Are you guilty of this?

An annoying truth: When it comes to proving your leadership, you are best served by performing at a higher level to prove you can be responsible at a higher level.

Most people think doing your time is the same as earning your stripes. It isn’t.

In my work as a coach of women at Fortune 500 companies, I found this is the standard.

As I myself began to hire, I saw it from an employer's standpoint. When filling a role: a manager's choice is often between someone to train and someone who's already held the role elsewhere.

For better or worse, when hiring leaders, the path of least resistance is to look outside for the elevated role.

So how to disrupt that thought pattern?

I found a few helpful practices when working with Pia, a high performer at Amazon seeking directorship. Together we:

  • got clear on career goals
  • communicated them to her manager
  • aligned with him on the next level job description
  • set out to fill those objectives, the company's and her own
  • so that she’s proved herself in the next role
  • Throughout, she engaged her boss’ support and feedback so he invested in her progress.

In this way, whether or not she got the role, she'd have experiences and stories that enriched her own career goals, which, if needed, she could bring to her next employer, even if she never got the title (she did). 😉

But this wouldn’t have happened with the level of ease that it did without focusing on what she wanted from her future and THEN elevating her performance to match not only what her manager expected and needed but what SHE wanted to cultivate, too.

Pia’s Testimonial can be found on The UpLevel Your Leadership Group Coaching Page here

Pia’s Testimonial can be found on The UpLevel Your Leadership Group Coaching Page here

Want to be like Pia and know how to get clear on your 5-year-career goals and align them with your future leadership?

After coaching over 400+ womxn at Google, Oracle, Panasonic, Apple, Nike, and more, I've crafted a group program to find your 5-year career vision and finally OVERCOME the lack of clarity around your future, MOVE PAST the individual contributor mindset that's keeping you stuck in the doing vs. leading, UPGRADE your skills & network to step confidently into becoming a visionary leader who can see and express your career future, that of your org & create opportunities that help you live your potential — WITHOUT OVERWORK OR OVERWHELM.

DON’T WAIT for your career to find you. Find your leadership potential now. 

Curious to learn more? Start here.

Alex Cooley