\n<\/p>\n
Generally, companies don\u2019t like to give promotions. They are expensive and risky. The company has to spend extra money to put a known entity into an unknown situation. There is a risk of failure that didn\u2019t exist before.<\/p>\n
This is a sweeping generalisation, but it\u2019s a useful one. You probably deserve a promotion, but on its own, that\u2019s rarely enough to actually get <\/em>you promoted. There are forces working against you: the cold, hard unit economics of your business. The risk aversion and politics of your managers. Inertia.<\/p>\n In the past decade I\u2019ve worked in roles from entry-level writer to CMO. There were times when I did great work and completely failed to earn promotions. I would point to my myriad successes, talk about my desire for more responsibility and new challenges, and I\u2019d be met with a shrug: you\u2019re doing a great job, but we just can\u2019t do it right\u00a0now.<\/em><\/p>\n On other occasions, promotions would all but fall into my lap. The difference was rarely my effort level, or my persuasiveness\u2014it was my leverage. <\/em><\/p>\n Leverage is your ability to instill a need <\/em>for your company to promote you, a chance for the company to avoid something painful, or gain something wonderful.<\/p>\n From my experience, there are four types of leverage you can use to catalyze a promotion:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n