Jade Bonacolta started her career at LinkedIn and earned five promotions in 6.5 years at the company thanks to her three-step strategy for preparing for management meetings. She now leads North American marketing at Google.
Jade Bonacolta started her career at LinkedIn and was promoted 5 times in 6.5 years at the company thanks to her 3-step strategy for preparing for management meetings. She now leads North American marketing at Google.
"In my 6 and a half years at LinkedIn before joining Google in 2022, I was promoted five times, from assistant in the business leadership program to head of marketing for enterprise technology. Many of my promotions came about because of the way I conducted face-to-face meetings with my managers," Jade Bonacolta told Business Insider.
Typically, people in one-on-one meetings with their managers take a more passive stance, expecting to be told what to do and how to do it. But Jade noticed early in her LinkedIn career that her manager asked the same questions every time she met with them: “How was your week? What are you working on next week, and where do you need help?”
So the marketer decided to be more proactive and make these meetings more effective. She started spending an hour beforehand writing what she called a pre-read. It’s an email she sent to her manager before the meeting, with three sections: what she did well this week, what she’ll focus on next week, and one new idea or interesting innovation she can offer the team.
“My manager told me that pre-read was incredibly helpful to him; it made our conversations much more productive and helped him feel fully informed about my work. He found the format so helpful that he asked the rest of my team to follow this strategy during their one-on-one conversations as well,” says Jade Bonacolta.
First step: make a Wins list of things that went well during the week.
Jade realized that if you want a promotion, you need to talk about your victories, which may go unnoticed by management.
First, Jade created a “wins” folder, and every time she had a success in something during the week, she added it there. For example, when Jade received an email from her sales manager saying, “I’m so impressed with the questions you asked my team and the way you provided valuable information,” the email went straight to the wins folder.
Second, Jade then compiles all of her victories into a document that she shares with her manager. This makes it easier to evaluate her work and creates cases for her promotion.
Step two: create a list of things you plan to work on next week to show your proactivity and not wait for instructions from management.
“After I shared what I had done the previous week, I would say, ‘Here’s what I think I should work on next week.’ Some of these were ongoing projects, others were new initiatives I was implementing,” Jade shares.
When making such a list, the marketer advises paying attention to the direction in which you want to develop your career to understand what new skills you need to master and which projects you should focus on. You can even ask your manager if there are quality projects to develop in this direction.
Also, in addition to new ideas, she offered solutions, not just presenting problems.
Step three: Offer one small new idea at each meeting.
“Then, during in-person meetings, I would pitch a new idea. I realized that ideas don't have to be big. In fact, when you pitch a new idea, the key is to keep it small so you don't take on an unhealthy amount of work and burn out, or neglect the core parts of your job,” Jade emphasized.
Jade Bonacolta repeated this process with every new role she took on and with every new manager she had at LinkedIn and Google.
By spending just an hour preparing for a one-on-one meeting with your manager, you make the most of this opportunity to talk about what you do and showcase your abilities.
