One of the most frustrating things about career advancement here is realizing that performance, experience, education, and demonstrated leadership are not necessarily what determine who moves up. After years of strong performance, the feedback can still boil down to “relationships, image, exposure, and sponsorship” and that the employee needs to figure out what they need to do differently.
That feels backwards. If an organization has experienced, high-performing employees who repeatedly compete for advancement but remain stuck, leadership should have some responsibility for identifying the gap, creating development opportunities, and building an actual path forward. Telling employees to simply “figure it out” while promotions depend heavily on who knows you, who sees you, and who advocates for you is not a meaningful development strategy.
At some point, companies need to ask whether their talent systems are actually developing people or simply rewarding those who already have the right visibility and relationships.