I share openly that I struggled on my journey from manager to director to VP, and that I spent 5 years in a director role, with no VP above me, unable to get that title.
When I was in it, I had no clue why.
My thought was, ‘I’m doing the job, running the function and part of the senior management team. Why, TF won’t he just give me the title?’
Many people hear my story and think that either:
- My boss was a jerk who didn’t want to give me the title, so it was all him or
- I uncovered the secret to VP success, implemented it and then immediately got the VP role
I hate to disappoint, but neither of these is true. And in fact, I was only able to see my blind spots, the mistakes I was making that held me back for so long, YEARS after the fact.
It’s really freaking hard to see what you’re doing wrong when you’re doing it.
I share this because my mission in life is to help more women see those blind spots in real time, so they can correct them and see success far sooner than the five long, painful years it took me.
Having someone point out potential blind spots is the best way to uncover them.
(BTW, if you want to learn how I can help you do this, you can apply for more information below.)
So in today’s newsletter, I want to break down 3 of the biggest blind spots I had at that time, and why addressing them is so powerful.
Let’s dive in.
1. I thought faster was better
The first blind spot I had was the way I worked. I learned early in my career that being an excellent executor won me praise and promotions, and I continued to operate using that playbook.
I was able to bang out a ton of work in a short amount of time and get things done faster than anyone else. And I thought this was a good thing.
The problem is that as you move up in leadership, your skill set needs to change. Faster is not always better. Doing more is not necessarily the answer. In fact, it will start to hold you back.
I remember being in a meeting where we were discussing the communication plan for a rather sensitive customer situation. We agreed on the email communication and ended the meeting. Around five minutes later, my boss stopped by my office to tell me that we had to make a change to the comms plan.
Uhhh… too late. I had already fired off the email.
And this way of working hurt me in other areas as well. I was so busy running to meetings, banging out work and jumping on calls that I rarely, if ever, slowed down to plan how I wanted to present an idea strategically or think more deeply about whether we were even executing the right strategy.
My productivity and cortisol were high, but they were not getting me the results I wanted.
The result of this was that I was not demonstrating to those around me that I could operate as a strategic leader. They saw a doer, because that’s how I was showing up.
Only later, when I learned the value of slowing down and becoming more intentional with my time, did I see the massive impact this has on my ability to drive value as a leader AND to demonstrate this value to leadership.
If there’s one change that most leaders need to make to see more impact, it’s this.
2. I assumed doing the job was enough
I see soooo many people with this same blind spot. We assume that working hard with our heads down is enough. We believe that if we just produce results, we’ll be recognized and rewarded.
This just isn’t the case.
Many… maybe even most of the women I work with struggle with this. They are so focused on doing their job well and producing great results that they forget to focus on their own careers.
I learned that creating visibility into the work you’re doing and the ideas you’re bringing to life is just as important as doing the actual work.
If you don’t believe me, think of it this way: if you have the best idea in the world, but no one knows about it, who are you helping?
If you’re not creating visibility into your work and really demonstrating to your boss the impact you’re creating, how will they know? And how will they be able to reward you by giving you an opportunity to have even more impact?
Once you’ve learned to slow down, this is the next step.
I’ve never seen someone get to the top on hard work alone. Don’t expect that you’ll be the first.
3. I refused to play ‘politics’
The idea of ‘playing politics’ turns a lot of people off, including me. The problem was that I viewed investing in developing strong relationships with other cross-functional leaders and socializing my ideas with them as politics.
That held me back.
Instead of taking the time and effort to understand the needs of others and gauge how they would react to a new idea, I would just go ahead and present it at the leadership meeting.
Maybe it was my ego, but I just assumed everyone would see the brilliance!
Well, they didn’t. More often than I liked, I would walk out of that meeting feeling deflated because the team didn’t buy into my vision. This had an even worse effect, because every time my ideas were shot down, I lost credibility with leadership.
Eventually, I learned the value of building strong connections with my cross-functional peers (hint: influencing others as a leader is a lot easier when people like you). I put regular 1:1s in the calendar, with each of them, and started taking the time to run new ideas and strategies by them before I brought them up to the leadership team.
The effect of this was huge. When I brought ideas forward, I suddenly had support instead of opposition, because I’d already addressed any concerns.
Bottom line: these relationships are strategic, and calling this politics is only hurting you.
My blind spots were a blessing
The years I spent as a director may have been frustrating, but the silver lining is that they made me curious, even obsessed, with understanding what it actually takes to be seen as executive material and how women can start to develop these habits and skills.
I’ve helped dozens and dozens of women land their first director, Sr Director, VP and even C-level roles.
Just this week, I received a message in the community from a woman starting a new executive role, thanking us for making this happen for her “lightning fast”!
Want to be next?
If you’re looking to become a VP and you’re:
- A woman working in corporate
- At the Sr. Manager, Director or Sr. Director level
- Super fun (or at least a little fun…)
Apply here to learn how we can help you land a VP role and crush it!
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
