Five questions to ask your manager about your promotion
For when: you want to be promoted but have never actually asked how it works.
Tilen Višnjevec · Finance director, Copenhagen · Most people wait to be told they are ready. The people who get promoted sooner ask. Not “when will I be promoted”, which puts the manager on the defensive, but questions that uncover how the process works and what is missing.
These are the five I wish someone had given me at 24. Ask them in a normal one-to-one, one or two at a time, not as an interrogation.
1. How are promotions decided here, and when?
You want to know who is in the room, when it meets, and when nominations go in. Many managers have never been asked this and will be glad to explain. If your manager does not know, that tells you something too: they may not have the influence to carry your case, and you will need a second advocate.
2. What does someone at the next level do that I don't yet?
Not “what are the criteria”, which gets you the competency framework. Ask for the behaviour. “She runs the meeting instead of attending it.” “He is the one the business calls, not the one who gets forwarded the email.” The answer is your target.
3. If my name came up today, what would the room say?
This is the hardest question to ask and the most useful. You are asking your manager to predict the objections. A good manager will tell you. If they hesitate, say “I would rather hear it from you now than find out in a year.”
4. Who else needs to see my work?
Your manager cannot promote you alone. Ask who in the room, or near it, should have an opinion about you by the time the decision comes. Then ask your manager to help you get in front of them, with real work, not a coffee.
5. What would you need from me to make the case?
This turns your manager into a co-author. It also surfaces practical things: a one-pager, a project you should lead, a presentation they want you to give. Whatever they name, do it, and tell them when it is done.
What not to ask
“Am I ready?” invites a yes that means nothing or a no that ends the conversation. “Why was X promoted and not me?” makes it about someone else. And “when?” before you have asked the other five means you are asking for a prediction without having done the work that makes it predictable.
What to do this week
Pick two questions. Questions one and two first. They are the easiest to ask and set up the others.
Write down the answers. Word for word if you can. You will refer back to them.
Ask question three within the month. Before review season, when there is still time to act on the answer.
The question I wish I had asked in my first year: “What would you need to see from me to put my name forward?” I waited two years to ask it.
The criteria are rarely written down. Ask, and someone will tell you.