This is it people. This is the episode that is going to change EVERYTHING. You are going to feel happier, you are going to create better relationships at work and you are going to always have ownership over your career. Everything you wish you had is going to come true in the blink of an eye just by doing this one thing.
And here it is...are you sitting down? This is it. The secret to every powerful leader’s success - Steve Jobs, Andrew Carnagie, Estee Lauder big big names. But they all had to start somewhere. And guess what, they didn’t wait until they had success to be successful. I’ll say that again. They didn’t wait until the circumstances of their life - money, power, influence happened to FEEL successful. They created success first and then actual success followed.
I am talking about being the executive leader NOW. How you create that success for yourself NOW even if it’s just in your mind, even if it’s just in the way you show up to work every single day, even if it’s just in the way you handle conflict at work. Whatever it is, you have within your power the ability to act like the executive leader now!
And I am going to show you how.
But first let’s talk for a minute why you FEEL like you can’t act like an executive now. These are a few of the common objections I hear when I encourage managers to show up in a bigger way at work:
- I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Great! Don’t step on anyone’s toes. That doesn’t mean you can’t act like the executive leader now.
- I don’t have any actual authority. No one will listen to me. I don’t have a seat at the table. So what. You’ll hear more what I mean but acting like an executive leader does now mean barking around orders and telling people what to do. Everything I am sharing with you today is within your power to do right now, whether you have actual authority or not.
- I’m too busy. Yes you ARE too busy and that’s part of the problem. So if you haven't listened to it yet, go back to episode 2. I talked about how to stop doing what you are good at. If you prioritize letting go of doing all the things that you really shouldn’t be doing, you will have more time and more freedom to begin focusing on what actually matters most.
These are just a few of the thoughts that could be standing in your way.
BUT why is it so important to act like an executive leader now - BEFORE you actually get the job?
One BIG reason is it teaches you how to do the job you ASPIRE to do, ahead of time.
Now here is what I mean. Some of you will get lucky and get promoted anyway. You will not do any of the things I teach you on this podcast.
- You will not have a clear vision statement for yourself.
- You won’t have any mentors or sponsors
- You won’t be soliciting feedback
- You won’t be thinking strategically about your career
- You won’t know how to inspire or coach your team
And you will get promoted anyway!
Why??? How does that happen???
- It could be because you have a boss that believes in your potential vs. your current state.
- It could be because you work for a start up and they don’t have anyone else to do the job.
- It could be because you’re really great at your job. You produce great results and you actually get rewarded for those results.
But here is the downside.
So let’s say you get the job but you haven't been practicing along the way. Now what happens:
- You’re winging it.
- You don’t know how to coach your team so you are actually doing the work for them.
- You don’t have relationships with the executive staff so you are constantly having to explain yourself to them. Everytime you present at staff meetings, your ideas get pushed to the side. Nobody knows what you are working on or why should they care so you are given the last 10 minutes of the staff meeting to present and you always feel rushed and worse yet you run out of time because the meeting ends before you can speak (this is a real story by the way and I’ll tell you more about her later and how we got out of this problem)
HR and learning and development departments spend thousands and thousands of dollars on getting managers to be BETTER at their job every single year. Why? Because they were never actually given the skills ahead of time to be a LEADER. Leadership is different than managing people. I give people those skills ahead of time. But don’t worry. If you have already been promoted, I can get you there too 🙂
I am going to give you 3 simple things that you can implement right away so you can start acting like an executive now.
Let me share a little story.
I have a private coaching client that is the Vice President of Human Resources. She is really great at her job. She has a ton of respect. But she reached out to me last year because she was not feeling like she could make the impact she wanted to make.
She didn’t feel like she had a seat at the table. She was being pushed aside in the executive team meetings. Her brilliant ideas were being saved until the last 10 minutes of the meeting. And sometimes they wouldn’t even get to her.
She was frustrated and stuck so she reached out to me! Her goal for our six month coaching was not to get a promotion --- she already had the title she wanted --- but her goal was to be recognized by the executive team.
