Untested
Reading. Nobody has seen you do the next job yet. Run a trial.
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 Evidence. You may be very good at your current job, and you probably are. What is missing is proof that you can do the next one: a piece of work you led across people who do not report to you, a decision normally made above your level, something you can point to when someone asks whether you are ready. This finder calls that reading Untested.
Untested is not a verdict on your ability. It is a statement about what the people deciding have seen. A promotion is a bet, and without evidence the bet looks bigger than it is. Being excellent in your current role tells them you are excellent in your current role. It does not tell them how you would handle the next one, which is why the people who get promoted are usually already doing part of the job.
The next 90 days. Ask your manager for one piece of next level work with a clear owner, which is you, and a clear end date. A project across two teams, a hire you run from start to finish, a decision you prepare and present. Keep it small enough to finish inside the 90 days. When it is done, write one paragraph on what happened and what you decided, and send it to your manager. That paragraph is your evidence.
If the answer is that no such work is available, ask what would need to be true for it to be. A manager who cannot find you a trial in 90 days has told you something about the path here.
What to do this week. Write the next job down in three lines: what it owns, what it decides, who it works with. Mark the line you have never done. That is the trial to ask for. If the next job means managing people, the should I become a manager test checks whether you want the work, not only the title.
What to do with this result
If you do not manage people
The opener. In your next one on one: I want to be ready for the next role, and I know that means doing part of it first. Is there one piece of next level work I could own before the next review?
The evidence table. On one page, draw three columns: what the next job owns, what you have already done of it, and where the proof is. The empty rows are the trials to ask for. Fill one in the next 90 days, and bring the page to your review.
If you want words for how you would lead, the free leadership style quiz gives you them.
If you manage people
If you manage people and want the next level, the promotion case for a manager is a team that runs without you. Untested, from your chair, means nobody above you has seen your team deliver while you were out of the room. For the next two weeks, let one report run your weekly team meeting and make one decision you would normally make. That is evidence for you and for them.
The span of control calculator shows whether your team is set up for it, and the one on one meeting builder turns handing over into a weekly agenda. The 5 Minute Leader is the daily habit set.
Next step
The other results
- UnsponsoredNobody is arguing for you. Start with the career conversation.
- 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.