Vol. 41 - How To Use Mid‑Year To Finally Have The Promotion Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding
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We write for ambitious professionals, especially women, who are done playing small and ready to lead with visibility, confidence, and intention. Every 2 weeks, we share hard-won truths, scripts you can use today, and strategies we wish we had known earlier.
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We’re in the middle of the year. Half the targets. Half the projects. For many of you, it’s also summer break. Your calendar has slowed just enough to see what the last six months actually looked like. This is exactly the moment most women ask themselves a quiet question: “If I keep doing what I’ve been doing, will anything really change by December?”
For a lot of women we work with, the honest answer is no. Because they’re still waiting for someone else to notice it.
The pattern looks familiar. You deliver. You carry more than your job description. You help your manager look good. When promotion season comes around, you hope all of that will somehow translate into a bigger role. The part that’s rarely discussed is this: promotions don’t reward effort; they reward interpreted impact. And interpreted impact usually comes from conversations you’ve never had, because they feel awkward to even start.
Mid‑year is a much better place to begin those conversations than November. You’re not yet in performance review mode. You have distance. Many people are out on holiday, which creates mental space. This is when you can reflect, reset and decide how you want the second half of the year to feel - and how you want to show up inside it.
The Real Problem Isn’t “How Do I Ask?” It’s “What Am I Asking For?”
Most women treat the promotion conversation as a single moment: “Am I being considered?” That question is almost always too late and too vague.
Before you ask for anything, you need to know two things:
- What does “next level” actually mean in your company?
- What evidence would make someone feel safe putting your name on that list?
A mid‑year reflection exercise that takes less than 20 minutes:
- Open your calendar from January to today.
- Ignore the meeting titles.
-
Note down:
- Where you influenced a decision.
- Where you solved a problem bigger than your role.
- Where your scope quietly expanded.
- Where someone started trusting you with something they didn’t before.
You’re not looking for “I worked hard.” You’re looking for “the business moved differently because I was involved.” That’s the material you take into any promotion conversation.
Turn “Promotion Talk” Into A Strategy Meeting
When you do sit down with your manager after summer, don’t start with “I want a promotion.” Start with clarity.
One useful way to frame it:
“I’ve been reflecting on the impact I’ve made this year and the kind of responsibilities I’d like to grow into. I’d love to understand what the pathway looks like for me to progress to [next role]. When does the promotion cycle start, how does the process work, and what’s expected at that level?”
Then make it specific:
“If you think about people who are ready for that next level, what experiences or evidence would you need to see from me over the next six months to confidently put my name forward?”
This does a few important things in one go. It shows you’re not asking for a favour; you’re asking for a roadmap. It turns “work harder” into “do these three concrete things.” And it tells your manager, very clearly, that you are planning your career intentionally, not waiting passively for someone to tap you on the shoulder.
When Feedback Is Vague, Don’t Swallow It - Shape It
You’ve probably heard some version of: “You need to be more visible.” Or “You’re doing great, just keep it up.” On their own, these sentences are useless.
Mid‑year is the perfect time to practice a different response. The next time you hear something vague, try:
- “How would ‘more visible’ look in practice over the next few months?”
- “Where would you expect someone at the next level to show up that I’m not doing consistently yet?”
- “What would you need to see from me, specifically, to feel confident advocating for me?”
You’re not challenging their view. You’re asking them to do the part of their job that involves clarity. Once you have clarity, you can decide whether to deliver it - and whether the environment you’re in ever rewards it.
Map Who Actually Decides
Another mid‑year question worth asking yourself: “If a new senior role were announced tomorrow, whose heads would my name already live in?”
Promotions are rarely decided by one person. Your manager is one voice. Others might include:
- Your manager’s manager.
- Key business partners who rely on your work.
- Senior leaders who’ve seen you in difficult situations.
- HR or talent partners who compare people across teams.
- Sponsors who quietly champion names when succession is discussed.
This is where summer can be practical. With fewer meetings, you have bandwidth to reconnect intentionally.
Pick three people:
- Someone who has advocated for you before.
- Someone in another function whose work overlaps more and more with yours.
- Someone more senior you’ve worked with briefly but never stayed in touch with.
Reach out with something specific. An article that reminded you of a project you did together. A genuine congratulations on something you’ve noticed. A short message that says, “It’s been a while, and I’ve always valued our conversations - how are things on your side?” You don’t need a hidden agenda. You need continuity. Those are the relationships that often decide whose name feels familiar in the room when opportunities appear.
Scripts For The Conversations You’ve Been Avoiding
Use the summer slowdown to prepare language you can lean on later. A few practical scripts you can copy and adapt:
If you’ve never asked before:
“I’d love to discuss what it would take for me to move to the next level here. I’m not expecting an immediate decision - I’d like to understand the pathway so I can plan the second half of the year intentionally.”
If your manager keeps changing the story:
“I appreciate the feedback I’ve received so far. I’ve heard a few different perspectives on what’s needed, and I want to make sure I’m clear. What would success at the next level look like to you in concrete terms?”
