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3: 7 Steps For How To Get Promoted From Director to Vice President · SisterSmart Leadership

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  Jill Avey: Do you feel like you have all the right skills to lead at a higher
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  level, but you don't know what's missing to get that chance to be promoted?
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  Join me in this episode to learn how to unlock the secrets to
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  successful career advancement.
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  You'll also hear about how the Sister Smart program worked for two
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  of our clients, Nadine and Lexi.
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  They both made the move from the director level to the vice president
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  level by overcoming their obstacles and unlocking that promotion.
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  In Nadine's case, it was procrastination that was her sticking point, and in
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  Lexi's case, it was work overload.
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  These are both common problems that maybe you can relate to as well.
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  By the end of the video, you'll see how the Sister Smart seven step
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  process can help you get promoted too.
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  I'm Jill Avey, a career success coach, and this is Sister Smart Leadership, the
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  show that explores how women can rise from director to vice president and beyond
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  by fully leaning into their feminine energy as their biggest advantage.
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  Let's get you one step closer to the recognition and promotion you deserve.
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  When Lexi first started with the program, she had a packed schedule.
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  She was proud of how much she worked and how much she protected
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  her team from becoming overwhelmed by taking on more herself.
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  A lot of leaders are in this exact same situation when they join our program.
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  What they don't realize is that some of their habits are actually
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  keeping them stuck where they are.
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  And Nadine initially thought she had a procrastination problem, and I
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  remember when we first talked about the women's leadership program, she
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  told me that she had seen all of her peers get promoted to VP and was
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  still waiting to get promoted herself.
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  She felt like she'd had the technical skills, but something
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  wasn't clicking for her.
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  So I'm going to share the exact process that these women took to get
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  to the next level, and the changes that they made along the way is
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  that opened up those doors for them.
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  Often very talented leaders are left wondering what to do
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  next in order to get promoted.
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  They don't get direction from their manager and they aren't able to
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  find the right mentor to really guide them, and they can't learn
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  it all from books and conferences.
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  And it takes years to learn it all by trial and error.
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  Trust me, I know.
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  If you aren't lucky enough to work in a company that provides a lot of
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  leadership training and you aren't lucky enough to be one of the chosen
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  viewed as a high potential employee, you're often left to figure out your
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  own prog career progression yourself.
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  So let me walk you through how we do this at Sister Smart.
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  Step one is developing your strength and courage with emotional balance.
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  So by developing your ability to process emotions on the spot,
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  you can manage stress better and improve your self-confidence.
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  Your relationships and collaboration also improve because of this
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  increased ability to manage conflict.
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  The key here is that your ability to weather the ups and downs of corporate
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  life are greatly impacted by the inner critic voices in your head.
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  You'll be bulletproof when you can get your saboteurs working
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  for you instead of against you.
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  This first step was particularly important for Lexi.
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  The work she did with her own saboteurs helped her to realize when
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  she was responding from feeling of being judged, or wanting to please
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  others, and now she's able to stop herself and ask if she can do better.
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  She can reframe it as a gift or a learning lesson and approach it differently.
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  So our second step is know your genius.
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  You'll have much more success when you get crystal clear on your zone of brilliance.
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  This way, you can focus on your strengths and shine as the you that's uniquely you.
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  We need to make sure that our weaknesses are not holding us back, but our
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  energy is best spent when it goes into appreciating and honing your
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  secret sauce, that thing you do that makes you really great at what you do.
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  This type of focus helps you gain the recognition you need to move forward.
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  When you truly understand your strengths, you can lead with your authentic self.
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  So get to know what makes you uniquely you and let that shine.
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  This was an important step for Nadine who was able to stop beating herself
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  up for her perceived weakness and comparing herself to other leaders once
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  she was able to recognize and celebrate her own strengths that made her such
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  a valuable leader in her own right.
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  So this third step is to present yourself as a leader.
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  Your executive presence underpins everything you do as a leader.
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  So if you get this wrong, you won't be seen as a leader that you know yourself to
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  be, and you'll have no chance of bringing your considerable talents to the world.
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  The work that Lexi did in step two and step three helped her to find
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  her authentic style as a leader.
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  She wants to be a leader that's kind and funny and even a little goofy at times.
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  She doesn't want to lose that because a couple of people
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  don't value humor and levity.
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  Now she knows what she values and can stay true to herself instead of trying
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  to be what others want her to be.
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  Nadine focused on this section on stepping up her appearance and creating
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  a closer connection with her team members and peers, which helped her get to
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  know them better so she could identify where she could improve performance.
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  In the SisterSmart program, we used gender socialization theory to help
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  you navigate the double blinds of being a female in the corporate world that
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  was built for men, and that helps you build your executive presence in a
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  way that supports your strengths and authenticity while opening up new doors.
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  So our step four, we call this create clarity for your career path.
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  Having too much on your plate dilutes your ability to see where you're
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  going and do any long range planning.
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  Yet, there are social constructs that keep women mired in excess work.
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  So often women are working so hard with larger teams and fewer resources
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  taking on additional projects that aren't even part of their scope.
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  This is a step where we turn that around because we want you to focus
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  on the things that are going to make the difference that you need.
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  So this is one of the big shifts that Nadine made here was to shift
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  from being reactive to proactive.
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  This helped her to have more control over her schedule and focus on the
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  work that mattered for the long term.
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  And when Lexi started the program, she had a sense of pride about how busy she was.
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  Yet through this work, she began to see where she could be even more effective
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  when she delegated and empowered her team.
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  She realized in many ways that her leaders were probably also in that
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  trap themselves, and she hadn't seen it modeled any other different way.
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  So she found that her team actually had more bandwidth than she thought,
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  and she had them take on more and it opened up her time to think
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  strategically a lot more often.
