Your Promotion Blocker plan
You might have mentors, but no sponsor — someone senior who argues for you when you're not there. Mentors talk to you; sponsors talk about you. Guess which one actually moves your career.
I learned this one the hard way. I found one director I really clicked with and basically followed him around for three years — his team, his projects, all my eggs in his basket. Then he got a better job in Dubai and left, and I was back to zero: no senior person to pull me onto good work, starting again. Don't do that.
Spread your bets across three or four senior people. Relationships move — people leave, reorg, change teams — so a portfolio is resilient in a way that one hero relationship never is.
Sponsorship is earned, not asked for cold. Do work that makes them look good. You grow a followership — people who speak up for you — precisely by being genuinely useful to the people who have a voice.
Once you've delivered, tell them plainly: "I'm going for X — would you back me?" Vague gets nothing; specific gets champions. Most people do the work and skip the ask, then wonder why nobody argued for them.
Your tribe is your vibe — the people you're associated with shape your brand too. And network sideways as well as up: your peers are the ones who pull you onto the good projects, not the busy seniors.
Start by naming your three. You can't build a portfolio you haven't written down.
— Kajol, your corporate aunty 👋🏽
That's what my 1:1 coaching is for. This week it's 10% off with code PROMO10.
See coaching →Want to check it's really sponsorship? Take the Stuck Type Diagnostic too, or grab the Corporate Toolkit & Templates.
Most people are a bit of a blend, and each plan stands on its own. Have a read:
You're doing the work; they just can't see it.
No evidence yet that you operate a level up.
You've never actually made the ask explicit.