| Career ยท Promotions |
| By Feras Asakrieh ยท 5 min read ยท Issue #04 |
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| Ihave sat in a lot of leadership meetings. I have watched who gets talked about for promotion. And who gets talked about for their output. The difference was never about who worked hardest. It was about how leadership saw them. And rules govern that perception nobody ever tells you. |
| There are two kinds of people in every company. The ones leadership is grooming for more. And the ones leadership is depending on to stay exactly where they are. Both are valuable. But only one gets promoted. If you have been performing and waiting, delivering and hoping, working hard and wondering why nothing is changing, this is why. And it is fixable. |
| The four hidden laws |
| Law 1: The Law of Assigned Function. Leadership does not promote you and then decide what you are. They decide what you are first. Then they watch everything you do through that lens. If they see you as support staff, your best work confirms it. Your biggest win gets filed under "great execution." Not leadership potential. The label comes before the evidence. And most people have no idea they already have one. |
| Law 2: The Law of Ambiguity Ownership. Top leaders are not looking for people who follow direction perfectly. They are looking for people willing to find the answer when nobody has it yet. Every time you bring a problem without a solution you are signaling that you need to be managed. Not trusted to lead. The moment you start owning the unknown, walking into rooms with a recommendation instead of a question, everything shifts. |
| Law 3: The Law of Exposure Language. Most people talk about what they did. Leaders talk about what is at risk. There is a massive difference between saying "I finished the project" and "here is what we need to watch before next quarter." One is a task update. The other is someone thinking at the organizational level. Stop reporting your effort. Start talking about what matters to the business. |
| Law 4: The Law of Signal to Noise. How you show up in a crisis tells leadership everything. Reactive. Overwhelmed. Dramatic. That is noise. Calm. Clear. Decisive. That is signal. The person who brings clarity to a chaotic room gets trusted with bigger rooms. You do not have to have all the answers. You just have to be the one who does not fall apart when nobody does. |
| The shift from support staff to leadership is not about working harder. It is about changing what leadership sees when they look at you. You already have a label in someone's mind. The question is, do you know what it is? And are you doing anything to change it? |
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| Before You Go |
| Not Sure What Label You Already Have? |
| A 1:1 coaching session can help you find out exactly how leadership sees you right now, and build the specific plan to change it. No guessing. |
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| Want more every Saturday? Follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. |