Barriers to Advancing Into Executive Roles

I got fired twice because I had poor soft skills. Then, I became VP at Amazon, where my job was more than 80% based on soft skills. This was possible because I stopped being an outspoken, judgmental critic of other people and improved my soft skills. Here are 4 areas you can improve: Soft skills are one of the main things I discuss with my coaching clients, as they are often the barrier between being a competent manager and being ready to be a true executive. Technical skills are important, but soft skills are the deciding factor between executive candidates a lot more than technical skills are. Four “soft skill” areas in which we can constantly improve are: 1) Storytelling skills Jeff Bezos said, “You can have the best technology, you can have the best business model, but if the storytelling isn’t amazing, it won’t matter.” The same is true for you as a leader. You can have the best skills or best ideas, but if you can’t communicate through powerful storytelling, no one will pay attention. 2) Writing Writing is the foundation of clear communication and clear thinking. It is the main tool for demonstrating your thinking and influencing others. The way you write will impact your influence, and therefore will impact your opportunities to grow as a leader. 3) Executive Presence Executive presence is your ability to present as someone who should be taken seriously. This includes your ability to speak, to act under pressure, and to relate to your team informally, but it goes far beyond any individual skill. Improving executive presence requires consistently evaluating where we have space to grow in our image as leaders and then addressing it. 4) Public Speaking As a leader, public speaking is inevitable. In order the get the support you need to become an executive, you must inspire confidence in your abilities and ideas through the way you speak to large, important groups of people. No one wants to give more responsibility to someone who looks uncomfortable with the amount they already have. I am writing about these 4 areas because today’s newsletter is centered around how exactly to improve these soft skills. The newsletter comes from member questions in our Level Up Newsletter community, and I answer each of them at length. I'm joined in the newsletter by my good friend, Richard Hua, a world class expert in emotional intelligence (EQ). Rich created a program at Amazon that has taught EQ to more than 500,000 people! The 4 specific questions I answer are: 1. “How do I improve my storytelling skills?” 2. “What resources or tools would you recommend to get better in writing?” 3. “What are the top 3 ways to improve my executive presence?” 4. “I am uncomfortable talking in front of large crowds and unknown people, but as I move up, I need to do this more. How do I get comfortable with this?” See the newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gg6JXqF4 How have you improved your soft skills?

The skills that make someone an exceptional individual contributor often become limitations in senior leadership. Consider Sarah (composite of many real examples): - Crushes every metric - Works longest hours - Knows every answer - Solves every problem personally - Team depends on her for everything Passed over for VP multiple times. Here's the pattern I've observed: High Performers Often: - Execute personally - Protect their expertise - Measure effort - Create dependency - Focus on tasks High Leaders Typically: - Execute through others - Share knowledge freely - Measure outcomes - Create capability - Focus on people The coaching insight we shared that changed everything for Sarah's trajectory: "What if you stopped being the best player and started being the coach?" Her shift over 6 months: - Delegated strategically - Developed team capabilities - Led cross-functional initiatives - Focused on multiplying impact The result: Finally promoted to VP. This is much easier said, than done. While the specific actions are easy. Internal beliefs, patterns, habits, routine and skills are much harder to change. A step-by-step approach with proactive coaching every step of the way, Made this change possible. The uncomfortable truth I share with clients: If you're the hardest worker on your team, you might not be ready for executive leadership. Leaders create capacity. They don't just consume it. What's your experience with this transition? #Leadership #ExecutiveDevelopment #ManagementInsights #CareerGrowth

So many leaders I talk to are asking, "If I'm so good at my job, why aren't I getting promoted?" It can feel like you're doing all of the right things, but what served you early in your career may actually be holding you back from the next level.   Let's unpack this. When you take your first steps into leadership, it's often assumed that a magic transformation happens overnight - that you'll stop jumping into fix things, feel comfortable coaching your former peers and make tough decisions with ease. But it doesn't work that way.   We spend most of our careers proving ourselves and earning accolades as the fixer, the achiever and the responsible one. So, when we advance into leadership, it can be hard to shed this identity and the rewards that come with it.    Hardworking, humble and heads-down, we juggle managing our team while remaining a sought-after expert and go-to performer. We believe our results should speak for themselves. Then, we look up and realize something frustrating: people with less experience and dedication are moving past us. We aren't accomplishing our strategic goals. Why? Because our willingness to do the work—and our hesitation to advocate for ourselves—has landed us an advancement trap.    After coaching across industries and job levels, I've noticed four advancement traps that come up again and again. What's sneaky is that these traps don't feel bad at first—they're rooted in things we pride ourselves on: 1. Being an expert 2. Being loyal and dependable 3. Avoiding risk 4. Supporting others In excess, these strengths become traps. And they tend to hit just when leaders are ready to move from working manager roles into more strategic or c-level positions. It's almost as if being too good in their role has hindered their leadership potential.   Here are four traps I see often—and what to do if you're caught in one. Do these traps resonate with you? Have you seen people in your organization caught in them as they are trying to level up? I want to hear about it!