Have you ever gotten to a point in your career where what you’ve been doing no longer feels like enough? You know you want to elevate; you want to do something new, but you’re not quite sure which direction to go?
That’s exactly where I was.
Here’s the thing: the promotion I needed isn’t that different from the one you need. Whether you’re trying to claim your seat at the table, reposition yourself as a true strategic partner, or step out of the order-taker trap for good, the mindset is the same.
I’d spent years as a global head of Learning & Development, leading large global teams. I loved it, and I was good at it. But I’d topped out of what I could do inside an organization, and I knew it. I didn’t want to become an HR leader — L&D is my passion. So I stopped waiting for someone else to define what was next.
I decided to give myself a promotion.
The truth is, I’ve been giving myself promotions throughout my whole career. I was an intrapreneur before I became an entrepreneur. I just finally ran out of runway inside someone else’s org chart.
That’s why I do what I do now. Like you, I always knew L&D created value for the business. But I also learned how easily that value gets questioned, overlooked, or reduced to training requests when it isn’t clearly connected to measurable outcomes.
Now I partner with L&D executives and teams to make learning value visible, defensible, and impossible to ignore. And I’m here to help you do the same.
Here are the five tips I learned about giving yourself a promotion that I think you can use too.
Tip 1: Get a clear vision for the promotion you want and why it’s worth it
You can’t pursue a destination you haven’t named.
Even with all those years of experience behind me, I couldn’t see what was next. Not because the opportunities weren’t there, but because I had never stopped to ask myself what I actually wanted. Not what looked good on a resume. Not what someone else thought I should do. What I wanted.
Once I got honest about that, everything shifted. For me, the vision was this: help L&D leaders step out of the order-taker trap and into real strategic influence. Clear. Compelling. Worth the risk.
So let me ask you. What do you actually want? Not what looks good on a resume. Not what someone else thinks you should do. If you’ve never stopped to ask yourself that question, start there.
Tip 2: Build the business case for yourself
L&D professionals are great at building business cases for others. We can justify a training budget, a new platform, a leadership program.
But when it comes to investing in our own growth, we stall.
My entire career has been inside Corporate America. Stepping out meant I had to make the case for investing in myself the same way I would for any major business initiative. Once I got clear on the value I was creating and committed to my own next level, the “why” held up even when things got hard.
Here’s the real question. What’s the cost of staying where you are for another year? What’s the cost of waiting for someone else to notice? Build that case for yourself the same way you would for your most important stakeholder, because right now, that stakeholder is you.
Tip 3: Equip yourself with the right strategies and skills
The skills that got you to where you are now won’t automatically get you to a strategic partner. The game changes. The rules change.
I worked with a VP of L&D at a tech company who was exceptional at her craft. Her programs were well-designed, her facilitation was strong, and her team loved her. But she kept getting passed over when it came to the big strategic conversations. Executives weren’t inviting her in. She couldn’t figure out why.
When we dug in together, the answer was clear. She was speaking the language of learning when the executives around her were speaking the language of business. Together, we shifted her framing from program metrics to revenue impact, from completion rates to capability gaps tied to growth targets. Within a few months, she was being pulled into the budget and strategy conversations she’d never been invited to before.
I know this shift firsthand. Early in my career, I was working in a revenue-generating environment and quickly figured out that speaking the language of pipeline, margins, and growth opened doors that learning outcomes never would. Then I moved into technical training and operations, a completely different world, and had to learn it all over again. The skill isn’t mastering one language. It’s knowing how to read the room and translate your value into terms that matter to the people in it.
So I’ll ask you directly. Where are you still speaking the wrong language for the room you want to be in? That’s where the growth is.
Tip 4: Trust the process: it will ground you
This one surprised me.
When I stepped away from the structure of corporate life, I expected to feel free. What I didn’t expect was how much I would need a process to replace that structure. Having a real, proven framework for building what’s next was what kept me moving when the doubt crept in.
Most L&D professionals are trained to respond. Someone brings a request; we build the solution. That reactive posture keeps us stuck in the order-taker role no matter how talented we are. Giving yourself a promotion means deciding, in your own mind first, that you are a strategic partner. Not someday. Now. And a process is what makes that decision stick when everything around you is still treating you like you’re not.
Be honest with yourself. Do you have a structure that’s holding you accountable to your own next level, or are you still waiting for someone else’s system to carry you there?
Tip 5: Don’t try to do it alone
I didn’t.
In the past seven months, I’ve built an entirely new circle of friends, mentors, and fellow solopreneurs. Working with Betsy Jordyn, a strategic brand messaging and business mentor, was one of the most clarifying investments I made. People who have already walked this path hand you a map instead of watching you draw it from scratch. That community shortened my learning curve more than any book, course, or free content could have.
Your experience is one of a kind. No one else has exactly what you have. But you can’t always see it clearly from the inside. The right mentor or community doesn’t just cheer you on — they help you stop second-guessing what you already know and start acting on it.
Take stock for a moment. Who is in your corner right now? Who is handing you a map instead of letting you wander?
Here’s the bottom line. Your promotion might look different than mine. Maybe it’s a seat at the executive table. Maybe it’s finally building L&D the way it deserves to be built. Maybe it’s being seen as a strategic partner instead of a training coordinator. Whatever it is, you don’t have to wait for someone to hand it to you.
The only question is: are you ready to give it to yourself?
Speaking of giving myself one: I have some big news. I’m thrilled to officially announce the launch of Deborah Masak Consulting and Coaching. My business exists for L&D professionals like you. I turned everything I learned about giving myself a promotion into a business — one built to help L&D leaders rise into the strategic role they’ve already earned.
Check out my website, and I’d love to hear from you.
Take Action
If you’re ready to stop waiting and start building the next version of your career, let’s talk.
On a free consultation call, we will:
- Get clear on exactly what your next level looks like and what’s getting in the way
- Identify the one or two shifts that will move the needle fastest for you
- Map out what it would look like to work together if it’s the right fit
No pressure. No pitch. Just a real conversation about where you are and where you want to go.
