A promotion conversation doesn’t start when someone asks for it. It starts long before that—in the way you talk about growth, give feedback, and set expectations along the way.
Still, no matter how proactive you are, there’s a moment that catches almost every manager off guard:
An engineer sits down in your 1:1 and says, “I want to talk about what it would take to get promoted.”
And you realize... this conversation might go differently than they’re expecting. Maybe they’ve been doing solid work. Maybe they’ve even taken on more responsibility. But they’re not quite ready for the next step—and now you have to say that out loud.
That’s when this conversation becomes high-stakes.
Career conversations are high-stakes - not because they’re dramatic, but because they’re deeply personal.
You’re not just talking about titles or timelines. You’re talking about how someone sees themselves and whether you see them the same way.
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