one of the skills that a lot of designers have trouble with is the political part of being a designer. most of us are obsessed with skill (understandable) but there are soft skills that are required to go up the ladder if you are looking at in-house or agency. networking, selling yourself, making yourself desirable as a design leader is a very difficult task. essentially, there is a level of “shmoozing” involved.
i learned this the hard way. i thought if i just focused on developing high quality work then i’d gradually move up. i was rewarded with more work. that is all. when i started to focus on crafting how people perceive me in the work place then things really changed.