Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Building a Career Influence Map
Transcript
- Lucas: So I was talking to a friend last week — she's a project manager at a midsize regional bank, really talented, but she was stuck at the same level for three years. She kept hearing 'you need more visibility,' but nobody told her what that actually meant. Luna: That's the worst kind of feedback — it's technically true but completely useless. Lucas: Exactly. So she tried something different. She built what I'd call a career influence map. And within nine months, she got promoted to director. Luna: Okay, I need to hear the details. What is a career influence map? Lucas: It's a structured way to figure out who actually influences promotion decisions in your organization — and how to build relationships with them deliberately. Most people network randomly. They go to happy hours, they chat with their boss, they hope someone notices. But this is about being surgical. Luna: So it's like a stakeholder map, but specifically for your career. Lucas: Right. She started with three layers. Layer one: formal authority. That's her boss, her boss's boss, and HR — the people with official sign-off on promotions. But that's just the starting point. Luna: Because in most companies, the people with the titles aren't the only ones who decide. Lucas: Exactly. Layer two: informal influence. These are the people whose opinions carry weight, even if they're not in the chain of command. Maybe it's a senior engineer who's been there 15 years, or a cross-functional lead who's respected across departments. She identified about eight people in that layer. Luna: And then layer three? Lucas: Gatekeepers. The people who control access to information or opportunities. In her case, it was the executive assistant to the SVP, and the head of a special project that senior leaders paid attention to. She hadn't thought about either before. Luna: So once she had the map, what did she do with it? Lucas: She ranked each person on two axes: how much influence they had over her promotion, and how strong her current relationship was with them. That gave her a grid. Some people were high influence, low relationship — those became her priority. Luna: That feels almost too systematic. Did she worry about coming across as manipulative? Lucas: She did, and I think that's a fair concern. But her approach was to focus on genuine connection. For each priority person, she found a reason to engage that was authentic — asking for advice on a project, sharing an article relevant to their work, offering help on something they cared about. Luna: So it's not about pretending to be friends. It's about being strategic with your time. Lucas: Exactly. And the data helped her avoid the trap of spending all her energy on people who were nice but had no influence. She used to have lunch every week with a colleague she liked — great person, but no input on promotions. She redirected some of that time to building relationships with two of the informal influencers. Luna: What did that actually look like in practice? Like, what did she say to them? Lucas: One example: the senior engineer she identified — he was leading a process improvement initiative that was important to senior leadership. She reached out and said, 'I see you're working on that project, I've done similar work in the past, would you be open to me sharing some lessons learned?' He said yes. That one conversation led to her being invited to present at a steering committee meeting. Luna: And that's visibility, but specific. It's not just 'be seen.' It's 'be seen by the right people doing the right work.' Lucas: Right. And she tracked it. She had a simple spreadsheet — who she'd connected with, what the interaction was, and when to follow up. Over six months, she had meaningful interactions with every person on her map. Luna: That is so much more concrete than 'network more.' I'm curious — did she find any surprises when she first made the map? Lucas: Yeah, two big ones. First, she realized her boss had less influence than she thought. He was respected, but not a strong advocate. That was uncomfortable, but it refocused her. Second, she discovered that the head of a completely different division — someone she barely knew — was on every promotion committee because he had the longest tenure. She made a point to get on his radar. Luna: And that's the kind of insight you can only get if you actually map it out. Otherwise you're just guessing. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's why this works better than generic advice. It forces you to be honest about your current network and where the gaps are. Luna: Let me push back a little though — doesn't this risk feeling like you're playing office politics? Some people find that distasteful. Lucas: I hear that a lot. And I'd say there's a difference between playing politics and understanding your organization. The map itself is neutral. How you use it is what matters. If you use it to manipulate or backstab, that's bad. But if you use it to build genuine relationships with people who can help you grow, that's just smart career management. Luna: That's a fair distinction. And honestly, in many workplaces, the people who get ahead aren't always the most competent — they're often the ones who understand the system better. Lucas: Right. And that's not a conspiracy, it's just human nature. Leaders promote people they know and trust. So the question is: how do you become known and trusted by the people who matter? Luna: And this map gives you a concrete plan for that. I'm going to try this myself, honestly. Lucas: You should. And I think the key is to revisit it every quarter. People move, influence shifts, new projects emerge. It's a living document. Luna: That's a great point. Before we go deeper into how to maintain the map, I want to mention something. We get a lot of messages from listeners saying these episodes help them think through career moves. And a handful of people actually chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That support is what keeps this show ad-free and allows us to keep making episodes like this one. Lucas: Yeah, it really is. We don't run ads, we don't have sponsors — it's just listener support. And it makes a difference. So if this show has helped you, and you want to keep it going, that's the place. Luna: Okay, back to the map. So you mentioned revisiting it quarterly. What does that look like? Lucas: For my friend, she set a calendar reminder to review her map every three months. She'd ask: Has anyone new become influential? Have I let any relationships slide? Is there someone I should reconnect with? And she'd update her action plan. Luna: And she got promoted in nine months. Do you think the map was the main reason? Lucas: It was a big part. She also delivered strong results on her projects. But the map made sure those results were seen by the right people. Before, she was doing good work in a vacuum. After, her work had an audience. Luna: That's the whole point, isn't it? It's not just about being good — it's about being visible to the people who decide. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why I think every professional should build one of these maps. It's one of the highest-leverage things you can do for your career. Luna: Alright, I'm sold. Next episode, maybe we can talk about how to have the actual conversation with your boss about promotion after you've built this map. Lucas: That's a great idea. We'll do that.