The Politics of Promotion

Have you ever felt blindsided at work—doing everything right, working hard, earning praise, yet watching someone far less qualified get the promotion? In The Politics of Promotion: How High-Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead, leadership coach Bonnie Marcus argues that talent and diligence alone don’t guarantee success. In today’s organizations, understanding and embracing workplace politics is not a dirty game to avoid—it’s a critical skill to master.

Marcus contends that women are especially vulnerable to the naïve belief that meritocracy rules the workplace. Conditioned from childhood to equate hard work with reward, high-performing women enter corporations expecting recognition to follow results. Instead, they find decisions shaped by relationships, visibility, and unwritten laws of influence. Her message is clear: if you ignore politics, you handicap your career; if you engage it strategically, you empower it.

From Hard Work to Political Savvy

Marcus opens with a powerful confession—her own professional blindside. Despite eight years of stellar performance at a healthcare company, she was passed over for a vice president role. The lesson that emerged formed her lifelong mission: workplace decisions hinge on relationships, alliances, and political awareness. This experience became the foundation for her concept of a “Political Toolkit,” a collection of strategies any woman can use to climb efficiently while staying true to her principles.

Why Politics Matter More for Women

Marcus describes workplaces as highly nuanced ecosystems of alliances, gatekeepers, and subtle bias. Women, excluded from dominant “old boys’ clubs,” must acquire insider access creatively. She draws on stories like Sallie Krawcheck’s ouster from Bank of America and Cathie Black’s public downfall as NYC Schools Chancellor to illustrate that powerful women often fail not for lack of competence, but for lack of influence within informal networks. Even stars with political skill can stumble if placed outside the power grid.

Gender bias further complicates the game. Decades of overt discrimination have morphed into subtler “second-generation bias”—unconscious assumptions that shape whom leaders trust, mentor, or promote. Women can be penalized for assertiveness or assumed to lack ambition after motherhood. Political savvy, Marcus insists, is the override switch: it lets women see these obstacles clearly, discern allies and foes, and build alliances that protect their interests.

Reframing Politics as Positive Relationships

For Marcus, politics isn’t manipulation or “schmoozing.” It’s relational intelligence—the ability to see what drives people, what they value, and how decisions evolve socially, not formally. Politically skilled individuals shape perceptions by being authentic, strategic, and generous. They adopt the radar of great primatologists (Marcus quotes Frans de Waal’s chimpanzee research on coalition-building) to observe and adapt continuously.

This reframing is central to Marcus’s approach. By viewing politics as constructive collaboration rather than self-serving trickery, women can participate ethically and effectively. As executive coach Lois Frankel notes (author of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office), success depends on understanding “quid pro quo”—offering value for value. Marcus extends this: political mastery also means balancing assertiveness with empathy, ambition with contribution.

The Political Toolkit: A Step-by-Step Map

The book’s heart lies in Marcus’s five tools—the Mirror, Magnifying Glass, Pass Go Card, Get Out of Jail Free Card, and GPS. Each metaphor represents a practical competency: know your value (Mirror), decode your environment (Magnifying Glass), build strategic networks (Pass Go Card), secure sponsorship (Get Out of Jail Free Card), and use coaching for direction (GPS). These tools evolve alongside the reader’s career—helping a newcomer get grounded and a seasoned leader stay relevant amid political turbulence.

Why This Book Matters Now

Despite women’s educational achievements—holding over half of U.S. graduate degrees—representation in executive suites remains under 6%. Marcus argues that the missing ingredient isn’t talent but tactical understanding. By teaching women how to navigate informal systems of power with clarity and integrity, The Politics of Promotion becomes both a survival guide and an empowerment manual. Its message resonates with works by Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In) and Herminia Ibarra’s research on leadership identity: ambition alone doesn’t guarantee progress—visibility, advocacy, and savvy relationships do. In an age when “meritocracy” is more myth than reality, Marcus invites women to stop waiting for fairness and start playing to win—smartly, confidently, and politically.

