Let me start by saying I got lots of promotions early on in my career. And often. Then they dried up and were less frequent until I realised the following…
Promotions don’t always go to the hardest worker, the most loyal, or the one who waits patiently. If that’s how it worked, every accountant who worked 60-hour weeks and hit every deadline would eventually make it to the CFO seat.
Getting a promotion in a commercial organisation is one of the most challenging – and at times, confusing – aspects of working in corporate life.
The rules are far less obvious than in professional services firms. In accounting firms, the “promotion conveyor belt” is pretty clear: graduate, senior, supervisor, manager, senior manager, partner. Some move quicker than others, but broadly, time and tenure are the driving forces. If you stick around long enough and don’t fall off the belt, you move up.
In a commercial organisation, things look very different.
The gaps between roles are larger, the pyramid narrows sharply as you move up, and the competition becomes fierce. And when you finally get to the pointy end – the conveyor belt doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s a maze.
So, how do you navigate it?
The first mental shift is this: promotions are not about what you have done – they are about what you are capable of doing.
This is where many high-performing finance professionals get stuck.
They believe that if they just work hard enough, deliver enough reports, and demonstrate technical mastery, their contribution will be recognised and rewarded. But organisations aren’t built that way.
As you rise through the ranks, the required skillset changes. The technical expertise that got you noticed as a graduate or analyst matters less and less. What starts to matter more are the behavioural skills: leadership, influence, communication, commercial acumen, and yes, the ability to navigate office politics.
If you think politics is beneath you, then you’re at risk.
Politics isn’t just gossiping by the coffee machine. It’s the reality of human decision-making in organisations. Decisions about who gets promoted are rarely objective – they’re influenced by perception, relationships, and trust.
So if your strategy is to simply “keep your head down, work hard, and wait your turn,” you may be waiting a long time.
Thankfully, there is a way to take control of your career progression.
The MAP Model
Years ago, when I was still clinging to the belief that hard work and loyalty were enough, someone introduced me to the MAP model. It completely reframed how I thought about career progression.
MAP stands for Movers, Attributes, and Pathway.
Movers
Movers are the people who make the decisions about promotions.
Not your peers, not the HR system, not the “talent review process” – but the actual individuals whose opinions carry weight when the decision is made.
Here’s a trap to avoid: if you’re going for your boss’s role, the mover isn’t your boss. By the time that decision comes around, your boss will either have moved on or won’t be in a position to make the call. At best, they might act as an advocate, but the true movers will be the decision-makers above them.
So ask yourself:
👉 Who are the people who really decide who gets promoted into the role I want?
👉 Do they like me?
👉 Do they believe in my capability?
If the answer to either of those questions is “no,” then that’s your starting point.
Promotions are not a test of fairness – they’re a reflection of what the movers think about you. Your task is to understand who they are, what matters to them, and how you can make sure your capability and potential are visible to them.
Attributes
The next piece of the puzzle is attributes. These are the skills, behaviours, and qualities required in the role you want – not the role you currently have.
Too many professionals make the mistake of optimising for their current job, rather than preparing for the next one. For example, if you’re aiming for a senior finance leadership role, spending 80% of your energy becoming the best spreadsheet modeller in the company won’t help you. The higher you go, the less functional competency matters. What matters is how you represent the organisation as a leader.
Want a shortcut? Look at the people who have recently been promoted above you. What attributes did they display? Why were they chosen over others? Which of those attributes do you already have, and which are still gaps?
This isn’t time to be thinking “oh I am way better than them”. They were chosen for a reason and if you don’t lean into that objectively being better won’t mean getting paid better.
Pathway
The final piece is pathway. Promotions don’t follow a neat, linear route. You won’t always go directly from A to B.
Instead, think of your career like a lattice. Sometimes you move sideways, sometimes you step back into a different function, sometimes you take a role that doesn’t look like a promotion at all – until you realise it gives you the missing experience you’ll need later.
The key is to map your pathway deliberately. Contrast your current role with the one you want. What are the gaps in skills, behaviours, and experiences? Then identify the roles that would fill those gaps, even if they’re not obvious stepping-stones.
And most importantly, put a timeline on it. If you don’t set deadlines, your development becomes vague and easy to push aside. Setting a date forces urgency and accountability.
The higher you go, the harder it becomes to get promoted – not because you’re less capable, but because there are fewer roles available and more politics at play. If you’re not deliberate, you could easily wake up one day having been passed over, wondering what happened, and regretting that you didn’t do more to shape your own path.
The MAP model doesn’t guarantee you a promotion – but it gives you clarity. It forces you to focus on the right people (Movers), develop the right skills (Attributes), and chart the right course (Pathway).
Remember your career progression is not a meritocracy.
It’s a marketplace of perceptions, relationships, and opportunities. You can either hope the system recognises you – or you can take control and make yourself impossible to ignore.
So, who are the movers in your organisation? What attributes do they value? And what’s your pathway to becoming the person they already see as the obvious choice?
If you can answer those questions, you won’t just be waiting for promotion – you’ll be preparing for it. And that makes all the difference.