A young, sharp manager sat across from me.

“I want a promotion,” he said.

“I’ve earned it. I work hard, I deliver results, I go above and beyond.”

I listened. I nodded.

Then I asked him one question:

“Tell me, how do you think leaders actually make promotion decisions?”

He went silent.

Not because he didn’t know the answer

but because he didn’t realize that was even the question.

And that’s when I thought back to myself, years ago.

When I wanted my very first promotion.

And I felt like there was this glass wall I couldn’t break through.

I was a good employee, well-regarded…

but not “promotion material.”

Why? I had no idea.

So I did what most people do:

Took another course. Worked even harder. Sacrificed more.

And still couldn’t figure out why nothing was happening.

Until I started asking different questions:

Maybe I’m thinking like an employee, when I should be thinking like a leader. Maybe I’m trying to stand out in ways no one actually cares about. Maybe I’m pouring my energy into the wrong things. Or maybe, just maybe no one has ever shown me what the real path looks like.

Since then, my work has been to uncover that path, step by step:

How to think like the people who make the decisions. How to figure out what’s really holding you back. How to turn your everyday work into a quiet stage for influence. How to ask for a promotion, without apologizing or shrinking yourself. And how, once it happens, not to settle, but to ask, “What’s next? What’s the next level?”

It’s not magic.

And it’s definitely not luck.

It’s a method. Pure and simple.

פ