Bonnie Marcus defines political savvy as a blend of observation, strategy, relationship-building, and influence. It’s not about manipulation; it’s about awareness and choice. Politically savvy people recognize how power flows, who influences decisions, and how subtle social cues shape outcomes. In essence, savvy is the professional translation of emotional intelligence.

Understanding the Landscape

Organizations operate under two systems: formal and informal. The formal system includes charts, procedures, and job descriptions. The informal system is the invisible web of loyalty and trust where real decisions are made—what Marcus calls the ‘meetings-before-the-meetings.’ Knowing who participates in those informal arenas lets you predict outcomes and avoid missteps (Kathleen Reardon’s It’s All Politics supports this idea, arguing success depends on mastering invisible networks).

Marcus encourages women to observe their surroundings like sociologists: Who gets promoted and why? Who has access to senior leaders? Which behaviors are rewarded? Political savvy starts with curiosity, not judgment.

Embracing Positive Politics

Most women recoil from the word “politics,” equating it with corruption or favoritism. Marcus’s interviews reveal strong resistance among professional women who call politically skilled colleagues “suck-ups.” The irony, she points out, is that ethically savvy individuals quietly build genuine alliances rather than manipulate. Positive politics means pursuing mutual benefit—elevating both yourself and others.

Key Principle

“Politically skilled individuals not only know precisely what to do in different social situations—they also know exactly how to do it in a way that diffuses any manipulative motives.”

Developing Political Will and Skill

Marcus distinguishes between political will—the willingness to engage in the politics—and political skill—the ability to execute it smoothly. Many talented women lack the first. They avoid politics as distasteful, unaware that this abstention leaves them powerless. Political will means choosing engagement over aversion. Once that shift occurs, skill development follows.

Skill can be learned: practicing observation, deliberate communication, and empathy. Marcus calls for changing mindset before tactics. Marilyn Tam, former CEO of Aveda, reframes politics as “relationships”—a mental switch many women find liberating. Once politics feels relational, every interaction becomes an opportunity for insight rather than an ethical dilemma.

Stages of Political Growth

Marcus identifies four levels of political seasoning—from Naïve Nancy (focused solely on performance) to Great Work Greta (aware of politics but not strategic), to Strategic Sarah (intentional networking and self-promotion), and finally Political Pam (a leader adept at influence and mentoring others). We all move back and forth between these stages with each career change or reorganization. Mastery doesn’t mean perfection—it means adaptability.

Political savvy transforms careers because it bridges the gap between performance and perception. By cultivating relationships across ranks, by seeing invisible networks of power, and by acting intentionally, you move from hoping for recognition to orchestrating it. For Marcus, this transformation isn’t cynical—it’s empowering. It’s how women reclaim agency in systems not built for them.

The first tool in Marcus’s Political Toolkit is the Mirror, representing self-reflection. Before navigating external politics, you must understand your internal worth. The Mirror reveals your value proposition—what unique outcomes you deliver and how your style benefits your organization. Without knowing this, self-promotion feels awkward or self-serving.

Why Women Struggle to Self-Promote

Marcus explores childhood conditioning: girls are rewarded for modesty, boys for assertiveness. This upbringing leaves adult women believing humility equals likability. Yet, as the Catalyst study “The Myth of the Ideal Worker” reveals, women who clearly communicate their achievements secure more promotions and raises than those who just ‘do great work.’ Performance unspoken is performance unseen.

Marcus tells the story of Sharon Allen at Deloitte. Passed over for promotion, Allen confronted her manager, listing her accomplishments. He was shocked—he hadn’t known. Allen learned that visibility is responsibility. From that moment, she made it her job to ensure decision-makers knew her results. Self-promotion is a leadership duty, not vanity.

