Unsponsored
Reading. Nobody is arguing for you. Start with the career conversation.
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 Sponsorship. You may not have had a real career conversation with your manager in the last 90 days, your manager may not know which role you want next, or you cannot name anyone senior who argues for you when you are not in the room. This finder calls that reading Unsponsored. It is the block you can start on this week.
Promotions are decided in rooms you are not in. Somebody in that room has to say your name and make the case. If nobody has been asked to, nobody will. That is not politics. It is how a busy group of people chooses between several good candidates.
The first move is the career conversation. Gallup found that 45 percent of people who left their jobs voluntarily had no conversation with their manager about their future, satisfaction or role in the three months before they left (Fortune on Gallup). If you have not had one in 90 days, you are in the same position while still in the job. Do not wait for your manager to start it.
The next 90 days. In month one, have the career conversation: this is the role I want next, what would you need to see from me, and who else decides? In month two, do the thing your manager named, and make sure they see it. In month three, ask directly: will you put my name forward at the next review, and what would stop you? A manager who says yes is now your sponsor. A manager who cannot answer has given you your data point.
What to do this week. Book thirty minutes with your manager, titled career conversation rather than status update, and bring the three questions above. If your manager is the problem rather than the missing conversation, the boss pattern test will show it.
What to do with this result
If you do not manage people
The opener. I would like to talk about where I am going, not what I am working on. The role I want next is this one. What would you need to see from me in the next six months to put my name forward, and who else has a say?
The evidence table. After the conversation, write three columns on one page: what your manager said they need to see, what you have already done, and where the proof is. Send it back to them the same week. Now the conversation is on record.
The free leadership style quiz gives you words for how you would lead at the next level.
If you manage people
From the manager's chair, Unsponsored has two sides. Someone above you may not be arguing for you. And your reports could answer these same twelve statements about you: have you had a career conversation with each of them in the last 90 days? Gallup's 45 percent is a manager figure before it is an employee one.
Run one career conversation per report this quarter, and ask your own manager for yours in the same month. The one on one meeting builder puts it on the agenda. The promotion case for a manager is a team that runs without you, and the span of control calculator shows how far yours is from that.
Next step
The other results
- UntestedNobody has seen you do the next job yet. Run a trial.
- IndispensableToo useful where you are. Hand work off, own a result.
- UnseenThe people who decide do not know your work yet.
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.