How to Get Promoted (without working harder)
Most people think the fastest way to get promoted at work is to become indispensable.
Answer every Slack message.
Volunteer for every new project.
Work longer and harder than your peers.
But here’s the paradox: the people who move up the fastest usually do less, not more.
Especially once you reach the Director or VP level.
They’re not chasing every opportunity. They’re choosing the right ones - and making sure everyone knows why those choices matter.
I’ve watched this pattern repeat again and again.
First as a marketer who climbed from IC to Head of Growth.
Now as a coach to dozens of growth leaders - many of whom earned their biggest promotions not by grinding harder, but by focusing on less.
Promotions go to the people who create the most impact, not the ones who generate the most activity.
And the difference usually comes down to these four habits.
1. Clarify and verify
If you and your boss aren’t on the exact same page about what success looks like in your role, you basically have no chance at getting promoted.
This misalignment happens all the time in growth roles.
They’re cross-functional in nature. The role is still relatively new, messy, and undefined. And typically, your boss hasn’t done the job before. Maybe your priorities are shifting every month. Maybe the company itself is still figuring it out their growth model and core channels.
So both sides move forward, working hard but not necessarily toward the same finish line.
That’s why when I coach new clients, my first question is always the same:
“What does success look like in your role?”
You’d be surprised how few can answer it clearly.
The best performers fix that fast. They can clearly describe:
What areas of the growth model they own
Which KPIs they’re accountable for
How success is measured
How their work ladders up to company goals
And they don’t assume everyone’s on the same page - they verify it.
In practice, this looks like literally asking their manager and/or execs:
“Here’s what I believe I’m accountable for. Does that match your expectations?”
This simple act removes ambiguity and builds trust.
It unlocks you to prioritize confidently, delegate effectively, and advocate for resources without hesitation.
And most importantly… it puts you and your boss on the same page about what winning looks like.
2. Saying no (gracefully). The skill that helps you get promoted faster.
The people who get promoted aren’t doing more.
They’re doing less - but better.
When I ask VPs to list their top priorities, they share two or three.
When I ask new managers or ICs, I get seven.
That gap is the difference between activity and impact.
One (Director of Growth) client I coached recently realized she was basically saying yes to everything (and as a recovering people pleaser, I’ve been there too). She was exhausted. After we narrowed her focus to two core levers, and improved her operating system - she increased her impact in a quarter and finally got budget approved to hire more.
Here’s how to build the same muscle:
Create a “Not Right Now” list.
A simple place (Google Doc, Trello board, whatever) to park great ideas that don’t fit today’s priorities.Use an objective prioritization framework.
Tools like an Eisenhower Matrix or ICE score help you evaluate what truly matters.
High performers protect their focus.
They don’t chase every opportunity. They double-down on a few that drive the biggest outcomes.
If this idea resonates - protecting focus, aligning priorities, and building systems that scale - this is exactly what I teach inside The Growth Operating System.
It’s a plug-and-play framework to help new growth leads drive results without becoming the bottleneck.
3. Manage-up like a pro
Most leaders I coach conceptually understand they need to manage up.
They know it’s important for their career.
They’ve heard this advice a hundred times before.
They want to improve this skill.
But what they struggle with is knowing what good managing up actually looks like in practice.
Most people think managing up means keeping their boss updated:
sharing what they’ve done
what they’re doing now
what’s coming next
But that’s not managing up. That’s reporting. And reporting is low leverage.
Good managing up looks different.
It’s not about telling your boss what you’re doing.
It’s about showing them how you’re thinking.
It looks like bringing your manager or execs into:
How you’re prioritizing your time
How you’re making key decisions
The trade-offs you’re struggling to make
The potential threats you’ve got your eyes on
You’re giving them context to help you make better calls. Here’s a simple, tactical way to do it:
Add a section like this to your one-on-one doc:
“Here’s how I’m prioritizing my work based on our current goals. Would you adjust anything?”
That single question moves your 1:1 from a status update to a strategy session.
Sometimes your boss will give you new context that changes your plan. Other times, they’ll see your strategic judgment and give you more autonomy.
Either way, you’re building trust and increasing leverage - and that compounds faster than effort.
4. Make your work visible (without playing politics)
You can’t get promoted if people don’t know what you’re doing.
But there’s a fine line between visibility and self-promotion.
Bad visibility feels like a self-serving press-release. We’ve all had that coworker who writes 500-word slack message alerting everyone about a minor tweak.
Good visibility creates alignment and teaches others.
Let’s compare:
Typical update:
“We launched a new landing page. Shoutout to the team - it looks great! We’ll share results soon.”
High-impact update:
“One of our OKRs this quarter is to double our conversion rate. This landing page is part of a broader experiment testing whether social proof or psychology-driven language performs better. We’ll share results in a few weeks so other teams can apply what we learn.”
Same work. Different impact.
High performers share their work through the lens of why it matters - connecting it to company goals and inviting others to learn from it.
That builds influence.
And influence is the real currency of career growth.
The four levers That Drive Promotions
If I wanted to get promoted in 2026, I’d focus on these four levers:
Clarify and verify your role - know what “good” looks like.
Say no more often - protect your focus and go deep.
Manage up intentionally - align early and often.
Make your work visible - teach, don’t just tell.
If you want to get promoted faster, the biggest shift you can make this year is a mental one.
Stop asking, “How can I get promoted?”
Start asking, “How can I lead like the person who already deserves it?”
Do that consistently, and the title will eventually catch up.
If you’ve been trying to implement the exact systems I talked about here - clarifying your role, protecting your focus, managing up, and building visibility - but want help taking it to the next level, that’s exactly what I teach inside The Growth Operating System.
It’s a plug-and-play framework designed to help growth leaders work smarter, lead with clarity, and get promoted without burning out.