How This High Performer Earned a $100K raise, Title Bump & Lifestyle Fit

Lauren has no trouble executing.

She’s one of those sharp, focused people who work tirelessly when given a goal. That’s how she’d risen through the ranks at her Fortune 100 company.

Yet when we met, she felt stalled, working very hard while also raising 4 children.

For months she had been working toward a goal — an internal promotion. But with a manager who wasn’t going anywhere and an org that rarely promoted, she couldn’t see how she’d reach her goal in a satisfying timeline.

Plus, she had a more than sneaking suspicion that this uplevel wasn’t going to be an upgrade.

Yet, she was still one of those sharp, focused people who works tirelessly when given a goal. So without one, she had no plan, and even without a plan, she couldn’t not work tirelessly but for what was still unclear, exhausting and frustrating.

VISION IS REVISION

One of the fist things my clients establish in the first week of our coaching program is their long-term career future — because I believe in moving toward the next role strategically, I have folks do an exercise that has them chart a 360 view of their career future 5, 10 or 15 years out.

When she did this, Lauren found herself defining a whole new sector of her field. Three weeks into our engagement, she laid out a visionary roadmap for her niche in marketing - something only the most sophisticated companies could implement but, in her eyes, would make an exponential difference to businesses.

She set about creating an internal presentation for her boss and researching other companies who might be open to this visionary message.

What she found wasn’t encouraging. The opportunity was new, very new. She’d have to spend a bunch of time convincing people to see the opportunity, let alone demand it. That was possible. However, her timeline was shorter than that.

Then an internal reorg happened.

She had the option to change teams.

And most importantly, her priorities shifted.

Yes, that’s allowed!

With every module of the program, I make sure our students are checking in with their vision. If at some point in the process the vision doesn’t make sense anymore, no biggie - you have a framework to revise it (and use at any point in your life). At my encouragement, that’s what Lauren did. While “What do I want?” had been answered and addressed.

The question: “What do I need?” aka “What do I actually want?” was still out there.

Here were her “Need Nows” - aka the things she couldn’t live without in the next role:

• Flexibility to work from home and spend time with her children (laptops closed at 6pm)
• To get a senior leadership role that gave her broader exposure to other parts of the marketing business and set her up for a VP role, in the event she chose to pursue one
• A $100K bump

Within 2 months of making that decision, she had strategically connected with two companies who fit the bill perfectly, confidently articulated her story and the value she could provide so convincingly that she got the promotion at her original company AND signed a deal at a higher level than the role that was originally proposed at the company she ended up joining.

As she puts it:

Lauren’s a visionary in her field. Her ideas about moving her industry forward were ahead of their time. And her kids will only be young once.

By reprioritizing and rightsizing her immediate vision and getting crystal clear on her she still got exactly what she needed in her next role while still preserving her leadership stance, she met her comp, title and lifestyle goals.

Can working womxn have it all? Debatable. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to try.

???Been following along for a while and ready to figure out out what you want from your leadership or if you are clear on that, how to get there. Fill out a 3 question application to learn more about and have a chance to join our flagship Career Strategy GPS online group coaching program. www.careerstrategygps.com

If accepted you will be invited to a private training about how to replace what you’re currently doing to find a new job with strategies on how to get clarity on your long term career vision and design a role and plan that gets you there. But you need to apply at the link above to be invited.

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