--- title: The secret to getting promoted | daily.dev description: Getting promoted is primarily an emotional decision, not a rational one — and the key emotion to win is trust. Concrete advice on visibility, avoiding... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-secret-to-getting-promoted-oy5wj4mun twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The secret to getting promoted | daily.dev og:description: Getting promoted is primarily an emotional decision, not a rational one — and the key emotion to win is trust. Concrete advice on visibility, avoiding... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-secret-to-getting-promoted-oy5wj4mun og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OY5Wj4mUN.png og:image:alt: The secret to getting promoted og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The secret to getting promoted **[Tech Lead Digest](https://daily.dev/sources/techleaddigest)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Getting promoted is primarily an emotional decision, not a rational one — and the key emotion to win is trust. Concrete advice on visibility, avoiding politics, or taking on bigger projects only matters insofar as it builds trust with the right people. Most companies use a model where you must demonstrate the next level's work before being formally promoted, but the rubric is largely used to justify a decision already made. When promotions don't happen despite meeting criteria, the missing ingredient is usually trust. Exceptions exist — favoritism, nepotism, or simply no open slots — but promotions not grounded in trust tend to backfire. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [So You Want to Be Promoted, Pt. 1](https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-be-promoted-pt-1-hzumz4vop) · Tech Lead Digest · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-secret-to-getting-promoted-oy5wj4mun) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The secret to getting promoted","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-secret-to-getting-promoted-oy5wj4mun","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-secret-to-getting-promoted-oy5wj4mun"},"datePublished":"2026-02-19T07:30:50.560Z","dateModified":"2026-02-19T07:31:14.836Z","description":"Getting promoted is primarily an emotional decision, not a rational one — and the key emotion to win is trust. 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