Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Creating a Career Support System
Transcript
- Lucas: So we talk a lot on this show about individual tactics—brag books, visibility calendars, stakeholder maps. But here's a question that came in from a listener named Priya: 'I do all that stuff, but I still feel like I'm climbing alone. How do I get other people invested in my promotion?' Luna: That's a really good question. Because a lot of career advice is very solo—you, your goals, your plan. But promotions are social decisions. Lucas: Exactly. And Priya's question reminded me of a case I came across a few months ago. A marketing manager at a mid-sized tech company—let's call her Sarah. She was gunning for a director role, but she kept hitting a wall. Her work was strong, her numbers were good, but she wasn't on people's radar the way her peers were. Luna: Classic visibility problem, but she had a brag book and a stakeholder map, right? Lucas: She did. She had all the artifacts. But she told me the turning point was when she stopped trying to do it alone and built what she called a 'career support system.' Not a mentor, not a sponsor—a small group of five peers from different functions who met weekly. Luna: So like an accountability group, but with a specific career focus? Lucas: Exactly. And she was really deliberate about who she invited. She didn't just grab people from her team. She picked one person from engineering, one from product, one from sales, one from finance, and one from HR. All at a similar level—senior IC or first-line manager—but none in her direct reporting chain. Luna: Why the cross-functional mix? I'd think you'd want people who see your work every day. Lucas: That's the counterintuitive part. Sarah said the people who see your work every day are also the people who have a stake in keeping you where you are. They benefit from your output. The cross-functional peers had no incentive to hold her back. They could give honest feedback about her blind spots, and they could amplify her work in parts of the organization she didn't have access to. Luna: So the group was almost like a distributed sponsorship network. Each person could advocate for her in their own silo. Lucas: That's exactly how she described it. And the structure was simple: every Friday, thirty minutes, same video link. Each person took five minutes to share one win from the week, one ask—something they needed help with—and one piece of feedback they wanted from the group. And everyone else had to respond within the session. Luna: That's a pretty high bar. Most accountability groups I've seen devolve into 'how was your week' and coffee chat. Lucas: Right. But Sarah enforced a rule: no updates without an ask. If you didn't have an ask, you didn't get airtime. And that forced people to think strategically about what they needed. For her, the ask was often things like 'I'm presenting to the VP of product next week. Can someone from my group do a dry run with me and poke holes?' Or 'I'm trying to get visibility into the Q4 budget process. Does anyone have a contact in finance who could introduce me?' Luna: So the group became a kind of career operations center. She was using them to fill gaps in her network and her preparation. Lucas: And it worked. Within nine months, Sarah got the director promotion. But she says the group itself was the biggest factor. Not the brag book, not the visibility calendar. Because the group gave her something those artifacts couldn't: real-time feedback from people who had no reason to be polite, and a set of sponsors who were actively looking for opportunities for her. Luna: I wonder how she got them to say yes. That's a big commitment—five people, every Friday, with real asks. Lucas: She was very upfront in the first email. She said, 'I'm building a career support group. I think we can all benefit from this if we commit to being honest and showing up. Here's the format. If you're in, you're in for at least six months.' And she got five yeses out of seven invites. Luna: What about the two who said no? Did she take it personally? Lucas: She said she expected it. And she actually preferred people who were hesitant because it meant the ones who joined were genuinely bought in. The group had a rule that if someone missed two sessions without notice, they were out. And over six months, only one person cycled out. Luna: That's a pretty high retention rate. What was the secret sauce—the reciprocity? Lucas: Partly. But also, everyone in the group saw tangible outcomes pretty quickly. The engineer used the group to get feedback on a pitch for a new architecture proposal—got it approved. The sales person got an intro to a VP in marketing that led to a joint campaign. So the group became a high-leverage investment for everyone's time. Luna: So it wasn't just about Sarah's promotion. It was a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats situation. Lucas: Absolutely. And I think that's the key insight. A career support system only works if it's genuinely reciprocal. If you're the only one getting value, the group dissolves. Sarah said she spent a lot of energy connecting people in the group to each other's needs, even when she wasn't directly benefiting. Luna: That's a good reminder that networking gets a bad rap because it's often perceived as transactional. But this feels different—it's structured, it's reciprocal, and it has a specific purpose. Lucas: Right. And it's not just about collecting contacts. It's about creating a small, trusted group that can help you see what you can't see about yourself. Sarah said the biggest blind spot the group identified was her tendency to over-explain in presentations. She thought detail showed competence. The group told her it was muddying her narrative. Luna: And she listened because it came from people who had no agenda. That's hard to get from a manager or a mentor who might be trying to be nice. Lucas: Exactly. And that feedback loop accelerated her promotion timeline. She had been stuck in the 'ready for director' conversation for over a year. After six months in the group, she had a clear narrative, a set of cross-functional allies, and a reputation that extended beyond marketing. Luna: So what's the takeaway for our listeners? If someone wants to build their own career support system, what's the first step? Lucas: First, don't do it alone. That's the whole point. Second, be deliberate about the mix—you want people from different functions and at a similar level. Third, set a structure that forces accountability: no updates without an ask. And fourth, commit to reciprocity. You have to give as much as you get. Luna: And maybe start with a trial period. Like invite four or five people for a three-month commitment and see if it sticks. Lucas: That's smart. And if you're listening and thinking, 'I don't know who to ask,' start with one person you trust and ask them to help you recruit. Sarah did that—she asked one person from HR first, and that person helped her identify the others. Luna: It's interesting how this connects to something we've talked about before: the idea that career currency is about creating value for others, not just documenting your own. Lucas: Yeah, and that's actually a good segue. You know, this show is possible because of listeners like you who find value in these conversations. If you've gotten something out of this episode or any of the previous 118, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. You can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small thing that makes a big difference for us. Luna: Totally. And it helps us keep the show ad-free and focused on practical advice. Every bit counts. Lucas: Exactly. Now, back to Sarah's story—one thing I didn't mention is that after she got promoted, she actually kept the group going. She said it became her sounding board for the director role. And now some of the original members have been promoted too. Luna: That's the lasting impact. It's not a one-time tactic; it's a career infrastructure. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're feeling like you're climbing alone, consider building a support system. It might be the thing that finally gets you over the line.