Companies Have A Rule Employees Don't Know About - And It Gets Them Promoted

There s a rule inside your company that decides how fast you get promoted And nobody has ever shown this rule to you HR knows it Your director has used it And every client I ve helped move up has also used it And the company has a very good reason for keeping this rule to themselves So in this video I m going to show you the rule that gets people promoted faster than any policy says they should and why your company keeps it from you the three things that get an exception approved so you stop being told to wait and the exact words to use so your next promotion conversation ends in a yes to start let me show you why your company hides this rule from you because it s the reason you re still waiting for a promotion that you ve already earned right so a company runs on rules because the alternative is just chaos who can sign what how long you have to sit at a level before you re allowed to move how many suppliers procurement needs to see without those rules nothing gets decided and nothing gets done the same

way twice But everybody senior in the company knows that a rule can t cover every situation A policy written four years ago can t see the contract that s up for renewal next month or the person who s already doing the job two levels above them So every company keeps a second rule sitting above all the others And it lets the right person set a policy aside when the business genuinely needs to And that second rule is dangerous which is exactly why nobody really advertises it If every employee knew that none of the policies actually really exist and they can all be excused every policy would get challenged all the time and the structure that keeps the company running would collapse right away So it stays with the people who already know and it gets used above your head for other people whilst you re told that the rules are the rules which is why someone joined your company then got promoted four months later and you re told that you can t apply for any roles until you ve done at least 18 months They were using the rule that nobody told you about

So now let me show you that rule that gets people promoted years ahead of the policy so you can start using it for yourself to advance your career quickly So the rule is called the principle of business necessity and it goes like this No internal policy is absolute where a material business need exists and an authorized decision maker accepts responsibility for that exception Now in plain terms policies run the business dayto day but when a policy gets in the way of something the business needs someone with the right authority can approve an exception So picture this senior executive who sees an opportunity to earn some money in the department And in order to get it they need to buy a specific tool fast Now it would be ridiculous to think that they re just going to go Oh well I guess I can t have that tool because there s a document on SharePoint written four years ago that says procurement needs four suppliers and you can only pick from approved vendors No they re just going to approve an exception take the responsibility for it and that tool gets bought that week That s

the rule working exactly as it was designed to And that same rule covers promotions as well So rules like you can only apply for upgrade after sitting 18 months in a department can all have exceptions made to them But in order to get that exception you re going to need three things A material business need a reason that they have to make the decision now and the right person with the right authority to accept that responsibility So let me show you how this rule works in practice because it s the reason why you keep getting told no whilst everyone around you seems to have exceptions made for them So when someone gets promoted at 6 months and you were told that it takes 18 or someone turns up one day with a completely new role and there was no announcement for that or they just have a new title and a higher pay then it felt arbitrary and unfair like there s a special exception being made for all these people But there wasn t a secret meeting There was just this rule you didn t know about The person who moved 6 months early

gave somebody with the right authority a business reason to make the exception and then suddenly the policy stopped becoming an obstacle and it looks unfair because every time you came up with the same situation you were told to go away with an excuse whereas they weren t Now before you can use this rule let me show you the mistake that delays people s promotions by years And it s why every career conversation you ve had so far has ended with Good job keep it up and no actual movement So the mistake that a lot of clients I work with often make is that they see the 18 month rule and assume that that settles the question So you never ask You take yourself out of the running before anyone gets a chance to And the policy has then done its job It didn t have to stop you because you stopped yourself So the first step to using the exception rule is a mindset shift When a policy is standing between you and something you want you don t stop and think well that s that Instead you need to go and look at the

situation and ask who has the authority to approve an exception and what would give them a reason to So now let me show you the three things that get a promotion approved even when the policy says no so you can start preparing them this week and make sure the next career conversation you have ends with movement instead of excuses So the first thing you re going to need is a problem and it has to be a problem that the business cares about The moment it s about what you want or what you deserve then it stops being a case and it just starts being a complaint The second thing you re going to need is urgency a reason the decision has to happen now because without it even a good case will get deferred and deferred decisions just have this way of never actually happening And the third is the right person Someone whose authority actually covers the exception and who is willing to put their name to it because when you ask the wrong person they ll just read the policy back to you because reading it back is the only thing that they

can do So if we look back at the exec buying the tool it had all three of those things There was money to be made which is the business case a deadline the process couldn t meet and they had their own signature to give the authority If you have all three for your career then the conversation stops being about whether you deserve an exception and becomes about whether the business can afford not to make one But you can have all three and still get given excuses because of the one thing even spark professionals say in the conversation So let me show you the three things people say that get their promotion refused on the spot even if they have all three of the other things The first is they try to make the fairness argument which sounds like well Amanda was considered the role so why can t I be considered for the role There s no business problem in that and so no decision to be made They can agree that it is indeed unfair but that doesn t mean they have to do anything about it it doesn t motivate them to make

a decision about the situation So they ll just read the policy back to you The second is the competence argument For example I d be really good at this role I ve already been operating at that level for so long And that turns the conversation into a discussion of your capability And they can believe that yeah you d probably be really good at the role Just apply for it next time because being good at the job was what they re already paying you to do And the third is the permission argument just let me apply for it and let them judge me for themselves That s you asking for a favor And favors only get granted when they re convenient and refused when they re not All three of those end with you being told to wait because none of them gives the business a reason to take any action So let me show you the exact words you can use that will get you promoted even if the policy says you can t For example picture a digital marketing manager going for a senior manager role they re four months short of what the

policy says they re allowed to apply for this role Now here s a case that they could use They could say The senior role opens paid acquisition for the agency relationship I ve been running this agency dayto day since March including the last two quarterly reviews and the renegotiation is happening in June and the contract comes up again in November Whoever takes this role either has that history or spends the first quarter trying to rebuild it whilst we continue paying at the current rate I know that the usual requirement is to do a year in the role and I do hit that in January So the gap is just a few months and it falls across the point where the contract decision needs to be made I d like to be considered on that basis and I m happy for the panel to test me the same as everybody else So the first paragraph never mentions how good they are It names a specific piece of the role with a live cost attached and shows that they already carry it And the renewal date gives the business something that they could lose which is the

problem and the urgency built together And the second paragraph shrinks that exception down to it s just a few months The requirements they already meet them anyway and the contract timing explains why waiting will cost something to the business and offering to be assessed on the same criteria just removes the fairness objection before anyone raises it and it s addressed to the person who can sign it So that s all three in one case and it s the difference between asking for a favor to be considered for this role and having a legitimate business reason to consider you which is what can get policies overturned Now you might be thinking well this isn t going to work in my company And some of the time you ll be right because sometimes you will still get told no but the people moving up ahead of the policy also get told no quite often But they re doing something different before they even have the meeting in the first place And that is what s making them get a yes far more likely So go and watch this video next I ll show you exactly what those