Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Teaching a Skill They Just Learned
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this move that sounds almost too simple but keeps working: getting promoted by teaching something you just learned. Not something you've done for years — something you picked up weeks ago. Luna: Wait, like teaching before you're actually an expert? Lucas: Exactly. And it works because organizations have a weird gap. They reward deep expertise, but they also reward being first to surface a new capability. If you wait until you're a master, someone else has already claimed the territory. Luna: That's a good framing. Who's the example today? Lucas: A marketing coordinator at a midsize B2B SaaS company — I'll call her Priya. Last year, her company started pushing for more data-driven decision-making, but the analytics team was bottlenecked. Priya had zero analytics background. What she had was curiosity and a quiet week. Luna: So she just decided to learn something? Lucas: She picked up a no-code dashboard tool — think something like Tableau Public or Google Data Studio, a tool that's visual and doesn't require SQL. She spent maybe three evenings going through tutorials. By the end of the week, she could pull basic funnel data and make a chart. Luna: That's beginner level, for sure. But then what? Lucas: She didn't keep it to herself. She emailed her team and said, 'I've been playing with this tool — I can show you how to pull your own campaign metrics in about twenty minutes. Who's interested?' She got eight people. She ran a lunch and learn that Friday. Luna: And she was nervous, I assume? Lucas: Terrified, she told me later. But she framed it as 'I just learned this, so I'm no expert, but here's what I found.' That lowered the stakes. People felt safe asking basic questions. By the end of the session, two other teams asked if she could run it for them. Luna: So now she's suddenly the internal go-to for this tool. Lucas: Within three weeks, she'd run five sessions across marketing, sales, and customer success. She also created a one-page cheat sheet that got shared on the company wiki. Her manager started getting Slack messages from other directors saying, 'Who is this coordinator? She's really helping our team.' Luna: That visibility is gold. But did she actually become an expert by then? Lucas: No — and that's the key. She was maybe two weeks ahead of her audience. But when you teach something, you learn it faster. Every question forced her to figure out something new. She'd go home, look it up, and come back the next session with an answer. She was learning in public. Luna: So the act of teaching accelerated her own skill acquisition. Lucas: Exactly. And it signaled something to leadership: initiative, ability to translate technical concepts, and cross-functional influence. Those are exactly the traits they look for in a product marketing manager — which is the role she ended up getting promoted into four months later. Luna: Did she apply for that role, or was it created for her? Lucas: It was an existing opening. The hiring manager told her later that her name came up in the interview process from three different people who weren't even on the panel. She'd essentially pre-sold her candidacy by demonstrating the skills in real time. Luna: I love that. So the lesson isn't 'become an expert first' — it's 'claim the territory early and grow into it publicly.' Lucas: Right. And there's research that backs this up. A 2023 study in the Journal of Vocational Behavior found that employees who engaged in 'job crafting' — proactively reshaping their role — were 40 percent more likely to receive a promotion within two years. Teaching a new skill is a form of job crafting. Luna: But I imagine some people hear this and think, 'I'd feel like a fraud teaching something I barely know.' Lucas: That's the biggest barrier. Priya told me she almost canceled the first session. Her internal voice said, 'What if someone asks something I can't answer?' So she built a simple rule: if she didn't know, she'd say 'Great question — I'll find out and follow up.' That turned her vulnerability into a trust signal. Luna: And people respected that more than a fake answer. Lucas: Way more. Also, she kept the sessions short — twenty minutes, not an hour. Low commitment, low pressure. That made it easy for people to attend and easy for her to prepare. Luna: So the format matters as much as the content. Lucas: Absolutely. She also made sure to document everything. The cheat sheet, a recording of one session, a template for how to set up a dashboard. That turned her personal knowledge into an organizational asset. Now her contribution outlasts her. Luna: That's smart — it shows stewardship, not just self-promotion. Lucas: Exactly. And here's a subtle point: she didn't teach the tool to her boss. She taught it to her peers and to people in other departments. That built a horizontal network of advocates. When promotion time came, her boss heard about her impact from others, not just from her. Luna: That's actually a classic influence tactic. Third-party endorsements are way more persuasive. Lucas: So the playbook is: pick a skill that's relevant but not yet widely adopted in your company. Learn just enough to be a week ahead of a beginner. Offer a short, low-stakes session. Document everything. Then rinse and repeat for other teams. Within a quarter, you're the person who brought that capability in. Luna: What skills work best for this? Should it be technical? Lucas: Not necessarily. It could be a new project management methodology, a framework like design thinking, a regulation update, even a communication technique. The key is that it's something the organization needs but nobody owns yet. Luna: So you're essentially creating a niche out of thin air. Lucas: Yes. And that's more credible than you'd think. Most organizations have gaps between what's needed and what's formally staffed. If you fill one, even with a beginner's toolkit, you become the default expert. Luna: But there's a risk: what if someone else in the company already knows this skill deeply? Then you look like you're playing catch-up. Lucas: That's a real risk. The solution is to do a quick reconnaissance. Ask around: 'Is anyone already using this tool or framework?' If someone is, ask to co-present or learn from them first. Priya checked — nobody in her company had touched this tool. She had a clear field. Luna: So due diligence matters. Don't just pick something random. Lucas: Right. Also, pick something that's visibly linked to a business priority. In Priya's case, the CEO had just announced a focus on data literacy. She tied her lunch and learn directly to that initiative. That gave it strategic cover. Luna: That's a great tip — align your teaching with what leadership is already talking about. Lucas: And here's another angle: you can do this even if you're remote. Priya ran her sessions over Zoom. The cheat sheet was a Google Doc. The recording lived in the team drive. Remote actually made it easier to scale across time zones. Luna: So geography isn't an excuse. Lucas: Not at all. A junior analyst at a different company did something similar with a new AI summarization tool. He recorded a five-minute tutorial and posted it in the company Slack. It got sixty views and a shoutout from the VP of engineering. That led to a stretch assignment. Luna: That's a much lower bar — a five-minute video. Lucas: Right. The core move is the same: publicly share what you're learning, before you feel ready. The difference between someone who gets promoted and someone who stays stuck is often just the willingness to be seen learning. Luna: Speaking of being seen — it's June 2026, and we're still having conversations about how to get noticed without self-promotion fatigue. Lucas: Absolutely. And if this conversation has helped you think about your own career moves, I want to mention something briefly. This show exists because a small group of listeners chips in monthly at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No ads, no sponsors — just listener support. It's what keeps us making episodes like this one, week after week. Luna: Yeah, it's a pretty lean model. Just people who find value in the show and want it to stay ad-free. Totally optional, but it makes a difference. Lucas: Right. So back to the strategy — the one thing I'd add is that this approach works best when you're not desperate. If you're already disengaged or underperforming, teaching something new feels performative. But if you're solid in your current role, this can be the catalyst. Luna: So it's a high-agency move for people who are already doing ok. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty is it costs almost nothing. No certification, no manager approval, no budget. Just an evening of learning and a willingness to share. Luna: I think the most surprising part is how well it works even when you're transparent about being a beginner. That authenticity actually builds trust. Lucas: It does. Priya's manager told me later: 'I didn't promote her because she was an expert. I promoted her because she made our whole team more capable.' That's the real metric — impact on others, not depth of knowledge. Luna: So the next time you're tempted to hide your learning curve, consider going public instead. Lucas: That's the takeaway. Teach something you just learned — and watch what happens.