Promotions
How do you know if you are ready for a promotion?
You are ready to make a strong case when your evidence shows repeated performance at the next level, not simply strong performance at your current one. Those are different things, and almost every promotion conversation goes wrong because they get confused.
Written by the Look at you go team · Published 18 August 2026
Two different questions
| Excellent in your current role | Operating at the next level |
|---|---|
| Delivers what is asked, well | Decides what should be asked for |
| Escalates the hard calls | Makes the hard calls and reports them |
| Owns tasks and projects | Owns outcomes and standards |
| Influences their own team | Influences other teams and their managers |
| Solves the problem in front of them | Notices the problem nobody has raised |
You can be excellent and not yet promotable. You can also be quietly doing the next role for a year and never say so, which is by far the more common tragedy.
The readiness check
Answer honestly. Anything you cannot date, you cannot use.
- I can name three next-level behaviours I have demonstrated in the last six months.
- Each of those has a date, a scope and an outcome attached.
- At least two happened without my manager asking me to.
- Someone more senior has independently routed work to me because of them.
- The pattern spans months, not one project.
- I can name the part of the next role I am not yet doing, and my plan for it.
- I know the criteria my organisation actually uses, not the criteria I assume.
Would you promote them?
Would you promote them?
Illustrative case study. A composed example, not a real person.
- Current role
- Project Coordinator
- Target
- Project Manager
Their manager left five months ago and was never replaced.
- · Runs the weekly supplier meetings
- · Manages a £780k workstream
- · Owns the forecast
- · Presents risks to the leadership team
- · Coaches another coordinator
The company line: it is still temporary cover.
Evidence for promotion
- Scope, budget and stakeholder seniority all match the next level.
- Five months is a pattern, not a stretch assignment.
- Decision authority is real: risks go to leadership through them, not around them.
Counter-evidence
- The organisation has not formally recognised the change, so on paper nothing happened.
- Coaching one person is thin evidence of people leadership.
Missing evidence
- Outcomes. Running a workstream is scope; delivering it against a target is evidence.
- Anything showing they set direction rather than holding it steady.
Conclusion
A strong case that is one conversation and two outcomes away from being an obvious one. The immediate job is not to argue. It is to date the change, capture what the workstream delivered, and get the words "temporary cover" replaced with a decision date.
Related questions
- My manager says I am not ready. What now?
- Ask for the criteria in writing: which behaviours, which outcomes, what scope, who else needs to agree, and when it gets revisited. A no with a clear bar is a plan. A no with vague feedback is information about the organisation, not about you.
- How long should I be in a role before asking?
- There is no universal number, and time in role is not evidence. What matters is whether the pattern of next-level work is long enough to look sustained, which usually means at least two or three quarters.
Test it against your own evidence
Try the promotion readiness checkRelated guides
- How to build a promotion case
- Evidence for a promotion: what actually counts
- Working above your pay grade
- Promotion readiness check
Back to promotions or all career guides.