Are you working towards your next promotion? From building cross-functional relationships to stepping up to lead a strategic project, use these strategies to help turn your achievements into career momentum.
As the custodians of employee development, HR practitioners know that careers do not progress by accident.
Whether you’re aiming to climb the ladder in your current organisation or position yourself for future opportunities, a promotion requires more than doing your job well – it requires visibility, influence and a proactive approach to growth.
“You don’t want to be a passenger in your career – you want to be the architect of your career,” says Sophie Hirst, Founder and CEO of executive coaching business Workbaby and former Senior Manager at Google.
The business landscape in 2025 is rife with opportunities for HR practitioners to build their value and influence in the eyes of senior leaders, adds Christina Storey, Founder and Coach at Her Career Coach, who has more than 20 years’ experience working in and with HR.
“HR is very influential with the executive team and other areas of the business. So it’s about building on those relationships we [already] have with people,” she says.
Below, Hirst and Storey offer seven practical strategies to help you set yourself up for a promotion in 2025.
1. Build your personal brand
No matter how much you achieve in your role, leveraging your achievements into a promotion will be difficult without a high level of visibility, says Storey.
“One of the most crucial things you can do is let people know what you’re capable of – don’t always let your work speak for itself,” she says.
One effective way to do this is by taking the time to decide on your own unique value proposition.
“For example – are you a strategic HR leader? Are you a culture builder? Are you someone who is instrumental in transformation across the business?”
She also advises keeping a finger on the pulse of the external business environment to position yourself as the go-to expert on emerging trends that leaders might be uncertain about.
While it’s not realistic to try to be a subject matter expert in every industry trend, it can be helpful to choose an area you’re interested in that represents opportunities for your business, and become a trusted advisor in that area, she says.
“For example, you might be looking at AI and how it’s going to influence employment, and what we can do to leverage it.”
2. Put yourself in business leaders’ shoes
According to Hirst, a common mistake employees make when trying to climb the ladder is focusing too much on why they want the promotion, and not enough on why the business should promote them.
“You need to understand that the company doesn’t exist to promote people or accelerate people’s careers. It exists to make money,” she says. “So everything you do needs to be packaged in terms of the value and the impact you’re creating for the company.”
To achieve this, she suggests setting aside time to understand the company’s broader objectives, and determining how your work aligns with these goals.
“If you’re at the type of company that doesn’t share this proactively, you should be asking your manager: What are the big things the company’s working on right now? What are our big challenges? What’s driving revenue and profit for the company?”
As well as ensuring your work ladders up to business objectives, it’s also useful to consider how well your ways of working align with your organisation’s core values, she adds.
“It’s about understanding both what the company values in terms of impact and output, and also what they value in terms of style and collaboration.”
“You don’t want to be a passenger in your career – you want to be the architect of your career.” – Sophie Hirst, Founder and CEO, Workbaby
3. Find your advocates
Career trajectories are often defined by what people say about you when you’re not in the room, says Storey.
While your manager may have a high opinion of you and your work, this is likely to be true of many other promotion candidates, so it’s crucial to have other voices speaking in your favour.
“It could be someone on the executive leadership team. It could be someone within your client group,” she says. “You want to build on that relationship so it’s not just transactional – it’s give-and-take.”
Building relationships with HR peers outside your organisation is another way to cultivate a network of advocates, she adds.
“HR is quite a [tight-knit] community, and a lot of people know a lot of people. And when people know of your capabilities, they can advocate for you.”
Connect with your HR peers by joining AHRI’s Member Lounge on LinkedIn or attending AHRI networking events.
4. Initiate micro-mentoring moments
Seeking out mentoring relationships is generally one of the first pieces of advice given to employees hoping for a promotion.
However, according to Hirst, approaching a senior employee with a question like, ‘Will you be my mentor?’ is generally not the most effective way to build these relationships.
“People are often hesitant to go into a formal, ongoing relationship with someone around mentorship, because it’s a massive time commitment,” she says. “But they’ll [usually] be very willing to do a 20-minute coffee or walk with you where you can ask them a few mentorship questions.”
