The New Corporate Game: How to Win in 2025

In 2009 I stopped following the corporate ladder.

After 7 years in the workforce, I realized following the "conventional rules" was holding me back, not moving me forward.

Today, this is more true than ever. Traditional career paths are changing, which means what used to work, doesn’t work anymore.

Waiting in line and letting your work speak for itself might have worked for our parents 50 years ago. But in today's competitive landscape, you need a completely different strategy to stand out.

If reaching the executive suite is your goal, you can't afford to follow the old playbook. You need to change how you play the game.

Let me share four trends that will reshape corporate success in 2025, and how you can use them to your advantage.

(Note to self: change is not a bad thing. We just need to work with it, not against it)

1. The Rise of Entrepreneurial Leadership

There are a lot of aspiring leaders and not enough spots at the top.

Business Insider just reported that companies are cutting middle management positions, with predictions showing 20% fewer roles by 2025. The path upward is getting narrower.

That means breaking through to executive roles will require leverage. You’ll have to do things differently to stand out and rise above the noise.

The solution: Start thinking like an entrepreneur and manage your career like you are running a one-person business.

That means you’ll have to invest in product development (your skills), marketing (your brand), and sales (advocating for yourself) to stand out.

You’ll need to develop a unique value proposition that makes you irresistible and learn how to sell yourself.

You will need to let go of the belief that an employer is responsible for your career growth and take things into your own hands.

This is how you will avoid waiting in line with everyone else, and position yourself as the obvious choice for promotion.

High achievers who can think this way will have more freedom and autonomy, better opportunities, and they will level up faster.

2. A Personal Brand is No Longer Optional

There are two ways to attract opportunities in your career: push, and pull.

The push option is what everyone has at their disposal: send resumes, apply for a promotion, network, and proactively promote yourself, generally competing with everyone else for a sliver of attention.

The pull option on the other hand, is all about creating a gravitational pull that draws stakeholders, opportunities, and collaborations towards you.

How do you make that magic happen?

You build a personal brand.

By getting your name out there and positioning yourself in people’s heads as an ‘expert’ and a ‘thought leader’ you become top of mind. The preferred choice.

Employers can’t help it, it’s human nature. We want things that are in high demand because everyone else wants them, too.

Personal branding was once exclusively reserved for celebrities, politicians, and royalty.

But in this new world where the competition is fierce, a personal brand is a strategic necessity. Without one, it becomes almost impossible to stand out.

Executives who brand themselves will get more attention and attract more opportunities.

It’s the best insurance policy you can have for your career.

A personal brand doesn’t depend on one employer, it stays with you over time, and it gives you the power of choice.

While the majority of corporate executives will continue to be anonymous, the few who build a personal brand in 2025 will become opportunity magnets.

3. Strategic Visibility is the New Selling

You may not like hearing it, but at the VP level qualifications are table stakes.

If you are working towards a promotion, you’ll need to go beyond getting the work done and spend more time socializing the work you did with the right people. You won’t with the race by sitting on the sidelines waiting to be noticed.

Not in this competitive market.

I used to think that staying quiet made me humble. It didn’t. It made me invisible, and invisible people don’t get promoted.

The problem is we have the wrong perception of what it means to “sell”. You probably cringed just reading this last sentence.

Let's be very clear though, selling yourself is not about having movie star charisma or shouting the loudest. Selling yourself is the strategic act of positioning yourself as the best solution to a problem.

It’s about using human psychology, marketing tactics, and storytelling to become the obvious and desired choice for a promotion.

And when you do it right, it becomes your default. You don’t have to think about or worry about it, it’s just how you show up every day and “sell” yourself without even trying.

Executives who master the art of strategic visibility (selling without selling) will attract more sponsors, and become the obvious choice for promotions.

If you wait for your turn, let your work speak for itself, and avoid selling yourself because it feels uncomfortable, you’ll get lost in the crowd.

Simply put: if you won’t be selling, no one will be buying.

4. A Portfolio Career is Your Secret Leverage

The skills you gain while working as an executive are extremely valuable. If you think about it, you are getting paid to gain experience, develop your capabilities, and build a reputation. The best part is that you get to keep these assets, even if you choose to change employers, pivot, or move out of the country.

No one talked about entrepreneurship, consulting, passive income, or side hustle when I started my career, but now these are all valid ways to maximize the potential of the skills you are developing.

You don’t have to limit yourself to only serving your employer, you can have multiple streams of income. And you don’t have to quit your corporate career or take massive risks, you can have the best of both worlds.

Get paid to gain skills and experience in your day job, and use those skills to develop a side hustle, brand, or additional income sources.

The smartest executives will start building on the side, so they always have options.

A portfolio career creates leverages and opportunities and as a bonus, it grows your brand.

This is a new reality that didn’t exist in previous generations. You can do MORE with the assets (skills) you have, and future-proof your career.

Your Next Steps

The corporate game has changed. You can keep playing by the old rules and hope for the best… or think strategically and create leverage in your career.

That’s how you’ll win the corporate game in 2025 and beyond.

I believe in you, and I’m rooting for you.

Maya ❤️