Authentic Self-Promotion

Marcus urges reframing self-promotion as service: you’re not bragging—you’re informing your organization so it can leverage your success. Linda Descano of Citibank exemplifies this by crediting her team while highlighting outcomes—she demonstrates leadership and spreads recognition. Betsy Myers, who led the Clinton administration’s women’s initiatives, used strategic communication to align her efforts with presidential goals, showcasing how promotion benefits a larger mission.

Authenticity means articulating your value through outcomes: how you make money, save time, or enhance reputation. Marcus introduces a Mirror exercise—recalling projects, identifying personal contributions, and linking them to business results. This transforms a résumé into a narrative of impact.

Overcoming the Double Bind

Assertive women risk backlash for violating feminine norms. Marcus cites the “double bind”: be strong and you’re unlikeable; be soft and you’re dismissed. Political savvy helps navigate this paradox—modulating tone, customizing communication, reading the audience. Stanford research confirms that women who can “turn confidence on and off” based on context advance fastest.

Making Visibility a Habit

Marcus concludes that the Mirror’s power lies in daily practice. Keep a success journal to reverse “Velcro thinking”—where failures stick and achievements slide off. “Teflon thinking,” she says, lets praise roll away unacknowledged. By reflecting regularly on accomplishments, you self-correct your inner narrative and project confident visibility. As Steve Jobs once advised, your intuition already knows what you should become—everything else is noise. The Mirror helps you cut through that noise to see yourself clearly and shine strategically.

Marcus’s second tool, the Magnifying Glass, teaches women to observe organizational life keenly. Politics thrive in patterns—who holds power, what unspoken rules govern success, and how culture rewards certain behaviors. Seeing these clearly prevents blindsiding and helps you adapt quickly.

Spotting Power and Influence

Titles rarely reflect true power. Marcus encourages mapping influence: who shapes decisions behind closed doors? Often support staff or senior advisors wield invisible control. She shares stories of Linda Descano misjudging internal dynamics and getting poor reviews, or Mia, whose CEO deferred power to a head of HR—learning the chain of influence changed her approach.

Use observation and questions: Who does your boss listen to? Who gains access to leadership meetings? Understanding these relationships lets you target allies strategically.

Uncovering Hidden Rules

Every workplace publishes handbooks, but the real rules live in habits and exceptions. Marcus’s examples include unwritten dress codes or informal “favor economies” that override procedure. Hidden rules often dictate promotion timing, mobility expectations, or acceptable assertiveness. Women like Julie learned that in her firm, power came from “barking loudest” —a norm diametrically opposed to collaboration.

By using the Magnifying Glass, you can adapt consciously without moral compromise. Breaking sacred rules leads to isolation, but strategically bending flexible ones shows initiative.

Reading Cultural Context

Culture frames everything—from communication styles to risk tolerance. Marcus differentiates conservative, consensus-driven, and toxic cultures. In conservative firms (like ServiceMaster or German corporations), patience trumps confrontation. In consensus cultures, decisions rely on collective input, requiring diplomacy. In toxic workplaces filled with power plays and backstabbing, survival means building allies fast and staying vigilant.

As workplaces globalize, cultural agility becomes crucial. Drawing on Alison Maitland’s and Erin Meyer’s research (The Culture Map), Marcus notes that understanding cross-cultural etiquette—like emotional displays or communication formality—can determine whether collaboration succeeds.

Seeing Change Before It Hits

The Magnifying Glass also reveals shifts—mergers, power turnovers, emerging alliances—that affect your career. Those who monitor these undercurrents adapt first. By reading subtle cues—changed meeting attendance, altered tone, new decision routes—you position yourself where influence is moving. This daily mindfulness transforms politics from anxiety into foresight. The Magnifying Glass keeps you alert, informed, and resilient.

The Pass Go and Collect $200 Card symbolizes acceleration through strategic networking. Marcus equates winning at career advancement to Monopoly: the players who collect contacts—trust-based, diverse, and influential—move faster. Networking, she stresses, isn’t about socializing; it’s about cultivating mutually beneficial alliances that provide information, sponsorship, and opportunity.