For example, if you’re in a challenging situation at work, you might reach out to an experienced senior employee for guidance on addressing it.
“Send them a short email, and say [something like], ‘I know you’ve got more experience than me, and I really admire the way you operate. Can you give me any advice on how I might think about this situation?’ You will be so surprised at how willing people are to share their advice and experience with you.”
Having these micro-mentoring moments with a variety of people will not only avoid placing too much pressure on one person’s shoulders, but also ensure you are gaining diverse perspectives and advice from around the business, she says.
5. Lead or contribute to strategic projects
There’s no better way to demonstrate that you are capable of a position with more responsibility than to take on some of that responsibility before the fact, says Storey.
“It’s not necessarily about ‘faking it till you make it’,” she says. ‘It’s about imagining yourself in that particular position, and stepping up to do a few extra things.
“For example, if you want to go into a leadership position, step up a bit and act as if you’re already in that particular position. Take on some additional responsibilities – that will help elevate your profile, but also help you learn.”
As you’re doing this, be transparent about the work you’d like to take on in order to ensure you aren’t stepping on your colleagues’ toes.
Where possible, she also suggests putting your hand up to lead a strategic project in the business to position yourself as a capable leader. This will also open the door for more touchpoints with senior leaders and opportunities to showcase your work to a broader range of stakeholders.
“HR is quite a [tight-knit] community, and a lot of people know a lot of people. When people know of your capabilities, they can advocate for you.” – Christina Storey, Founder and Coach, Her Career Coach
6. Leverage LinkedIn to showcase your work
Love it or hate it, LinkedIn has become a career progression tool that emerging HR leaders can’t afford to ignore.
“I’m starting to see this trend around companies valuing the external profile that their employees have, and it can be a really important way to build influence,” says Hirst.
“There are only so many opportunities you get to present in front of people and package your work. One of the smartest ways you can do that is to be showcasing your work on LinkedIn.”
When posting about your work, think about what aspects will be most interesting or useful to your audience rather than what sounds most impressive, she says. This will help position you as an influential voice both in and outside your organisation.
Self-promotion comes more naturally to some than others, particularly on social media, she adds. For those who feel self-conscious or concerned about their posts feeling ‘cringe’, she advises finding ways to differentiate yourself and your contributions from the generic sentiments that tend to bounce around social platforms.
“Try not to sound like everyone else. Often, the cringe part of LinkedIn is that people are just doing what everyone else is doing and sounding like everyone else. They almost lose their personality when they post… Be professional, but don’t lose your personality.”
Read HRM’s article on optimising your LinkedIn presence.
7. Reflect on your wins and losses
Cultivating relationships is always crucial for progressing your career, but what often holds people back from achieving a promotion is their own mindset, says Hirst.
While stepping up to take on more responsibility is a great way to learn and grow, there’s also a chance it will cause or exacerbate feelings of ‘impostor syndrome’.
“It’s very hard for someone to just say, ‘You should get over your impostor syndrome. You’re great.’ For me, that never worked,” she says.
“What did work for me was [when] an executive coach said to me, ‘I’m not going to argue with you as to whether or not you have impostor syndrome, but what I’m going to ask you is: does telling yourself that every day serve you? Is it actually helping you and making it easier for you to do your job?’”
Rather than looking for evidence that you aren’t good at your job, look for evidence that you are, she says.
“One way you can do that is by sitting down with your manager and setting a few clear expectations for what you want to achieve in a six-month period, for example. [After that], take the time to package it up and share it.
“When things go wrong or aren’t perfect, we sometimes want to sweep it under the rug, but don’t do that – share what’s worked really well or not so well, and what you’d do differently next time.”
This reinforces your understanding that no project is ever perfect, she explains. What’s more, sharing learnings from where you went wrong is in itself a way of adding value.
Storey echoes the importance of reflection as a way to enable a growth mindset.
“Keep track of your achievements and celebrate them, whether they’re big or small,” she says.
“Don’t be shy about promoting them… Just own it. Be proud of the fact that you have accomplished something. That in itself will give you the level of confidence you need to step forward.”
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