. Add rubrics, add tips, add links to company policies. Lucas: Another thing — she made it easy to update. She set up a simple Google Form for people to submit new examples or corrections. So it stayed current. Luna: That's smart. Otherwise it becomes stale fast, and then it's a liability. Lucas: Exactly. So the wiki didn't just get her promoted; it became a permanent asset. HR still maintains it, but she's the founder. Luna: That's a nice legacy. Even if she leaves, her contribution lives on. Lucas: And that's the kind of thing that gets you on the radar for director-level roles. It shows you can build something that outlasts you. Luna: So for our listeners: if you've ever thought 'I wish there was a guide to getting promoted here' — you might be the person to create it. Lucas: And you don't need to be a web developer. Google Sites, Confluence, even a shared Google Doc. The format matters less than the content. Luna: Right. And the act of creating it is itself a promotion-worthy project. Lucas: Exactly. So that's the story: one employee, three weekends, eight hundred visits, one promotion. Simple, but powerful. Luna: I wonder how many people have similar stories. If you've built something like that, we'd love to hear about it. Lucas: Maybe that's a future episode — listener-submitted career wiki stories. Luna: I'd listen to that. For now, thanks for joining us on The Promotion Memo. Lucas: See you next time.