Man, November 2021 was a total mess. I remember hitting that point where I realized I was just treading water at work. I felt like I was doing all the heavy lifting on my main project, but when it came time for the big boss to hand out pats on the back, my name was nowhere in the conversation.
I was getting seriously burned out. I sat down on October 31st and looked at the calendar. We had this huge Q4 review scheduled for the second week of December. I figured, I had exactly four weeks in November to turn things around, or I was just going to look for a new gig. I decided to stop just working and start playing the game for once.
The First Week: Getting Visible
My first move was all about optics. I realized that my direct manager, bless his heart, was terrible at relaying progress up the chain. He’d filter everything, and usually, the good stuff I did just ended up looking like his team’s general success, not mine personally. I decided to bypass him, carefully.
I didn’t just send an email to the SVP, that’s too aggressive. What I did was start a new habit. Every Monday morning, I started forwarding a high-level summary of the critical project status and next steps to three people: my manager, my manager’s manager, and the SVP’s executive assistant. I phrased it like, “Just giving you a quick read on the status of Project X so you’re all in the loop for your planning.” I made sure it was
short, punchy, and used numbers.
I wasn’t complaining or asking for anything, just stating facts. It made me look organized and proactive, and suddenly, those people all knew my name.
The Second Week: Cleaning Up the Mess
I knew my project itself was a disaster under the hood. The documentation was a joke, and if I got hit by a bus, no one would know how to run the damn thing. I knew if anyone dug deep, they’d find chaos, which would hurt my credibility, no matter how good my updates were.
I spent that whole week locking myself in a conference room, not taking any new meetings, and just
structuring the whole thing.
I put together simple manuals. I created a single, master spreadsheet that tracked every single bug and feature request. My goal wasn’t perfection—it was simple transparency. I wanted to be able to pull up any random piece of information in 30 seconds flat. I organized everything into the following buckets:
- The “Done” list (highlighted in green, obviously).
- The “Roadblock” list (things I needed them to fix).
- The “Next Up” list (my personal tasks).
This organizational sprint, which felt like the most boring work ever, ended up being the key. It made me feel totally in control, which helped me relax and think straight.
The Third Week: The Presentation Strategy
By the time the third week hit, I was seeing results. My manager started asking me for updates instead of the other way around. He even used one of my bullet points in a meeting with the big wigs. That was the sign I was moving in the right direction.
I realized the ultimate win wouldn’t come from my project being perfect, but from my
telling the best story
about it. I immediately started building my presentation deck for December. I completely ignored the company template. I knew everyone hated that ugly blue and gray thing.
I focused on impact, not features. I had three main slides I hammered out:
- Slide 1: The Problem Statement (A single, scary number showing the cost of the old way).
- Slide 2: The Fix (A simple diagram showing my new, clean process).
- Slide 3: The Gain (The new, happy number showing how much money or time we saved since I started taking over, using that data I collected in week two).
I rehearsed it ten times, just to my empty office chair. I wanted to sound casual and confident, not scripted. I timed it to be exactly seven minutes, no more, so I wouldn’t get cut off.
The Final Push
The last week of November was all about maintenance and confirmation. I kept up the quick weekly updates, ensuring everyone knew I was still the one steering the ship. I made sure to thank the junior people on my team publicly for their help—not because I’m a saint, but because I knew it made me look like a leader, and they’d back me up if anyone ever tried to undermine me.
When the December review finally came, I walked in totally prepared. My manager barely spoke. I put up my three slides, delivered my seven-minute pitch, and the SVP actually leaned forward and asked me a direct question about scaling my process, completely ignoring the rest of the team’s stuff. It was a massive win for visibility. It wasn’t about the zodiac or cosmic advice, it was about me finally getting organized, getting seen, and
just owning the narrative.
I walked out of there feeling like I’d just secured my next raise, and I was right, but that’s a story for another time.
