Elite Edge | Vol 2 Week 30

Last week we covered the score that follows you between openings. This week's about a different kind of score — the one your advocates are keeping on you right now, whether you realize it or not.

It's Mid-Year. Your 2027 Advocacy Starts Now.

Here's the math nobody says out loud: the comp reviews, calibration conversations, and succession lists for 2027 start taking shape in the back half of this year — not in January when you finally ask for the promotion. By the time you're "having the conversation" with your manager, the real decision is usually already leaning one way. It leaned that way because of what happened in the rooms you weren't in — the ones where someone who likes you, trusts you, and remembers you well said your name when it mattered.

That's sponsorship, not mentorship. And the data on it is stark: sponsored employees earn 11.6% more, see promotion rates rise 19–23%, and managers who sponsor others are 53% more likely to be promoted themselves. A mentor gives you advice. A sponsor spends their own political capital on you in a room you're not in. If you don't know who's doing that for you right now, that's the actual mid-year gap to close — not your resume, not your LinkedIn headline.

Here's the pattern that never stops repeating: the people who get sponsored aren't always the most talented in the room. They're the ones who made the room want to advocate for them. And that comes down to something smaller and more fixable than people think — how they show up in an ordinary conversation.

The Reunion That Turned Into a Recruiting Experiment

I went to my 30-year high school reunion a couple of weeks ago, and — because I can't turn off my recruiter brain — I accidentally turned it into a research project. I spent the evening asking people questions. Tell me about your career. What are you working on now? What surprised you most about your journey? Then I quietly went into observer mode.

Here's what I noticed: a surprising number of people answered my questions, talked about themselves for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes — and never once asked one back. No "so what about you?" No "what have you been up to?" Just… nothing. And this isn't a reunion problem. It's the exact same pattern I see at networking events, executive conferences, board dinners, and first meetings with CEOs. People think they're building a connection. They're actually giving a monologue.

Here's the truth: people don't remember the person who talked the most. They remember the person who made them feel interesting, heard, and seen. Curiosity is one of the most underrated executive skills there is — the highest-performing leaders I recruit ask great questions and listen more than they speak. That's not a soft skill. That's influence.

Conversation Debt Is Real — and It's Costing You Sponsors

Every conversation where you only talk about yourself puts you into what I'd call conversation debt. If you leave a conversation without learning anything about the other person, you withdrew — you didn't invest, and you walked away exactly as informed as when you sat down. A curious person does the opposite: every question earns them someone else's experience, someone else's lessons, someone else's perspective. That's compound interest.

The research backs this up almost exactly. A well-known Harvard study — "It Doesn't Hurt to Ask" — analyzed over 300 conversations and found that people who asked more follow-up questions were consistently rated more likable, both online and in person. In the study's speed-dating data, people in the top third for question-asking got a "yes" to a second date 39% of the time, versus 22% for the bottom third. Follow-up questions specifically — not just any question — were the single strongest predictor of liking, because they signal you're actually listening, not just waiting for your turn to talk.

A poor mindset walks into every room thinking let me tell you about me. A rich mindset walks in asking what can I learn from you? One racks up debt. The other compounds — and the people compounding trust with you all year are the ones who show up for you in the rooms where your 2027 case gets decided.

What To Do With the Rest of This Year

1️⃣ Name your sponsors, not just your mentors. Write down who currently has enough conviction about you to spend political capital on your behalf in a closed-door room. If the list is empty, that's your actual mid-year priority — not your resume.

2️⃣ Apply the three-question rule. In your next real conversation — a 1:1, a networking coffee, a conference hallway chat — ask a question, then ask two follow-ups before you pivot back to yourself. It's a small habit with an outsized effect on how memorable and trustworthy you become.

3️⃣ Audit your last five conversations for debt. Did you leave any of them knowing something new and specific about the other person? If not, you didn't network — you performed. Go back with one genuine follow-up message this week.

4️⃣ Make your case visible before you make your ask. Advocacy compounds quietly over months, not in one January conversation. Use the second half of this year to be visibly useful, curious, and reliable in front of the people who'll be in the room when 2027 gets decided.

CORPORATE TRUTH

Nobody is promoted in the meeting where the promotion is announced. They were promoted weeks or months earlier, in a hallway, a dinner, a check-in where someone with influence decided to use it on their behalf. That decision is rarely won with a resume. It's won by the person who made someone else feel genuinely interesting to talk to — and then followed up. Start compounding that now, and January's conversation becomes a formality instead of a pitch.

📚What I Read This Week…

This Fast Company headline caught my attention: Layoffs just hit a 57-year low—so why does the job market feel so tough?

The answer: The labor market looks stable from the inside and brutal from the outside.

What the article highlights:

• Layoffs are historically low—but hiring is also slow.

• We’re in a “low-fire, low-hire” market: employers are holding onto the people they have, but they’re cautious about adding new ones.

• That’s why the economic data can look relatively healthy while job seekers are experiencing a very different reality.

My recruiter POV: Low layoffs do not automatically mean a healthy job market. If you’re looking for work, hiring is the number that matters.

So my advice remains the same: don’t quit without a plan, build your network before you need it, and create career optionality.

Career security isn’t just keeping the job you have. It’s knowing you have options if you lose it.

🎙️What I Listened to This Week… (Podcasts)

I definitely had a fangirl moment getting to talk with Jennie Garth on her podcast, I Do, Part 2. As someone who was an avid Beverly Hills, 90210 fan, there was a tiny part of me thinking, “Wait…am I really talking to Kelly Taylor right now?” 😂

But the conversation itself went somewhere much deeper.

We talked about what happens after life knocks you sideways—divorce, loss, a career break, a major transition, or an experience that may have genuinely changed you—and then you’re expected to somehow step back into the job market and pick up where you left off.

How do you rebuild your confidence? How do you explain the gap? How do you navigate ageism? How do you negotiate when you may not feel like you have the leverage you once did? And how do you recognize that this next chapter doesn’t have to be a lesser one?

While much of our conversation centered on women rebuilding after divorce, the lessons are applicable to anyone who has had to reinvent themselves after a hard life experience.

It was practical. It was tactical. But it was also deeply human. Because sometimes getting back to work isn’t just about finding the next job. It’s about finding your way back to yourself—and realizing that your second act might actually be your strongest one yet.

You’ve got the Edge. Now sharpen it.

Until next week,

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