If your manager says there’s “no budget right now”:
“Understood. In that case, how can we position my growth so that when headcount opens, I’m already sponsor‑ready?”
If your manager avoids the topic:
“I know this may not be something we decide now, but I’d still like to understand who owns this process and when the next window is. I want to align my goals ahead of time rather than hope I’ve hit moving targets.”
These are small sentences. They do big things. They take you out of the role of “hopeful hard worker” and into the role of someone who treats their career as part of the business, not a side effect of it.
A Mid‑Year Reframe
You don’t have to spend your summer break “working on yourself.” But you can use it to ask one blunt question: “If I show up exactly the same way between now and December, is it realistic to expect a different outcome?”
If the answer is no, then mid‑year is not just a season for rest. It’s a season for recalibration. Not dramatic reinvention - small, intentional shifts:
- One clearer conversation with your manager.
- A more concrete list of evidence for the next level.
- Three relationships kept warm instead of left to fade.
- One bolder contribution in the meeting that actually matters.
- A slightly more visible profile so people can see what you’ve been doing all along.
From Hidden Talent to Visible Leader (Last Cohort of 2026)
If this newsletter felt a little too familiar, you’re exactly who we built From Hidden Talent to Visible Leader for. The women who join us are not trying to become more capable. They’re already carrying work at the next level. What they want is to stop relying on luck and interpretation - and start translating their impact into reputation, opportunity and trust.
Our next cohort begins in August and will be our very last cohort in 2026. We keep the group deliberately small because we want to work closely with each woman, not run a mass programme. If you don’t want to finish another year wondering why someone else was chosen,
Last chance to join the waitlist HERE
When Your Promotion Story And Your Online Story Don’t Match
One thing we’ve become increasingly aware of in coaching is this: even when women do the inner work - clarifying their impact, having braver conversations with their managers, building stronger reputations internally - the outside world often still sees an outdated version of them.
When senior leaders, recruiters or potential sponsors hear your name and go looking for you, they don’t see the woman who is quietly operating at the next level. They see a CV‑style profile from three roles ago, or a generic summary that could belong to almost anyone. Internally, you may have done the work to move from hidden talent to visible leader. Externally, you’re still invisible.
We don’t believe LinkedIn replaces what happens inside your organisation. But we do know this: it’s much easier for people to say “yes” to you when the story they see online already matches the kind of leader you’re asking them to entrust with more.
That’s why we’re running Unlock LinkedIn 2026 live for the 3rd time on 29 September.
In a 90‑minute workshop, we’ll work on real profiles in real time. Headlines, About sections, experience bullets - the parts most women find hardest. We’ll show you how to move from “duties and tasks” to language that actually reflects your impact and leadership, and we’ll do it with examples you can copy and adapt immediately.
After the last workshop, women told us things like:
- “For the first time, my profile sounds like the leader I actually am, not the job description HR wrote.”
- “Within a week, I had senior leaders I’d never met look me up and reach out because they finally understood what I do.”
- “I stopped feeling embarrassed about my LinkedIn. Now it’s a place I’m proud to send people.”
For this run, we’ve also added the 7‑day LinkedIn Lab (worth 199 USD - FREE for ticket holder) so the workshop doesn’t stay as theory in your notebook. Over the following week, you’ll get small, focused tasks that help you implement the changes step by step - so by early October, your profile is no longer an afterthought. It’s an asset.
If you want to join us live on 29 September and have LinkedIn start working properly for the second half of the year, you’ll find all the details and tickets here:
Unlock LinkedIn 2026 (Recording Available) + 7‑Days LinkedIn Lab
If You Can’t Wait Until September
If your calendar is already full - or you simply don’t want to wait until September - the RECORDING of our last live workshop is available. It gives you a strong base to establish your LinkedIn presence: the exact prompts we used to rewrite profiles, the examples that helped women get noticed, and practical steps you can take in an afternoon to stop being scrolled past.
And if you’re ready to go beyond a single workshop and treat LinkedIn as a long‑term career asset rather than a one‑off clean‑up, that’s where our LinkedIn Accelerator comes in. The workshop and recording give you the foundation. The Accelerator gives you the consistency, feedback and structure to make LinkedIn genuinely work for you over time - so your promotion story and your online story finally point in the same direction.
Thank you for spending part of your week - and your mid‑year reflection - with us.
P.S. July is one of the few moments in the year where small changes can still influence how the rest of the year unfolds. Don't wait until your performance review to start preparing for it.
P.P.S. If you're unsure which option is right for you, simply WhatsApp Jingjin. We'd be happy to help you think it through.
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📚 Missed Previous Issues?
If this issue resonated, here are three of our most-read editions:
• Social Is Your New CV
• What 175 Women Asked For When 65 Senior Male Leaders Finally Stood Beside Them
• The Best Jobs Are Filled Before They're Posted. Are You Building Your Career Accordingly?
We write every two weeks about visibility, workplace politics, sponsorship, influence, and helping women progress in the workplace.
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