The meeting your career depends on (that nobody told you to have)

Career · Leadership

By Feras Asakrieh · 4 min read · Issue #06

Sara had been with the company for two years. Her numbers were good. Her manager trusted her. She never missed a deadline and never dropped a ball. But when the reorg hit, her name did not come up once. Not for the new team lead role. Not for the cross-functional project everyone wanted to be on. Not for anything. She found out later what happened. The VP running the reorg had asked around. Who are the strong performers on this team? Her manager's manager had no answer. He barely knew who Sara was. Two years of excellent work. Invisible where it counted.

Here is what nobody tells you early in your career.

Your manager is not your only career sponsor. And in most organizations, your manager is not the person making the big calls about who gets promoted, who gets tapped for stretch assignments, or who gets considered when things shift. That happens one or two levels above you. In rooms you are not in. Between people who may have never spoken to you once. If those people do not know your name, your work does not exist for them.

Most professionals never think about this. And the ones who do think about it do not act on it. Going above your boss feels like a betrayal. Like you are trying to go around them instead of through them. They tell themselves their manager will advocate for them. Maybe. But a manager also has their own visibility challenges and their own priorities. The fix is not to become someone different. It is to become more intentional about who knows you.

Here is how.

Step 1: Map the landscape before you move. Who makes decisions that affect your team? Who sponsors the projects you want to work on? You are not trying to build a relationship with everyone. Identify two or three people whose awareness of you would genuinely change what is possible.

Step 2: Create a natural reason to connect. Do not walk up to a VP and say you would love to grab coffee to introduce yourself. Ask a thoughtful question after a town hall. Volunteer for a cross-functional initiative they are sponsoring. Send a short note referencing something they said in a meeting and add your own perspective.

Step 3: Show up with a point of view. When you get a moment with someone two levels up, do not spend it talking about your day-to-day work. Share a perspective on something happening in the business. Ask a question that shows you have been paying attention above your role. One sharp observation in five minutes is worth more than an hour of project updates.

Step 4: Make it a pattern, not a moment. One conversation does not build a relationship. A follow-up note after a meeting. A relevant article with one line of your own thinking attached. You are trying to become a name they recognize and associate with good judgment.

Sara figured this out six months after the reorg. A year later she was asked to lead a task force. The ask came from the same VP who had no idea she existed during the reorg. Nothing about her work changed. Only who saw it.

Connect with Feras

The Meeting Your Career Depends On

Subscribe to the Newsletter