Networking for Strategy, Not Sympathy

Women network for connection; men network for transactions. Research confirms this pattern: men approach networking to gain leverage, women to nurture relationships. Marcus invites a mind shift—think of networking as relationship capital for your career. When she lost a promotion, it was a former colleague’s connection that landed her a CEO role elsewhere. The advantage of open networks (connecting unlike individuals) versus closed circles (where everyone already knows each other) is decisive.

Mapping Your Power Grid

Using her network template, Marcus teaches how to categorize contacts: operational (colleagues who help daily work), developmental (mentors and decision makers), and strategic (connectors who open doors). Evaluate influence and relationship strength—who knows you well enough to vouch for you, who has power to act, and who can introduce you to both?

The goal isn’t quantity, but quality. “If someone won’t recommend you,” Marcus warns, “they’re dead weight.” Minding your relationship bank like financial assets ensures you keep it solvent.

Pay It Forward and Cash It In

Women accumulate favors but hesitate to cash them in—Marcus calls this the “unused airline-mile syndrome.” Help others generously, but also ask when needed. Reciprocity isn’t selfish; it’s strategic. Carolyn Lawrence of Women of Influence advises to combine generosity with timing: once people trust your competence, they’ll gladly support your goals.

Networking Across Contexts

Networking extends from boardrooms to golf courses and LinkedIn. Marcus showcases how executives like Chris Reilly used golf to bond and access information unavailable in meetings. For those with limited time or reluctant male peers, she offers alternatives: lunch meetings, industry associations, community boards, online groups—each a venue for exchanging insight and visibility.

Strategic networking isn’t opportunistic—it’s intentional awareness that careers grow through connection. The Pass Go Card reminds you: no one succeeds alone. Every conversation is a potential door unlocked.

The fourth tool—the Get Out of Jail Free Card—represents sponsorship: the fastest route to advancement. Where mentors advise, sponsors act. They use organizational capital to promote you, create opportunities, and protect your risk-taking. Marcus calls sponsorship the equivalent of “parting the corporate Red Sea.”

Mentorship vs. Sponsorship

Mentors give guidance; sponsors give action. Bob Moritz of PwC clarifies that a sponsor invests personal reputation to make opportunity real. Marcus’s distinction echoes Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: sponsors advocate in rooms you’re not in. They promote protégés into stretch assignments and leadership pipelines.

Why Sponsorship Matters

Data from the Center for Talent Innovation shows having a sponsor increases promotion and pay rates by up to 30%. Yet women are 46% less likely than men to have sponsors. Overmentored and undersponsored, women stagnate without advocates in power. The reason isn’t competence—it’s visibility and bias: senior men often hesitate to sponsor women due to optics or assumptions about family priorities.

Marcus’s case studies—from Katherine’s dual promotions due to sponsor advocacy to Chris Reilly’s CEO-led advancement—demonstrate that sponsorship changes trajectories dramatically.

Preparing for Sponsorship

Sponsorship must be earned. You need stellar performance, loyalty, and trust. Marcus recommends communicating clear career goals so sponsors can align opportunities. She also stresses bilateral benefit: protégés give sponsors information and support they wouldn’t get otherwise. Sharing honest feedback or helping implement their initiatives keeps the relationship thriving.

Finding Sponsors Strategically

If your company has a formal program, approach HR with a case grounded in results. If not, identify executives two levels above, build rapport through visibility, and demonstrate alignment with their objectives. Marcus advises having multiple sponsors—two internal, one external—to avoid dependence and expand reach.

Sponsorship is not favoritism; it’s alliance-building at the highest level. When done with integrity, it accelerates advancement for both parties. The Get Out of Jail Free Card reminds you that power can be shared—if you earn it and nurture it wisely.