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  So she realized it wasn't her job to be the star performer,
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  the doer, the go-getter anymore.
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  She told me that this shift has given her the time to think about
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  at the higher level so she can plan and innovate and measure her impact,
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  not just get a bunch of things done.
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  So this step in the process includes going on a personal strategy retreat where
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  you spend a couple of days by yourself to develop your own vision of where you
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  Want to go and how you Want to get there.
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  This is a time when you can finally listen to that quiet inner
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  voice that normally gets drowned out in the hubbub of daily life.
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  It provides that time where you can create a balance in your life
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  that feels totally fulfilling.
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  So our step number five is use brain-based communication.
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  So here we build new levels of trust and collaboration with your team,
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  your peers, your senior leaders by using advanced neuroscience.
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  This is often one of my clients' favorite modules because without trust, you'll
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  struggle to get picked for special projects to increase your visibility.
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  When Lexi started using this style of communication to coach her team,
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  she found that her leaders were a lot more bought in because they
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  were more involved in the process.
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  So she'll provide guidance and point them towards priorities when they
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  really need it, but she's not holding it all and doing it all herself.
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  And the two directors now that report to her are thriving and coming up with
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  new things on their own as a result.
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  Through our conversations, we can work to find common ground where
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  you can build trust even in your most contentious relationships.
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  By building trust in all directions with your senior leaders, your
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  peers, your team, your performance can increase dramatically.
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  So our sixth step is called embracing Taking Risks.
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  Women often have a hard time when things don't go as well as they would like.
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  This can result in overworking to avoid failure at all costs.
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  So build your risk analysis skill and your resiliency and even begin to
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  appreciate setbacks as opportunities.
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  This was another important step for my client Nadine.
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  She was able to release herself from the belief that she needed to
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  have all the answers, and she was able to take on much higher stakes
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  projects by getting others involved.
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  Lexi my client took a risk when she accepted this role as VP since
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  the division wasn't doing as well as the company would've liked, and
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  she knew it would be a challenge to turn it around, but she believed in
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  herself and was able to assess her abilities against the challenge.
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  And she also had a backup plan in case it didn't go as well as she envisioned.
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  And it's worked out great for her because recently they celebrated their highest
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  month of revenue ever and all without the sales team that they had before.
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  I love hearing results like that, and I know that you can do
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  even more than you're doing now.
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  We all can.
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  When you start to envision a bigger version of yourself, it
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  will help you to take on more risk.
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  Step seven, leverage mentorship.
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  I find that most women I talk to avoid networking because it makes them feel
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  sleazy or self-promotional or inauthentic.
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  Instead, they keep working harder and harder waiting for
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  the work to speak for itself.
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  As a result, women have networks that are many times smaller than
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  their male counterparts, and it puts them at a disadvantage.
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  Instead, I have put together a way to create a network that fits your
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  style without feeling like a taker.
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  Your network will open doors and help you think bigger than you will on your own.
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  A good network includes the people who will help you to get where
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  you need to go, and you can define your personal board of directors by
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  asking who has been there before?
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  Who will invest in my development?
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  What outside support do I need?
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  And when it comes to leadership skills, most people rely on their
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  manager to guide them, and that's a big mistake for a few reasons.
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  First, your manager is most likely not a leadership professional,
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  and so they may or may not have any idea how to help you grow.
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  They're probably also too busy to put in too much thought into your
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  development, beyond your reviews, and one-on-ones throughout the year.
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  They're really not thinking about you all the time like you should be.
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  And second, your company does not have your best interests at heart.
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  At the end of the day, they want you to grow into the kind of leader that they
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  need, and this is not likely to take into consideration the rest of your life.
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  And that causes balance to be an issue, and it's definitely not considering
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  your career beyond this company.
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  Company-sponsored programs typically aren't personalized to ensure that
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  each person comes out the best version of themselves, they tend to be too
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  high level because they need to meet the needs of a disparate group.
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  So you need to be in charge of your own development, and you need to be ready
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  to invest in yourself with a program that's the best fit for you because you
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  believe in your ability and your worth.
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  Nadine worked through all of these steps, and once she was done, her manager agreed
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  that she was ready for her promotion.
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  Through this process, she was also able to reduce her hours from 60
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  to 36 while her team improved their performance and all while working in
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  a hospital system during the pandemic.
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  Isn't that amazing?
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  So here are three things that you can do today to map out your career path
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  and get clear on where you want to go.
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  So first, have a think.
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  Get out your journal or take a long walk and listen to your inner voice.
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  What does it tell you?
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  How far do you want to go in your career, not tomorrow or even next year?
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  Listen carefully to what you feel inside that you're capable of doing.
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  Like what's your big dream?
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  Okay Now you have your endpoint.
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  Map out the points in between in your field.
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  What are the steps that you need to take to get there?
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  And lastly, think about the resources that you'll need to get there.
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  What are the technical skills that you'll need, and what are the leadership
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  skills you'll need, and who will you need to know, who will help you figure
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  all this out and help you to get there?
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  So which of the seven steps feels like something that you haven't
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  been focusing on enough that you would like to start with?
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  Now, if you're watching on the YouTube version, please share that with us in the
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  comments, and you can download my private podcast on the Seven Step Passport to a
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  promotion on the sister smart.com website for more stories about how our clients
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  are getting results from each one of these steps like Lexi has and Nadine has.
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  The link is below in the show notes.
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  If you Want to dive deeper into women's leadership and how to
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  move up in your career, subscribe either on YouTube or wherever you
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  listen to your favorite podcasts.
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  I'm on a mission to help more women get into leadership and stay there.
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  And if that's aligned with you, I'd love to have you be part of this community
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  and tune into more episodes on Sister Smart Leadership that will support you in
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  becoming the leader that you want to be.
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  Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.