You don’t need permission to get promoted
After 27 years in tech—working at Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and AWS, then coaching dozens of colleagues through promotions from both sides—I’ve learned something that most people get backwards:
Your career belongs to you. Not your company. Not your manager. Not the promotion committee.
Everything else—job titles, paperwork, organizational processes—those are just external factors that either help you build a great career or don’t. And once you internalize this reframe, everything about promotions changes.
The permission you already have
Here’s what most people think: Work hard. Hope your manager notices. Feel anxious about whether you “deserve” a promotion. Ask yourself: “Am I good enough for this?”
That’s the wrong question. It’s thinking too small.
The better question is: “Is my organization ready to benefit from what I can give?”
This shift—from scarcity thinking (“Do I deserve this?”) to abundance thinking (“Am I in the right environment?”)—changes everything. Because here’s an important truth about promotions:
You don’t get promoted and then start doing next-level work. You start doing next-level work, and the promotion confirms you’re already there.
A promotion is not a permission to operate at the next level. It’s merely paperwork catching up to reality.
The trap to avoid
Before you chase that promotion, make sure you actually want the work that comes with it, not just the title.
I once worked with a brilliant engineer who got promoted to engineering manager. After a few years, his team was unhappy: turns out he wasn’t really good at managing people. And he was miserable too, because the work he loved (deep technical problem-solving) was now only 20% of his job.
The tragic thing: it wasn’t his fault. The organization failed to recognize that a manager job isn’t a reward for being a great engineer. It’s just a different job. With different work. And it might not be a good fit.
So before anything else, understand why you want the next level. Beyond the money, what are you actually seeking?
The foundation: purpose, mastery, autonomy
There’s actually some helpful science here: Dan Pink wrote a book called Drive about what actually motivates us. He identified three things: Purpose, Mastery, and Autonomy.
I’ve found these three elements keep you grounded through all the corporate chaos, like budget cuts, reorganizations, bad managers, all of it.
Purpose is why you love your work. For me, it was always helping customers solve tough problems. That purpose carried me through the dot-com crash, company acquisitions, and political nonsense. Even on bad days, I knew why I was showing up.
Mastery is getting really good at something valuable. Early in my career at Sun, and later when I joined AWS, I was like a kid in a candy store. I just wanted to learn, solve harder problems, help more customers succeed. I wasn’t thinking about promotions at all—I was obsessed with mastering my craft. Eventually, I found out I was becoming an Expert Generalist, something no career guide could have ever predicted.
Cal Newport wrote a great book about this: So Good They Can’t Ignore You. His point: don’t just “follow your passion.” Instead, build rare and valuable skills—skills so good they can’t ignore you.
Autonomy is having the freedom to make decisions. And here’s the beautiful thing: you don’t always have to wait for autonomy to be given. Sometimes you can just ask for it. “Can I lead this project?” The worst they can say is “no.”
These three elements create a positive flywheel: Purpose gives you energy to develop Mastery, Mastery delivers results which earn you Autonomy, and Autonomy validates your Purpose. And these three things make you happy no matter what level you’re at. Which is crucial when your organization takes time to process promotions.
The tactical playbook
Once you understand your why, here’s how to make it easier for your organization to recognize you’re ready:
First, figure out what the next level actually looks like. Read level descriptions if your org has them. But better yet, observe people already at that level. What do they actually do every day? In most cases, it boils down to bigger scope and bigger impact.
Second, just start doing it. This is the key insight: You can start operating at the next level right now. Want to influence regional strategy instead of just country-level? Start writing those strategy documents. You don’t need a VP title to think bigger.
Third, document everything. Start an achievement log today. Use the STAR method: Situation, Task, Actions, Results. Collect both stories and data showing impact. This helps the promotion process, yes, but more importantly, it helps you see your own growth.
Fourth, understand your organization’s process. Some orgs are very structured. Some are informal. Some don’t really have a process at all. You might be ready for promotion, but the organization might not be ready to give it. That’s important data.
True story: early in my career, I realized I was underpaid given my increased responsibilities. I asked my manager for a raise. They shied away from it: too afraid to fight for it through their org. So I changed teams within the same company. My new manager looked at my work, and within weeks, they got the paperwork done.
Same company. Same me. Same work.
Different manager. Different outcome.
Sometimes you don’t need a different company. You just need a different team or manager.
The reality check
Sometimes, even when you’re doing everything right—operating at the next level, building mastery, delivering results—the promotion doesn’t come.
This is where you need patience and awareness.
Patience, because sometimes things just take time. Budget freezes happen. Leadership changes. Then six months later, things open up again.
But awareness too. Pay attention to the data. Is this temporary? Or is this just how this organization operates? Is your manager genuinely trying to help you?
Remember: “Is my organization ready to benefit from what I can give?” If the answer is “not yet, but maybe soon”, then patience makes sense. But if the answer is “no, and it’s not going to change”, it might be time to find an environment that is ready.
I wrote a blog post about recognizing when it’s time to move on, which resulted in one of my biggest career shifts: I basically promoted myself into a better organization.
The good news: Whether you stay or go, you are in control. Your development doesn’t depend on any single promotion. Your growth doesn’t depend on any single organization.
Your Next Steps
Here’s some homework for you:
1. Write down your Purpose, Mastery, and Autonomy
What impact matters to you?
What skills are you building?
What decisions do you want to make?
Just three sentences. Get it out of your head.
2. Start your achievement log
Create a document with this structure:
## [Month/Year]
### [Project/Achievement Name]
- **Situation**: What was the context?
- **Task**: What needed to be done?
- **Actions**: What did you do specifically?
- **Results**: What was the measurable impact?
Add one story from last month. Set a weekly reminder to update it.
3. Pick one next-level move and start doing it
Identify what people at the next level are doing. Then either ask your manager for that stretch project, or just start doing it yourself.
Give yourself permission.
The full story
I go deeper into all of this in my video below, including the anti-pattern of promotion obsession, specific stories from my career, and the mental models that kept me sane through corporate chaos:
Related Reading
If you’re early in your career, start with The explore/exploit guide to your first tech job. It’s about finding your edge before thinking about promotions.
For more on the Mastery piece, read How to thrive as an expert generalist in the age of AI. It’s about building diverse skills that make you uniquely valuable.
Books and resources
- Dan Pink’s TED Talk: The Puzzle of Motivation
- Book: Drive, by Dan Pink
- Book: So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport
What’s your purpose at work? I’m genuinely curious what drives you. Email me or leave a comment on the video, I read every one!