Recently, a woman came to Libby Leffler asking for career advice. She wanted a role like Leffler had at Facebook, as a strategic partnerships manager — but she didn't know how to get there.
Leffler shared with the woman some wisdom based on her own experience: "Why don't you start doing that role today? Not tomorrow, not a month from now. If that's the role that you really want, start doing it."
Today, Leffler is the vice president of membership at personal finance company SoFi. She spent about seven years at Facebook, in different roles; before that, she was an account strategist at Google.
Leffler told Business Insider that, once you've begun tackling the responsibilities you'd earn if you were promoted, you can come to your manager and say, "Here are all the things that I've taken on additionally in the last [however many] days, and the ways I've been contributing to the team. I'd like to level up and receive a promotion to this new opportunity."
Leffler's advice recalls something I heard when I worked with career coach Rebecca Fraser-Thill. "Sometimes we do have to act as if," Fraser-Thill told me.
That is to say, don't wait around until someone gives you a title bump to take on new challenges. Instead, take on new challenges and then show why you deserve the title bump.
As Leffler put it, "you don't always have to ask for permission."
