If there's one place I see more women (and men) get stuck, compared to any other in their career, it's at the manager level.
Hands down.
And I get how this is hugely frustrating because I've been there myself. I knew I was ready for a director role and was getting ZERO feedback on why I wasn't ‘there' yet.
And then, when I finally became a director, it happened all over again! Except this time, it went on for five long years.
As many of my regular readers know, a big part of my life's mission is to help women successfully transition to senior roles and thrive there. And there seems to be no shortage of women in this position!
So in today's newsletter, I want to dive into WHY we get stuck here.
In my upcoming masterclass, I'll share the three specific areas I see holding women back. But today, we're going to focus a little more on the reason people get stuck trying to cross the management chasm, and it has everything to do with a change in expectations that most of us aren't even aware of!
Think about it. You get your first job. You're told exactly what you need to do. You work super hard and execute flawlessly, and you get great feedback. After a couple of years, you land a team lead or manager role. Success!
So, you keep executing that playbook. You work crazy hard. You do exactly what you've been told. And suddenly, you find yourself stuck. What gives?
Well, a shift happens as you move further up in leadership, and that shift is from execution to strategy. Early in your career, you focus almost exclusively on execution. If you're the one people know will get stuff done, you are rewarded for that. And because you're rewarded, you keep doing it.
But at around the director level, you're suddenly expected to be more strategic and less of an executor. This is something that took me years to realize and I've summarized it in this diagram:
The problem is that no one explicitly tells you this. And if, for the last few years, you've been rewarded for getting stuff done, crossing things off a list, and being the ‘go-to' for every little detail, it's really hard to break that pattern.
Even if you want to break the pattern, you may have no idea how to do that! I sure as heck didn't.
Most of us know when we're stuck. Many of the women I've met do one of two things when they land in this position:
- They decide they clearly don't have the education or skills needed for a senior role, and so they seek out additional certifications or consider an MBA to try and fill the gap.
- They hire a career coach or executive coach who they pay a ton of money to, in the hopes they will help them figure out what they need to do.
Neither of these things work. Certifications and education are great, but if you are stuck at the manager level because you have yet to make the switch from execution to strategy, no amount of certifications is going to get you there.
I chose the second one. And I loved having an executive coach – it taught me a ton. But do you know what it didn't teach me? How to position myself as a strategic leader and get that promotion. Coaching is client-led, and the problem was that I didn't know my blind spots, so I couldn't tell this person how to help me!
Years later, I gained clarity into what I was doing wrong. Here are a few of the key things:
- I was spending too much time in meetings and not enough time in deep work
- I wasn't communicating my thoughts and strategic ideas effectively
- I wasn't preparing correctly for my 1:1s with my boss
A huge epiphany I had, years after I had finally become a VP and then EVP, was that my boss didn't tell me exactly what I needed to do because he didn't know either!
He knew I wasn't there yet. And in all truth, he was right about that. But he didn't know how to give me the tactical steps I needed to make this change.
So… what can you do??
Well, after spending years deep-diving into this topic, I've learned that there are three very real things that hold us back. I'm going to share them in my free upcoming masterclass and help you figure out which one(s) are holding you back today. I would love to have you there! Note that if you've attended in the past, I've made some great updates so it's worth attending again!!
So, step 1 is to come to my masterclass and figure out what's holding you back today. What else?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself before the masterclass:
- Are you following a playbook or challenging the status quo?
- Are you running meeting to meeting every day or blocking off time to think about bigger problems?
- Are you doing what's always been done or sharing new, big ideas with your manager?
- Do people see you as the ‘go-to' for getting stuff done?
- Are you regularly sharing key wins with your manager?
Okay, score yourself – if you answered ‘yes' to the black text, it's a sign you need some help. If you answered ‘yes' to all of the pink text, you are on the right track!!
If you want to dive into this topic further, learn more about my story, and identify what's holding you back today, I'll see you on Sept 4th! Click here to register.
Until next time friends… ✌️💜
Katy
