Strong Reviews Every Cycle, and the Next Level Stays Closed

You closed the quarter. The review says strong performer, and your manager means it. Then the role above yours went to someone else, and the feedback sounded like praise: strong, but we are not sure they are operating at the next level yet. Whether you lead a team or lead through influence, it tends to land the same way.

Two things get said about you, and you only see one of them. The review is written to you, about your work, by someone who watched it. The other is spoken about you, in a room you are not in, by people who know a slice of what you do and are comparing you with others who also have strong records.

The review and the room are answering different questions. The review asks whether you did the job well. The room asks something narrower: does this person fit a role the business has already decided it needs, and can their manager make that case in a couple of minutes.

I have sat in these rooms, and they run in a set order. There is a defined budget, so the first decision is the organization's strategy and priorities for the year. That tells us which roles we need and where. Only then do we look at who on the team fits those roles, and managers sponsor the people who do.

We start with the most junior roles and work up, and the more senior the role, the more time it gets. Even so, each manager has a couple of minutes to make the case for one person. The senior leader asks questions. The other managers weigh in, or sponsor their own people for the same role. When everyone who is going to sponsor someone has, the room decides who gets it.

When several strong people are on the table, the role often goes to the one whose manager had to do less explaining. If the room does not know you, your manager spends the couple of minutes on who you are, and the case gets whatever is left.

Nobody reads the room's sentence back to you. You get the review, and the review is accurate, which is exactly why it is so hard to see what is missing. More of the same effort produces more of the same read.

Before your next cycle, write down the sentence you think your manager would use to make the case for you. Then write the sentence your last two quarters of evidence supports. If those are not the same sentence, that gap is the work, and it is a different job from doing the work well.

The Two-Sentence Career Check takes about 20 minutes and puts those two sentences side by side.

→ Get the Two-Sentence Career Check

Onward, Laurie