How to get a promotion

TL;DR

The short answer to how to get a promotion is to do three things. Do work that goes past your job description, and make sure the people who decide promotions actually see the results. Build a real relationship with someone senior who will speak up for you in the closed-door meetings where promotions get decided. And find out what the next role really requires, so you can show you already do that work before you ask for the title.

Insights

Wall Street veteran Carla Harris learned early that working hard with your head down is not enough to get promoted. The decisions happen in top-level meetings you are not in, so you need a sponsor: a senior person who will spend their own credibility to argue for you in that room. Harris says you earn that backing two ways. The first is your track record, because each time you deliver more than what was asked, you build the reputation that makes people want to put their name behind you. The second is your relationships, since no one will spend their hard-won influence on someone they barely know, so invest in the people around you well before you need them.

Harvard career adviser Gorick Ng points out that hard work by itself still leaves you invisible. The people who move up are the ones who get seen, heard, and remembered, and who understand the unspoken expectations a manager never says out loud. Ng's practical move is to treat every task as a chance to show judgment: before you start, get clear on why the work matters, what a strong result looks like, how it should be done, and by when it is due. That turns ordinary assignments into proof you can already handle more responsibility, which is what a promotion really rewards.