Unseen
Reading. The people who decide do not know your work yet.
This is a self assessment of what usually blocks a promotion. It cannot see your organisation, your manager or your record, and it is not career, legal or HR advice. If you believe you were passed over because of a protected characteristic, that is a legal question; talk to HR, an employment lawyer or, in the UK, ACAS.
Your lowest score is Visibility. People above your manager do not know what you delivered this year, you have not presented your own work to anyone more senior recently, and your manager may be the only senior person who could describe it. This finder calls that reading Unseen. Your work may be excellent. The people who decide have not seen it.
Unseen is not a call to self promote. Most people who score here dislike the idea, and they are right that noise does not help. Visibility is not noise. It is making sure the record of your work reaches the people who will be asked about you, in a form they can use.
Check one thing first. If your manager passes your work up with your name on it, you have a quiet sponsor and the fix is small. If your work travels up without your name, the fix is different, and the boss pattern test will show whether credit is the issue.
The next 90 days. In month one, send your manager a short written summary every two weeks: what you delivered, what you decided, what is next. In month two, ask to present one piece of your work to the next level, with your manager in the room. In month three, find one problem across teams that a senior person cares about, and offer to help with it. By the end, at least two people above your manager should be able to describe your work in a sentence.
What to do this week. Write the first summary and send it. Keep it short enough to read on a phone. The name at the top of that note is the one people remember.
What to do with this result
If you do not manage people
The opener. Ask for visibility, not credit: I would like to present the results of this project to the next level myself, with you in the room. Would that work at the next review? Most managers say yes to that sentence.
The evidence table. Three columns on one page: what you delivered this year, who above your manager knows about it, and how they found out. Every empty cell in the second column is a summary or a presentation you have not yet made. Fill two in the next 90 days.
The free leadership style quiz shows how you would lead in a bigger room.
If you manage people
Your reports could answer the visibility questions about you. Does their work reach your boss with their name on it? Naming your people upward makes you more promotable, not less, because a manager whose people are known is a manager who can be moved up without a gap behind them.
Say one report's name in every update you send upward this month, and let one of them present their own work to your boss. The one on one meeting builder and the span of control calculator show how ready your team is to be seen without you.
Next step
The other results
- UntestedNobody has seen you do the next job yet. Run a trial.
- UnsponsoredNobody is arguing for you. Start with the career conversation.
- IndispensableToo useful where you are. Hand work off, own a result.
About this result
This is one of 4 results from the Promotion Block Finder: why am I not getting promoted, a free tool that shows the score without an email. Aggregate figures are at the statistics page once 30 completions have been reached. More free tools are at the tools shelf.