Cracking the Unwritten Rules of Marketing Leadership Advancement

You’ve delivered results. You’ve built strong campaigns. Your peers see you as a leader. But when the Marketing Director or VP role opened up, you weren’t the one promoted.

If you’ve been here before, you know the sting — and the confusion. According to John Beeson’s Harvard Business Review article “Why You Didn’t Get That Promotion,” the leap into senior leadership isn’t only about your performance today. It’s about how decision-makers perceive your readiness for tomorrow — based on a mix of unwritten rules, non-negotiable factors, and deselection factors that can quietly block your path.