This segment from Ep 19 lays out a 12-step, values-intact roadmap to corporate success, not the Machiavellian version, but the version that actually works long-term. The framework starts with radical humility. Early in your career you know nothing, so your job is to learn, observe, volunteer, and absorb everything. From there, it moves into building relationships, finding mentors and sponsors, and setting crystal clear expectations every time you step into a new role. As your career progresses, the focus shifts to obsession with clients and customers, delegating early, developing your team so you can be replaced, and deliberately taking on hard, unwanted problems, but only with the right mandate and expectations. At senior levels, the game becomes more explicit, advocating for yourself professionally, putting pressure on for advancement, documenting everything, telling the truth, keeping promises, and learning to communicate differently with teams, peers, executives, and clients. The final anchor is values. Once you know what you stand for, you never bend them. If a role or organisation forces you to compromise them, you leave, because the cost of staying is always higher. Follow these 12 steps at any stage of your career and you dramatically increase your odds of corporate success, while also building skills that protect you if you ever choose to leave and build something of your own. The 12 Steps to Climbing the Corporate Ladder Start by shutting up and learning how to show up You don’t know anything yet. Work hard, listen, follow people around, ask questions, volunteer, and absorb everything. Do extra. Volunteer. Build relationships. Chase learning Do the jobs no one wants. Ask for help. Learn two or three things from everyone around you. Identify a mentor Learn from someone ahead of you. Earn respect first. Advocacy comes later, quietly and powerfully. When promoted, define what success actually looks likeAsk: “Twelve months from now, what does success look like? ”Get the measures. Get alignment. Don’t meander. Obsess over customers and clientsLearn why they buy, why they leave, what they value, and why competitors win. Become irreplaceable. Delegate early and build people who can replace youTrain your team. Grow their careers. If no one can replace you, you won’t move. Find a problem no one wants to touch — and take it on with a mandateBig, ugly, career-defining problems. Set expectations properly. Fix it or move it forward. Apply professional pressure for advancementDon’t wait to be noticed. Signal your ambition early. Put timelines around progress — calmly and tactically. Document everything — keep the receipts Agreements, timelines, expectations. The truth in writing protects you from politics. Tell the truth and keep your promises Don’t overpromise. Be clear about limits. Say what you can and can’t do — and mean it. Learn to communicate properly Up, down, and sideways, customer, client, all different communication styles. Never bend your valuesOnce you know them, don’t compromise. If the role eats your soul, leave. Find us here: Instagram: @letsjuststartpodcast Tiktok: @letsjuststartpodcast Youtube: @LetsJustStartPodcast Laura Insta: @laura.racky Laura Tiktok: @lauraracky Christian Insta: @leaderbiltacademy Christian Tiktok: @leaderbilt Leadership training and coaching: Leaderbilt.co *Success not actually guaranteed
