There's a parallel that doesn't get talked about enough in customer success. We spend so much energy figuring out how to demonstrate ROI to our customers, stay top of mind with stakeholders, and connect our work to business priorities. Yet most of us are doing almost none of that for ourselves internally.

The same skills we use to retain and grow accounts need to be applied to our own careers.

I've been in customer success for almost 20 years, back before it was even called that. I've worked on Wall Street, moved through startups, lived through an IPO, and now I'm at Microsoft. Across all of that, one thing has stayed consistent: talented people are leaving visibility on the table every single day.

The promotion I didn't get

Early in my career, I was working in a male-dominated industry, lucky enough to have two strong female mentors, and genuinely crushing it: long hours, strong output, real impact. I walked into my performance review feeling confident. Ready.

I didn't get promoted. The conversation didn't even go there.

I was devastated. I went to one of my mentors and told her I couldn't understand how this had happened. She asked me the simplest question: did you ask to get promoted?

I hadn't. Of course I hadn't. I didn't know that was something I needed to do. I assumed that doing great work would speak for itself, that someone above me would connect the dots, notice my contributions, and reward them accordingly.

That moment was clarifying in a way that's stuck with me ever since: working hard and doing great work is genuinely not enough to get visibility. It never has been, and it won't be.

State of Customer Success 2026: Get your copy

No one cares about your career more than you do

That might sound blunt, but it's true. Sometimes you get lucky. You get a manager who sees your work, believes in you, and talks about your name in executive meetings without you having to prompt it. Those managers exist, and they're wonderful.

But plenty of people have had the opposite experience:

  • Managers who are too stretched to notice
  • Managers who cycle out every year
  • Nine managers in five years at one company (yes, nine, for me)

Even when each of them was great, every new arrival meant starting from zero again: re-establishing your impact, re-explaining your contributions, rebuilding that foundation of credibility.

That's exhausting, and it puts you in a reactive position every single time. The only consistent advocate for your career is you, which means you need to get comfortable doing it.