4 Critical Shifts to Move Beyond Your Career Plateau and into Leadership
Picture this:
It’s late night and you’re scrolling through LinkedIn (because you know how to party 😉) and you’re deep in a ‘compare and despair’ rabbit hole.
You’re checking on former colleagues, the annoying dude at your last office, and every last person from business school.
And somehow it feels like they’re all further ahead of you. They’re Directors, Managing Directors, VPs, and SVPs. “Damn, how did Annoying Dude become a CFO already?”
The thing is you’re not where you want to be yet. And you don’t get why.
Whether you got passed over, have been in a role for longer than you like, or can’t get through to the right people, it’s worth asking:
“What’s keeping me stuck in this plateau?”
In this blog, I’m sharing:
The difference between ‘executors’ and ‘executives’ at work
What it’s costing you to stay in an executor role
What 4 key shifts you need to move to leadership
The difference between ‘executors’ and ‘executives’
In my work helping mid-career women break into leadership, I find a distinction between the type of person they currently are and the type of person they hope to become.
Executors
Implement on behalf of others
Take direction
Are responsible for details
Don’t get me wrong, executors have lots of experience and tons of value. However, they often don’t articulate it strategically to decision-makers. That can often lead to staying on the “doing” treadmill and not moving up.
Executives
Set the vision
Devise strategies
Delegate
Are responsible for the big picture and bottom line
These are folks who are clear about their career, department, and organization’s future. They articulate it with confidence and tie it to their value.
If you want to be an executive and aren’t yet, there is a path.
Executors are the farm team that executives are recruited from. But for some, getting off the “doing” treadmill can be really challenging. So it’s worth recognizing that this transition to leadership is a conscious choice.
The danger of staying an executor
Being an executor is where we all begin our careers. I’m a big believer in learning by doing and in early career, it’s all about learning to do the actual job function you’re hired for.
However, as you move forward in your career, that “doing” habit can keep you stuck in roles that may offer stability but limit growth. Picture Kevin in accounting, who’s going on fifteen years in his role.
And there is joy in being Kevin. But if you’re anything like the women I work with, this is not your joy.
In fact, to many of the ambitious women I work with, staying an executor feels like stagnation.
The thing is, it’s also kind of comfortable. You know your role in and out. You execute it with your hands tied behind your back. It’s a steady paycheck and, if all is right, you can chill at times.
Again, there are going to be moments when this is right for you.
However, staying too long in that role can also cost you:
Creativity - You have ideas. You have drive. You are champing at the bit to make things happen… but as an executor, you don’t have the mandate to set a strategy. And to the women I work with, who are great at what they do, this can feel stifling.
Ownership - Being part of a team to bring something to fruition is a great feeling. But over the course of years, as your expertise grows, there can come a time when you’d like to test your mettle, to develop and graduate from being part of the effort to leading it.
Growth - If you aspire to leadership, you’ll be asked to learn new skills you haven’t been called to have as an executor. Among them are vision, storytelling, influence, adaptability, and more. If you’ve stayed within a certain level for a certain amount of time, it may be that much harder to convince decision-makers that you’re a dynamic way forward and your promotion will be delayed.
Money/Whatever Money Means to You - Money is not the end in and of itself. It’s what money provides for you: security, freedom, luxury, what have you. What money means is up to you.
The average raise is 3% per year. However, if you’re contributing so much deep expertise, earned over the course of years, you’re likely to be underselling your value. Without a title and responsibility jump, you may miss out on the opportunity to level-set your earnings for the next half of your career.
Here’s the kicker about mid-career:
You CAN be punished for being too good at executing.
Think of Pam from the Office. She really wanted to move up and into a new role, but everyone loved her as a receptionist. She was so good at it, it was more convenient for everyone to keep her in that role. To make the jump, she had to show value in a new way.
By the way, if this is speaking to you, I cover more on this topic in an acelectric.co blog post called “Two Things Holding You Back from Leadership.” In it, I go into the 4 signs you have work to do in this area and what to do about each.
Moving from a career plateau to a leadership role
You know you’re a leader. It’s just a matter of getting other people to see you that way.
Often we’ve been programmed and rewarded for executing, so it’s a tough habit to break.
Whether you’re trying to get the folks in your organization to see you differently or launching a job search campaign, this transition away from doing and into leading is going to take time.
Six months to a year. So, set your expectations accordingly.
However, in that time there are a few key shifts all executors can develop to move into leadership:
1. Mindset/Vision
If you’re going to be seen as a leader, it helps to take actions that leaders take. Having a vision for your career is a great way to begin communicating that you should be trusted with a team or organizational vision.
There’s lots to this, but the main thing is moving from the “me mindset” – about how great you are – to the “we mindset” – about how your greatness can contribute to the company and team.
2. Value/brand
Your value and brand are correlated to how unique you are. Or how well you’re able to deliver results in your role.
However, the trick is not being pigeonholed as the person who fulfills your current role. That would be doubling down on your executor role.
To ascend to leadership, you need a leadership brand.
That means deemphasizing some of the strict subject matter expertise that makes you an amazing DOER and including the value you add as a leader. Those can be setting a vision, driving strategy, managing teams, influencing and more.
3. Positioning/storytelling
Knowing where you’re going and what you are uniquely able to do to get the company there is a great start. Being able to frame that effectively is another key to convincing the relevant stakeholders of your leadership.
This kind of positioning takes good storytelling. That means being able to convincingly frame your value in a way that connects with your stakeholders.
The bigger your initiatives, the more or higher up your stakeholders. Developing these influencing skills and stakeholder relationships while campaigning for your next role is a great way to be even more effective in your next role.
4. Actions
Actions speak louder than words. While verbal communication is critical, it’s hard to trust a brand that says they do one thing - like lead - and then continues to, in action, take on more and more doing.
Are the best leaders in every meeting, taking notes, and volunteering for every task? No. And neither should you.
Delegation is another skill you’ll need as a leader so you may as well get cracking now.
5. Sponsors
If you are to see further, it is because you’ve stood on the shoulders of giants. Or at least enlisted them in your career and organizational vision.
Behind every decision is a person. And cultivating genuine connection with the people who hold the keys to bringing the progress you see for the organization, is a great way to move toward your vision that much faster.
Conclusion
Everyone begins their career as an executor (someone who brings forth a vision). However, to break through a career plateau, it’s critical to make the conscious choice to move into leadership. To do that, one needs to develop executive mindsets, habits, experiences, and skills. Some of the first to cultivate are:
vision setting
developing a unique leadership brand
learning to position our leadership story
taking leadership actions like delegating
developing sponsors within your organization
I aim to bring you a lot of value with this content and to give you more resources on career growth topics. If you’ve gotten value and want to learn more about making the jump to leadership, I cover this in an aclectric.co blog post called “Two Things Holding You Back from Leadership.” In it, I go into the 4 signs you have work to do to get out of the executor role and what to do about each.