Career growth rarely happens by accident. The people who advance fastest usually do two things consistently: they make their value visible and they build skills tied to business outcomes. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure what your “next step” should be, try this simple 90-day plan.

Step 1: Define what “growth” means (Week 1)

Before you chase a title, get clarity on the target.

• Pick one direction: deeper expertise, broader scope, or people leadership.
• Write a one-sentence goal: “In 90 days, I will be trusted to lead X / own Y / deliver Z.”
• Confirm the criteria: ask your manager, “What would someone at the next level be doing consistently?”

Tip: Treat this like interview prep. Promotions are internal interviews—expectation-setting matters.

Step 2: Choose 1–2 high-leverage skills (Weeks 2–4)

Skills matter most when they reduce pain for your team or accelerate outcomes.

High-leverage skill ideas:

• Stakeholder management (clear updates, alignment, decision-making)
• Data storytelling (turning metrics into recommendations)
• Execution systems (roadmaps, prioritization, risk management)
• Communication (writing concise docs, presenting clearly)

Actionable move: pick one project where you can practice your chosen skill in public—meetings, documentation, demos, or status reports.

Step 3: Create “visibility without bragging” (Weeks 5–8)

Being great quietly is a common career limiter. Visibility can be professional, helpful, and team-oriented.

• Share weekly progress updates: what shipped, what’s blocked, what you need.
• Turn work into artifacts: one-pagers, postmortems, templates, checklists.
• Use the “credit loop”: “Here’s what the team accomplished; here’s what I owned; here’s what’s next.”

Mini-script for your update:

• Impact: “This reduced cycle time by 18%.”
• Insight: “The bottleneck was approvals.”
• Next step: “I’m piloting a lighter review process.”

Step 4: Ask for targeted feedback (Weeks 9–10)

General feedback gets general results. Make it specific.

• “What’s one thing I could do to operate at the next level?”
• “Where do you see risk in how I’m approaching this?”
• “If I keep performing like this, what timeline is realistic for promotion?”

Step 5: Convert progress into a promotion narrative (Weeks 11–12)

Promotions often go to people who can clearly connect their work to outcomes.

• Before → After → Proof: what changed, why it matters, how you measured it.
• Keep a running “wins log” with metrics, scope, stakeholders, and examples.

If you had to pick one skill that would most accelerate your growth in the next 90 days, what would it be—and what’s the project you could use to practice it?