Someone asked who could grab this quickly.
Your hand was already up.

And it made sense in the moment. It always makes sense in the moment. The ask was small, you knew you could have it done by lunch, and the silence in that meeting was getting uncomfortable.

I've coached Directors for 9 years now, 222 women at last count. And the ones who stay stuck the longest? Usually not the underperformers.

It's the ones who never pause before the yes.

Okay, so there's a whole category of work with a name I wish somebody had handed me a long time ago.

Non-promotable work.

It's the stuff that:
– doesn't move your KPIs
– never shows up in your review (everybody was glad you did it though)
– does absolutely nothing for how senior leaders see you

Somebody still has to do it. And when your yes is the fastest one in the meeting, that somebody just keeps being you.

The No Club finally put words to a pattern I'd been watching for years.

🚩 A fast yes makes the work invisible. If saying yes looked that easy, people figure the doing was easy too.

🚩 And every quick yes sets the terms for the next ask. You're teaching people how your time gets treated, one 10-second moment at a time.

It took me an embarrassing number of years to catch the real cost here.

That yes doesn't cost you an afternoon. It costs you a read. It teaches senior leaders exactly what to expect from you.

The sentence I hand my clients is 18 words:

"Can I come back to you tomorrow? I want to be sure I can actually take this on."

That little pause reads completely different in the meeting. You go from the person work just lands on to the person who decides what she takes on. And senior leaders can tell the difference from across the table.

Delivering got you to Director. These small moments are what get you pictured as a VP.

So the next time somebody asks who can grab something quickly, just notice the pull in your arm.

Most fast yeses are protecting something.