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Advocating for yourself at work is pretty straightforward: know what you want, find the right person, and ask them directly for it. Nobody is going to notice your work and hand you the next step on their own.
I asked Scott Hess, Chief Marketing Officer at Publicis Media, to walk through how he learned that, because he spent years waiting to be noticed before a friend taught him a better way.
How do you advocate for yourself at work?
Scott spent a lot of years waiting for a senior person to notice and hand him the next opportunity. Eventually he figured out senior people are too caught up in their own work to do that for anyone.
The fix, once a friend taught it to him: "what is it that would make you happy in your job and deliver value for the company and go ask for it." Not hint at it. Not hope somebody notices. Ask.
He's seen it happen to him and to the people he mentors, and it's always the same. Most people genuinely want to help you once you ask, so most of the time the answer is yes.
Working on your next move? Leaders from Publicis Media, Spotify, Paramount and more share how they got there. Subscribe on YouTube.
How do you ask for a promotion?
Scott gave me the exact script he uses now. Go to whoever can actually grant the request and say it plainly.
"I've thought a lot about this. This is something that would be good for me. This is something that would be good for the company. I would like to do that by May. Is that possible?" That's the whole ask: what you want, why it helps the business, and a date.
How do you reach out to senior leaders?
Scott's read on senior people is blunt: "old people are dying to talk to younger people and to share what we know." He said it works because most executives have kids your age, and they want someone to be kind to their kid the way they'd want someone kind to you.
His advice for staying protected once you're in the building: build three relationships at once. Get a senior voice in your corner, secure a client or revenue win, and don't let peers mistake you for someone phoning it in. Skip one of the three and it will catch up with you.
Does your GPA matter for your career?
Scott's own resume did not predict a CMO title. "I was a poetry major with a two five GPA," he told me. After graduation he worked at his mom's yogurt shop, painted houses, and didn't land a real job until 18 months later, as a proofreader in Chicago with 200 dollars to his name.
The GPA and the wandering first two years didn't matter the moment he found the thing he was actually good at. He got promoted because he proved he could do more than the job in front of him, and that had nothing to do with the transcript that got him hired in the first place.
Watch the full conversation
Watch the full episode with Scott Hess on YouTube for his morning intention practice, why pressure makes him go cold on purpose, and the hitchhiking analogy he uses for every career decision.
Watch next: A 30-Year CMO on the Decision Framework Behind Every Job Jump
Working on your next move? Leaders from Publicis Media, Spotify, Paramount and more share how they got there. Subscribe on YouTube.