Trending
My guess is, as a female executive, you’ve already seen the difficulty women face transitioning from an “extraordinary, doing-manager” controlling the project strings into a “high-potential, influential leader.”
I know it is tough for everyone to make this shift, and I hate to say it. To me, the leap into this higher realm seems to come a bit more instinctively for a male executive. Stats confirm my belief, as men are promoted 2.2 percent more frequently than women.
What’s up with that?
If you’re experiencing a rocky promotion road yourself, read on.
Have you noticed women sometimes appear to be working out of an entirely different rule book than men—one that doesn’t make reaching the C-suite an easy proposition?
We’ll be unwrapping skills, and business approaches rarely addressed. They are akin to delivering women the proverbial handshake essential to enter the sacred territory of leadership. Without them, it isn’t easy to make the career trajectory you intend.
What women seemingly trust and lean into for their rise to the top often doesn’t gain them the expected rewards. Then, they’re left discouraged, wondering what went wrong.
Are you open to working in alignment with your awesome femininity while achieving your dreams? Then, let’s explore 3 new career-boosting concepts—in addition to your already sizable expertise—to amplify your career.
Today and Tomorrow: Businesses cannot survive without vision, forethought, and a future strategy. Take a moment to think about the CEO of your company. Does she or he have the expertise and skills to perform your job?
I doubt it.
Along the “less traveled leadership journey,” you give up your basic implementation skills where your education and competencies accounted for promotions, and where much of your glorious identity still resides.
Why?
It demands you to be fluent in a more nuanced and less quantifiable set of proficiencies in preparation for your move into higher levels of the organization.
Start noticing. As executives (no matter the gender) move higher into senior-level positions, are they stepping further away from their expertise? Instead, are they leaning more into such soft skills as blue sky profitability planning, gaining support from Wall Street analysts, and preparing the organization for the future? These are distinguishing factors you’re compelled to exhibit in today’s competitive race to leadership.
Innovative Mindset: When we talk about innovation, what do we mean? I guarantee it isn’t purely the words spouted by an executive. You see, future-generating thought represents a true microcosm of leadership. So, spending time in this arena has you practicing leadership well before your position requires you to exhibit it.
It’s considering ways to work more efficiently. Such a thought process is often where incremental, finetuning improvement activities take place, as well as the nitty-gritty aspects of merely getting the job done and keeping the organization running more smoothly exists.
For most, it’s expanding your faculties to be comfortable with what is and creating what could be. It doesn’t come automatically. It is a brain-muscle you exercise just as you would any other muscle in your body.
You have to be far more conscious and deliberate with your time and attention. It entails enlarging your capabilities. You’re accountable for leaning into the future with the full weight of your competencies regardless of your position.
It isn’t easy, and yet, if you don’t embrace a growth frame of reference, you won’t be the executive your business keenly requires to steer it toward prosperous, long-term success.
Decision-Making: Research says. And I want to underscore it.
For women, it is essential to realize your voice is critical in influencing the decision-making process. No matter how you chose to slice the issue, companies with multiple women decision-makers are more profitable by whatever evaluation method research employs.
You’re harming the future of your company by staying silent.
Step up. Even if your brain is screaming, it isn’t worth all the effort. Don’t listen to the littleness of you. It always ruins the career the bigness of you is moving toward—you’re not giving your best to either yourself or your company’s future, when you play the patronizing stereotypical role of little girls should be seen not heard.
How are you doing with each of these three career-boosting ideas as part of grooming your leadership competency?
I grant you it’s hard to keep a leadership focus as all around you gets busier and busier. Your natural tendency grounds you into what you already know. Don’t allow that natural propensity to win. It may work short-term, but it’ll leave you disappointed long-term longing for what could have been.
Let me provide clarity. Do I believe you have to be promoted to your company’s most senior levels to have a meaningful career? No! I do know that through the process of taking on these higher-level skills as your own, no matter your position, you will experience a more fulfilling career. These booster concepts make you more relevant in every job you hold.