Marcus’s final tool—the GPS—stands for executive coaching, your personal navigation system. Just as a GPS recalculates routes when obstacles arise, coaching helps you navigate career labyrinths with clarity and confidence. Women’s paths to leadership are rarely linear; they require conscious redirection at every turn.

Why Women Need a Career GPS

Women face dual challenges: external bias and internal doubt. A coach provides neutral feedback and accountability to stay strategic. Marcus frames coaching as a partnership—your coach listens, challenges, and holds you responsible. For clients like Katherine, this guidance turned frustration into promotion within six months by shifting her mindset from worker to strategist.

Coaching as Self-Awareness Training

In Marcus’s process, coaching starts with introspection—understanding who you are, what you offer, and how you’re perceived. Through assessments, feedback, and reflection (“Mirror work”), women learn their strengths, blind spots, and leadership identity. This self-awareness breeds adaptability, resilience, and influence.

Research from Korn/Ferry and the Center for Creative Leadership confirms coaching improves performance and leadership sustainability by 90%. It helps women overcome the “Imposter Syndrome”—the false belief that success is luck and exposure dangerous.

Practical Coaching Benefits

• Clarifies career goals and SMART action plans.
• Holds you accountable for progress despite competing demands.
• Teaches political navigation and emotional control.
• Supports transitions between roles or industries.

Choosing the Right Coach

Marcus emphasizes chemistry and trust: choose someone who balances candor and empathy. Ask about credentials (ICF certification, business experience), approach, and examples of success. Good coaching isn’t therapy—it’s tactical leadership development. Diane, one of Marcus’s clients, chose a coach for her broad business acumen and saw immediate gains in executive presence.

Ultimately, coaching transforms ambition into direction. It replaces uncertainty with a step-by-step map. In a world where companies reorganize overnight, having a GPS—a skilled advisor to recalibrate—keeps your career moving forward even when the terrain changes.

Getting promoted isn’t the finish line—staying there is the real challenge. Marcus warns that leadership comes with higher visibility, sharper scrutiny, and subtler politics. Women who retreat from networking or office dynamics after reaching the top risk losing influence quickly. The same tools that helped you rise now ensure you endure.

Navigating Power Shifts

Organizations constantly change—mergers, restructures, new leadership. If you ignore shifting alliances, you become an outsider in your own company. Marcus revisits Sallie Krawcheck’s downfall at Bank of America: despite her brilliance, she lacked insider ties during cultural upheaval, leading to her ouster. Political savvy keeps your map fresh.

The Tools Reapplied

At senior levels, each toolkit item gains new meaning:

• Mirror: Use self-reflection to refine authentic leadership and manage image.
• Magnifying Glass: Stay alert to organizational currents and anticipate obstacles.
• Pass Go Card: Expand your network beyond department—and maintain diverse alliances.
• Get Out of Jail Free Card: Continue cultivating sponsors, while mentoring new women yourself.
• GPS: Use coaching to manage stress, identity, and transitions.

Avoiding the “Glass Cliff”

Many women are hired into leadership during crises—what researchers Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam term the “glass cliff.” Without time to build political alliances, their tenure becomes precarious. Marcus cites this as a call for vigilance: build relationships before you need them. Leaders who ignore the informal power grid risk isolation and dismissal.

Managing Pressure and Identity

With greater status comes greater stress. Marcus observes that successful women often battle “gremlins”—inner critics whispering fears of inadequacy. Coaching helps counter these voices, restoring confidence and purpose. She advises abandoning the “superwoman complex”—the belief that you must excel at everything simultaneously. Sustainable success involves delegation, boundaries, and self-care.

Staying ahead is not passive endurance—it’s active adaptation. Politics will evolve; alliances will shift; industries will reinvent themselves. The leaders who thrive are those who keep their toolkit sharp—reflecting, observing, connecting, sponsoring, and recalibrating with humility and insight. Marcus closes with a challenge: are you ready not just to reach the table, but to stay powerfully seated at it?