> if you are demonstrating performance at your boss's level, that's evidence/proof that a promotion is warranted
If you're an engineering IC, and your boss is a manager with 4 other ICs, your boss's goals are twofold: get at least 5 ICs worth of results from the team, and managing people.
So to do what you and TFA suggest literally you can either:
- Do 5 ICs worth of work
- Start managing people at the same level on your team, on your own initiative
I've seen coworkers try to manage their peers, aiming for a promotion. To say the least it harms team unity.
I only managed to do the 2nd once when I was thrown into a project with an absentee manager and doubly-booked half-committed members who were actually happy for someone to organize the work. Those sorts of situations are rare. Or maybe that's the unstated qualification.
And: Do 5x the amount of work, well...
Maybe I'm not thinking outside the box enough here, but I need some examples of how this is generally achievable. Maybe this was specifically _not_ about the IC-manager divide, and more like managers and manager-managers?
What I'd more generally expect is for a manager to explicitly put you in charge of a small, short term project with one or two other people and see how it goes: can everyone contribute, did you achieve results, were you transparent, how did you interact with the other members, etc.