Has this happened to you?

You’re looking to get promoted into a senior level position, but the expectations around how a senior executive leader behaves in your organization doesn’t seem to match up with your own leadership style.

You might also really value your personal leadership style, as you should, and don’t really want to modify it just to get a promotion.  

Don’t worry. There is a way you can keep both your leadership style AND get promoted into executive leadership.  

My name is Stacy Mayer and I am a promotion strategist and executive coach for corporate managers who want to get promoted into senior level executive positions. In this edition of Your Promotability Factor, I will show you real life examples of how YOU can shift the perception the leadership team has of you without changing who you truly are.

Let’s start with an example:

A corporate VP recently reached out to me for help on this issue. 

Sheri is an internal candidate for the C-Suite at her organization, but there is one problem….

At her organization, aggression is linked to strategic ability.  And Sheri’s strengths are agility, strong execution and vision.  

Sheri’s Mgmt profile usually shows lower scores on aggression and innovation, and this is viewed as not C strength capabilities.

Here’s what I encouraged her to do:

Step 1: Understand what aggression really means

If this has happened to you, I want you to start by asking yourself: “What does aggression really mean in my organization?”

The definition of “aggression” can vary widely depending on the company, but most of the time it simply means being willing to speak up.

Now, unconscious bias research shows us that actively speaking up is even more challenging for women and minority men, because speaking up could also be seen as confrontational behaviour.  So Sheri might feel less comfortable exhibiting that side of herself.  

But that doesn’t mean stay quiet, either. Here’s how:

Speak to the obstacles.

Take some time to reflect on why a particular project may not work, and challenge it from that perspective. This will help you show the leadership team that you are someone who speaks up when you see something, that you’re outspoken and not afraid to challenge.

Step 2: Lean into your innovation

Sheri identified herself as a leader who is forward-thinking and intuitive – qualities that can allow her to be very innovative, too.

So just because the leadership team hasn’t seen this side of her yet, doesn’t mean she’s incapable of innovation.

Lean into those strategic qualities you already admire in yourself and show them what you are capable of now.

Ask yourself: What are the ways that I can start talking more about the innovation, the vision, the strategy, and where we are headed?

You can do all of the above while still being true to yourself. 

You can be very agile. 

You can be a strong executor . 

You can be visionary.

AND a strategic, outspoken, innovative leader.  

That is how you will show the leadership team what you can really do, and let them know you are ready for a C-Suite level position.  

If you want more strategies and support on how you can scale yourself to the C-Suite, then I invite you to apply for a free career strategy session with me.

On our call, we’ll work together to create a systematic promotion blueprint so that you can move from under-appreciated, under-recognized, and underpaid to a well-respected, rising star.

These calls are by application only. Go to www.StacyMayer.com/apply to apply now.