How to get promoted, according to CEOs and experts

A version of this article originally appeared in Quartz’s Leadership newsletter. Sign up here to get the latest leadership news and insights straight to your inbox.

We often associate job promotions with bold confidence and huge deliverables. But when promotions happen, the story is rarely so dramatic.

Careers are upgraded quietly, long before title changes are announced on LinkedIn.

How are we going to manifest career advancement in 2026? By committing to routine, often undesirable, frequently boring behaviors that improve the lives of customers, managers, and teammates, consistently and reliably.

“The biggest career jumps I’ve seen never started with bold moves. They started with quiet consistency,” said Beni Avni, founder of New York Gates, a Brooklyn-based garage door and gates supplier.

“Before changing a job title, managers look at behavior to see who can complete routine work without complaining,” Avni said. “Trust is rapidly developed via consistent attendance, completing all tasks, and identifying little problems before they become major ones. Innovation is not as valuable as trust. Being dependable can be a wise professional choice in difficult circumstances. Finish everything that others might hasten. Regardless of who is observing, uphold high standards. This sets you apart without stating it.”

Three key ideas lead to promotions, said Richard Govada Joshua, a project manager at TEKsystems, a global staffing and consulting firm. Those are:

• 1. Leadership decisions on promotions are done behind closed doors. Only when leaders see a consistent history of reliable performance do they consider changing an employee’s job.
• 2. Small but consistent performance builds trust faster than a one-time or large accomplishment. Reliability is a much stronger indicator of potential than a single major success.
• 3. Mastering basic operational processes will create opportunities for advancement. The time to gain experience in the basics of the business is before gaining strategic opportunities.

“Leaders will decide months before a promotion announcement who they can trust to operate in ambiguous situations, who closes the loop without needing to be reminded or chased, and who can keep a project running even when things become chaotic,” Joshua said. “The people in this position are usually not the ones making the most public statements; rather, they are the most dependable.”

People grow their careers by learning and demonstrating operational basics, Joshua said.

“It is these ‘unexciting’ actions (i.e., documenting decisions, adequately preparing meetings, establishing dependencies, disclosing potential risks ahead of time, and consistently meeting small commitments) that build credibility with leadership,” he said. “Therefore, instead of asking, ‘Who wants it?’ when a role becomes available or there is a need to expand the scope of work, leaders typically ask, ‘Who is already working at this level without the title?’"

In talking with these business leaders, themes around trust — and words like “dependability” and “reliability” and “consistency” — kept coming up over and over again.

“When it comes to promoting from within, I focus on reliability,” said Melanie Allen, CEO and cofounder of Green Loop Marketing, a full-service agency. “Does she do what she says she's going to do? Does she engage in a predictable way? Is she consistent? 

“Reliability builds trust that deepens relationships, improving both the team culture and the quality of work,” Allen said. “Arriving to meetings on time, preparing and distributing agendas beforehand, sticking to deadlines, and communicating clearly are considered soft skills, but they pack a serious punch when it comes to getting work done.”

Mark Onisk, senior managing director of talent strategy & transformation at Skillsoft, recommends focusing on building skills your employer is actually looking for rather than whatever you might believe is best for your preferred or ideal job title.

“In 2026, the people who advance will be those who treat skills as the atomic unit of their career,” Onisk said. “That means buying into disciplines like weekly learning sprints, pairing training opportunities with real assignments, and tracking skills progression and effect throughout the year. With the amount of promotions to stay in line with previous years, talent who want to make an impression should look to ensure they add value and create business impact. The quiet compounding of these habits signals readiness and gets leaders’ attention because it makes you promotable on demand.”

Another tip for career advancement? Document what you’ve done and what results it produced. Your boss won’t always know 100% of everything you’re doing. If no one else is advocating for you, consider doing it yourself by sharing documented outcomes during review cycles or in private meetings.

Marna Becker, head of business development at Avon.AI, an enterprise-grade AI platform, called this one of the most effective ways to advance your career in 2026.

“The best way to get promoted in 2026 is to be consistent and document everything,” she said. “If you're in a new or smaller organization, keep records of what you did, how it worked and why it worked.”

Still, over and over again, the top ideas leaders will be weighing this year revolve around trust. Be reliable. Be consistent.

“When I have to make a snap decision under pressure, I give patterns precedence over commitments. I start by assessing the person's poise, then their responsibility, and last, their capacity to maintain order if the original plan doesn't work out,” Avni said. “Careers develop through consistent actions that demonstrate your reliability when given greater responsibility. If leadership no longer keeps an eye on you, your career has reached a mature stage.”