Your Manager Is Not Your Only Audience

Cross-team work can give others a clearer view of your contribution. Seek useful feedback and support without taking on an unlimited second workload or expecting a guaranteed promotion.

Some useful work happens outside your manager's direct view. A handover improves, another team gets what it needs, and the people receiving the work understand its value better than the person reviewing your performance.

The people receiving it can offer another source of feedback. It may also give colleagues something specific to say when future opportunities are discussed.

The aim is to make a contribution understandable, while keeping the work within a scope you can carry.

Career support is worth discussing directly

The 2025 Women in the Workplace report, from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, reported that employees with sponsors had been promoted at nearly twice the rate of employees without sponsors over the preceding two years.

The report concerns participating corporate workplaces. It shows a relationship between sponsorship and advancement, rather than proving that finding a sponsor will produce a promotion. Access to that support is unequal, as the report describes. Personal effort is only part of the picture.

Still, it is a useful reason to ask what support is available, rather than waiting for good work to speak entirely for itself.

Choose a contribution that belongs in your work

Look for a shared problem connected to your responsibilities. Perhaps another team needs a more complete input from yours, or there is a recurring question you are well placed to resolve.

Discuss the priority with your manager and the colleague who would benefit. Agree what you can take on and which existing commitment will make room for it. An open-ended offer to help with everything can leave little time to do any of it well.

Describe your part fairly

Keep enough detail to explain what the work was, what you contributed and what changed. Credit the other people involved. A result can be useful without becoming a claim that you achieved it alone.

Use measurements where they exist. Where they do not, describe an observable change. An agreed handover now includes the information the receiving team asked for; whether that saved time is a separate question.

Share the result through the team's normal channels and ask the people affected what was useful or still needs attention. Their answer may be more valuable than a polished account of your own performance.

Ask for the kind of support you need

A mentor can help you think through a decision or prepare a conversation. A sponsor advocates for someone when an opportunity is being considered. One person may do both, but the roles are different.

It is reasonable to ask a manager or trusted colleague who else could give feedback on your readiness for a role. Ask what experience or evidence would matter in that organization's process. Openings, priorities and selection criteria can also affect the answer.

An outside mentor can offer perspective; they cannot create an internal opportunity or guarantee that someone will advocate for you.

Altvina's mentorship for individuals matches professionals with vetted operators for practical support. An outside view can help you work through your next move alongside the conversations you have inside your organization.

More from this week

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• Thursday: Your Manager Is Not Your Only Audience (this post)

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