The dirty little secret of most organizations is that advancement has less to do with outcomes and more to do with optics, politics, and proximity. Promotions go to whoever plays the game best — whether that means schmoozing the right VP, gaming the metrics, or just being loud enough in meetings. That's not leadership; that's a popularity contest. If you want a durable, high-performing organization, you scale merit — real delivery, real ownership, real composure — not favoritism.
What Scaling Merit Actually Means
Scaling merit is about rewarding the behaviors and results that actually move the business forward. It's not about handing out gold stars for effort or charisma. It's about codifying fairness into your leadership system so the right people — those who consistently execute, solve problems, and elevate others — get more responsibility, more resources, and more influence.
- Reward Outcomes, Not Theater
- Outcomes: commitments met, systems built, problems solved.
- Theater: long hours, heroic "saves," endless Jira updates.
- The difference is whether the business actually moved forward or just looked busy.
- Promote Ownership, Not Optics
- Ownership = someone takes the ball, runs with it, and finishes the damn play.
- Optics = someone attends all the meetings, nods loudly, and makes sure leadership knows they were "involved."
- Advance Adults, Not Favorites
- Adults: people who do the work without babysitting, take feedback, and don't melt when held accountable.
- Favorites: people who coast because they're tight with the boss, or they've mastered the art of "managing up."
The Contrast: Traditional Nonsense vs. Reframed Reality
- Traditional Approach (Nonsense):
- Promotions tied to tenure, politics, or gaming OKRs.
- Favoring "high visibility" projects over necessary but unglamorous work.
- Over-indexing on "business impact" metrics that confuse expectations with commitments.
- Example: "We'll promote you if website traffic grows by 30%." Wrong. Launching the site was the commitment. Traffic is an external expectation you can't guarantee.
- Reframed Approach (Merit):
- Promotions tied to clear commitments delivered reliably over time.
- Rewarding the engineer who quietly maintains the billing system that never goes down, not just the one who demos shiny features at All Hands.
- Recognizing composure under pressure — because handling chaos with grace keeps the whole machine running.
Example Scenario: The Enterprise Favorite vs. The Quiet Operator
At a large SaaS enterprise, two senior engineers are on the table for promotion:
- Engineer A: Always visible. Talks a big game in meetings. Volunteers for "impactful" initiatives but regularly misses deadlines or needs rescue missions.
- Engineer B: Lower profile. Not flashy. But every commitment they own gets delivered. Billing, authentication, and data pipelines never miss a beat.
Traditional leadership favors Engineer A — because "impact" sounds sexy and leadership remembers who talks the most. But the company's actual survival depends on Engineer B. A leader who scales merit promotes B, gives them more ownership, and sets a clear message: outcomes > optics.
Why This Matters
Favoritism rots organizations from the inside. It signals to performers that merit doesn't matter, which leads to disengagement and attrition. Scaling merit does the opposite: it creates a self-reinforcing cycle where the people who actually deliver get more opportunities to deliver. That builds a culture where results compound, politics shrink, and execution wins.
Takeaway: Favoritism fuels drama; merit fuels results. If you want a company that lasts, bet on merit every time.
