How Do I Step Up to an Executive Role?

Dear Liz,

I greatly admire you not only for your excellent columns but also because you cracked the pass-code on the executive elevator at an early age. What is the secret?

How do I, an accomplished and hard-working Senior Director with a stellar track record, break into the executive ranks and take on a VP-level role?

Headhunters tell me that I'm very employable as a Director or Senior Director. I ask them to be blunt: "Why couldn't you place me in a VP role?" They say "There are too many qualified VPs around."

How can that be? How does a person ever advance if there are too many good people available at the next level up?

I could really use your advice. I'm frustrated and stagnating in jobs that feel like the same old thing. How do I make the next step up in my career and take on a VP-level job, and then move into the C-suite running a corporate function?

Thanks,

Adam

Dear Adam,

I am sympathetic! The larger the organization you work for, the more structured the roles and organizational levels become.

It can be very hard to let people know what you're capable of when you are constrained by the limits of the job you're performing.

The headhunters who told you "There are too many qualified VPs around" are not being honest with you, or perhaps they didn't quite understand your question.

Thank you for sharing your resume and LinkedIn profile with me. Your resume and your LinkedIn profile scream "Accomplished middle manager."

You are telling us everything you've done at an exhaustive level of detail! What comes through in your branding is your thoroughness. That is not what gets people hired into VP-level jobs.

What does a CEO need when he or she goes looking for someone to lead a function? They want someone with a vision for that function that ties right into the organization's vision.

A Marketing VP, for instance, is not just someone who knows a lot about Marketing.

A Marketing VP is someone who sees where Marketing is headed and is moving in the same direction him- or herself. He or she has a vision and strong opinions. The higher you move up in the organization, the more definite and non-generic your point of view must be.

One Marketing VP will be perfectly suited for a certain organization and a horrible fit for six others. It's the same way for all VP and C-level positions.

Right now you are branded like a super-competent functionary, and functionaries and executives are very different people -- or the same people, but at different points in their careers.

The first question for you to ask is "Why?"

Why do you want to move up? If that sounds like a trivial question, perhaps you haven't thought about the question in depth. That would be a useful exercise for you!

The answer to the question "Why?" has enormous implications for your path and your strategy as you seek career advancement.

First, you will answer the question "Why do I want this -- what does it mean to me?" and from there you will create a vision for the position you want -- not just any random VP role in your function but the specific type of organization and the specific mission you want to support as you grow your own flame.

Then you'll begin to reach out to CEOs and Board members in your target organizations. You won't respond to job ads just because you see them somewhere. You won't let the job market drive your job search. You are at the wheel!

You'll get a consulting business card and start to give it out instead of whatever business card your current employer gave you. You'll cultivate a new persona. You'll get a new photo for your LinkedIn profile and day by day, you'll grow into your new headshot. Personal growth is a process. It doesn't happen all at once. 

Think about backing off in your efforts to prove yourself to people who don't know you, through your LinkedIn profile and other aspects of your branding.

Right now your resume begs a reader to consider hiring you. It screams "Look at all this stuff I've done! Doesn't this stuff prove that I can do good things for you, too?"

As you step into your executive presence, your resume will change dramatically and your self-image will change, too. You won't trouble yourself to wonder what every single hiring executive might think of you.

You will know yourself more than you do now. You'll brand yourself as a human being with strong opinions and a particular worldview that will resonate with some leaders and leave others cold. That's your goal!

VP roles and C-level assignments are not generic, and industry experience is not as important as you may have been led to believe.

What's important is that your flame is high. If it isn't, that is the place to begin your journey!

All the best,

Liz 

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