So what did we work on in our first two months? We figured out all of the ways she was not actually acting like the VP of Human Resources and fixed that FIRST. Once she figured out where she wasn’t acting like a Vice President, she could fix it. She started actually doing her job!!!
And you know what happened? The CEO took notice. She recognized that she was showing up more as a strategic leader. The CEO started asking her what she was doing differently?
You know what my client said? I hired a coach!!!
She hired a coach. See that’s another thing that executives do. They have executive coaches. Do you think Michael Phelps won 23 gold medals by himself? NO WAY. He had a great coach. And if the company doesn’t support the executive to get a coach, they go out and find and invest in it themselves. Because they know the investment will pay back 10xxx.
Just like my client did. She invested in the coaching herself BUT because her CEO was so impressed with her initiative and the change she was already seeing just after 2 months. offered to reimburse her for the investment. AND now they wouldn’t even consider pushing my client to the end of the staff meetings because her input is too valuable. She has too much to offer. They want her to go first!
And how did she do it??? She started acting like an Executive Leader now. And you can do that too.
Now it’s possible that you feel like the C-suite is really REALLY far away from where you are now. But I know you. I know you are SO capable of handling that role and could really knock it out of the park.
It just feels a little scary. But that’s just because you have never done it before. Everything that is new. Everything that is different feels scary at first.
One of my mentors and role models is Marie Forleo, she is the founder of B-School and online training platform for entrepreneurs and she now has a best selling book called Everything is Figureoutable. Super fun and inspiring read. I was listening to an interview she did this week and one thing she said really struck me:
“You wouldn’t have the dream in your heart if you didn’t already have what it takes to make it happen”
And this is so SO true. Now I am going to give you 3 ways that you can in fact make that dream happen now. And even if you aren’t looking to get into the C-suite in 2020, you will be happier, you will start making a bigger impact and you might even get the recognition you deserve just by doing even one of these 3 steps.
First one: Dress the part. Now I don’t just mean clothes, which are important of course but also check in with your body language. How do you show up in meetings? Are you head down? Do you sit in the back? What about your arms, are they folded or are they open?
Want to know how to get someone to listen to what you have to say? Body language!!! Scientific research shows that the key factor to whether or not someone thinks you are confident is BODY LANGUAGE. In fact, it’s 55% body language, 38% tone of voice and only 7% what you actually say.
So prioritize body language and you will already start being seen as the executive leader now.
The second step is speaking strategically. When you offer a suggestion, are you tying it back into the bigger vision? Do you even know the bigger vision or are you just speaking about tasks all the time? Many managers fall into this trap when they have 1on1s with their boss. They think their boss just wants a quick update on what you are “doing” that week. But they don’t!!!
I have a client that put together this huge document outlining every little thing that her team was working on. She walked into her meeting with her boss and normally she just tells him what she is working on. But this week she started with her vision - this is WHY we are working in this way. Then she went to show him the gigantic spreadsheet she made and he wanted nothing to do with it. He simply said I trust you! And moved onto the next item.
That’s IT Trust. You MUST trust executive leaders. So start building that trust up now. And it feels good to be trusted. To know that you can handle the job. It feels great as a matter of fact. It’s amazing. And all you need to do is tie it back to the bigger vision.
And last but not least, aligning yourself with the right people. I talk about this in LENGTH with building your own personal board of directors in episode number 5. But this is SO key. Don’t wait until you are in an executive role to get a mentor, to expand your network, to hire a coach.
This podcast has already brought so many amazing leaders back into my life. And I realized this recently that I am the one who lost contact with them. There is literally no reason I couldn’t have reached out sooner. But I waited for the excuse of the podcast. Don’t make that same mistake. Make connections NOW. They do matter. And if you need an excuse, a reason to reach out to them, come up with that reason. You won’t regret it - for sure.
So that’s it. Think and ACT like an executive NOW. And that will help you grow and develop into an actual excutive leader sooner if it hasn’t happened already.
Much love this valentine’s day. See you next week.
