The difference between junior and senior employees

A practical guide to faking it until you make it

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People judge you on these 2 things

Leadership is not management, management is not leadership

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If you emulate the behavior of leaders, you will become a leader faster. I’ve put together the ultimate fake-it-‘til-you-make-it guide because part of the chasm that separates junior from senior employees can be simplified into a handful of principles.

I am passionate about this article as most of my readers are women and/or minorities — and statistically, less people will take chances on women and minorities. Let me repeat myself: Less people will take chances on you. Less people will take chances on us.

The antidote: Get strategic and put your best foot forward — faster — to make up for the gap.

Here we go…

Junior employees bring problems to their boss

• Junior employees will share an issue and wait for their boss to share a resolution plan with a goal and deadline. They do not realize that pointing out the problem does not offer value, though it does offer credibility.

Senior employees bring problems and solutions

• Senior employees determine an issue’s priority with leadership and then provide suggestions -- i.e., value. Rather than waiting, they might say "Hey boss, I have observed [issue] and I recommend we do ___. It will help us solve [strategic need]. Assuming you are aligned, here are the next 3 steps I recommend and the owners/timeline.”
• An invite may communicate: “I want this meeting to [aim] so that [proposed action]
• They present issues in one of the following formats (borrowed from Gino Whitman’s EOS model) —> I have info/I need info/IDK wtf/help me decide

Junior employees fill in gaps to reach an often unknown outcome

• Junior employees are often seen as executors of a greater plan. They may be told what to do, but do not have the experience to probe into why the work is important. Consider the following example: A junior employee may be told to figure out software spend. They may never learn that the task is to improve company margins - a key initiative for the CEO.

Senior employees are given the desired outcome, and trusted with the plan.

• Senior employees will know the goal and turn it into an execution plan. Or they may suggest a desired outcome based on the company’s needs. They jump at an opportunity to give themselves exposure/power/responsibility
• In the same example, the senior employee is told to improve margins and they may determine software spend as an effective way to improve the metric. They may then ask the junior employee to catalog all software spend
• Senior employees avoid getting in the weeds with leadership, but they track execution so they can summarize progress effectively and concisely

Junior employees see themselves as communication burdens to execs and leaders

• Junior employees cancel 1:1s with their boss if they feel they do not have something extraordinary to say. They may not share cultural insights because they don’t know the value of their insights

Senior employees realize that communication is power and they take up space

• Things I have been told by senior employees (and appreciated) “Let me take on the all-hands presentation, I will send you a review”“Here are board slides that I teed up for you to work off of”“Good work, team -- we did it!” (to a team of my directs)
• They use the following tactics in their communication strategiesA clear objective A structured thought process (a good default is what/why/how)Well-managed time (“We have 2 minutes to wrap, let me summarize)They summarize often (see 2 points above — identifying the context and what has been decided)They assign or take ownership over clear next steps
• They understand the difference between executive comms/peer comms/org-wide comms. TL;DR: execs care about the company goal, so they know to start with the outcome.

Junior employees get stuck in the weeds and communicate tactics rather than business outcomes.

• One of my favorite best practices is a 5x5, which is to ask my team to share (over Slack) their top 3-5 objectives for the week. Junior employees tend to write something like this:5x5:Marketing weekly meetingSubmit designs on timeJoin growth webinar

Senior employees know to start at the outcome (I accomplished/will accomplish outcome x) and decide if discussing tactics makes

• A senior employee uses action verbs to describe the outcomes they will accomplish. 5x5:Determine and execute 2 COG reduction strategiesFinalize COG reduction goals for Q2

Junior employees don’t see power in their networks

• Junior employees feel they are crossing a boundary by recommending talent or resources

Senior employees know their networks are currency because finding talent is hard and expensive

• The best execs show their management abilities by mobilizing former teams. Things I have heard include: “I have a great recommendation for the product role, I will connect you by EOD”

Junior employees seek positive feedback to reinforce that they are doing the right thing

• Junior employees want to ensure that they are meeting expectations and see being wrong as a weakness.

Senior employees seek critical feedback to become better

• Senior employees want to ensure they are taking the best approach and see being wrong for a long time as a weakness — as they are incentivized to get to the answer quickly.
• Tactics they might employ are asking for feedback directly after a presentation or calling mentors to see how others may approach a situation

Hope this was helpful. What else would you add?