Lead In 30 Podcast

Want to Play on a Bigger Stage? Three Critical Moves to Scale Your Leadership

• Russ Hill

Share episode

You want to get promoted. You want to be invited to the higher-level meetings. You want to make more money. You want to scale your career faster. How do you make that happen? In this episode of the Lead In 30 podcast, Lone Rock Leadership Co-founder Russ Hill shares three critical moves to unlock the career advancement you're seeking for yourself.

• Own your narrative by building a consistent story of impact and articulating how your work connects to strategic priorities
• Define what makes you different from others with your title and identify gaps in your professional story that need development
• Think like an owner by considering yourself responsible for the entire business, not just your department
• Make your boss's job easier by anticipating problems, reducing surprises, and removing friction in the system
• Always come to meetings prepared with potential solutions, not just problems
• Focus relentlessly on high-leverage activities that genuinely move the needle for the business
• Be visible by offering ideas, challenging the status quo respectfully, and taking on additional projects
• Expand your contribution before seeking to expand your role, title or compensation
• Focus visibility efforts close to customers and revenue-generating activities
• Determine which of these three areas requires your immediate attention for career growth

Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link.


--
Get weekly leadership tips delivered to your email inbox:
Subscribe to our leadership email newsletter
https://www.leadin30.com/newsletter

Connect with me on LinkedIn or to send me a DM:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russleads/

Tap here to check out my first book, Decide to Lead, on Amazon. Thank you so much to the thousands of you who have already purchased it for yourself or your company!

--
About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



Speaker 1:

Do you want to get promoted, trusted with more, pulled into bigger conversations? It all starts with doing three things that will help you scale your career. This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill. You cannot be serious Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

Speaker 1:

The vast majority of my career, I have not owned the business. So right now it's awesome. I'm at the stage in life where I'm one of the co-founders, one of the owners of our firm. But for the vast majority of my career, my life, I've been an employee. I've been a part of some company and I've wanted to grow. Boy, I've been a part of some company and I've wanted to grow. I've had this desire to move up the org chart, to have expanded opportunity, to make more money, to learn, to stretch myself, to be viewed as a critical part of the team. But you can't get there like on day two, right? Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Russ. Thanks for hiring me for the company. Now please promote me. You know what I mean. Hello, I'm here on the lowest level of the org chart. I want to be on the senior executive team. Are you good with that? Okay, good, no, it takes time. It takes effort, the pro athlete you watch in the various sports leagues how many hours, how much effort, how much attention, how many sacrifices have they put in to get to that stage. And so, as you're on that journey whether you're listening, and you're 20 years old or 23, and you're just coming out of college and into that first job, that first career, or you're 43 and you've got you. You you've been doing this for a while and you've been part of this company, or you've been in this industry, or you've and you've got you. You you've been doing this for a while and you've been part of this company, or you've been in this industry, or you've. You've built kind of this track record and you're wondering why am I not getting promoted? Why am I being overlooked? Why is my influence not being expanded? Why did I not get invited to be part of that project? Or why am I not being asked to be part of that meeting, or whatever it might be?

Speaker 1:

If you've got this desire, this drive to expand, grow your career and to make more money, have a better lifestyle, all of those sorts of things, then this episode's for you. I'm going to share with you three things that are absolutely critical. I found it to be true. These three things in my own experience of moving up the org chart. But more than my own experience, more valuable than that is seeing this in leader after leader after leader who's getting promoted in organizations across all industries.

Speaker 1:

Welcome in to the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you an idea, a framework, a story, a best practice, something for you to consider implementing in the way that you lead others. Nothing impacts your life more than strengthening, improving, upgrading your ability to lead others. That is one of the things that we focus on and what we do as an organization. You can find out more about our company, our firm, lone Rock Leadership, lone Rock Leadership at LoneRockio. Lonerockio. We're adding new pages, new sections, new videos, new content to that website all the time. It's nowhere near where we want it to be, because we don't do the vast majority of our sales or our growth through a website, but it is a good resource for people.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and, by the way, I'm Russ Silla. I make my living coaching, consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies. Flew back in to Phoenix, the Phoenix area, which is my home, arizona. It's about this time of year, about two to three weeks from now, I'm going to be wondering why I live here, because it'll be 115 degrees again. But for the last few months I've been very clear on why because the back door, the windows, have been open. It's been beautiful while you all have been suffering through spring showers and spring snow storms. But anyway, it's not the point of this episode. I'm so glad to have you here.

Speaker 1:

Okay, three things that really help you get noticed, help you scale your career, and we'll get into some caveats related to it at the end. But if I had to boil it down, it's three things. Here's the first one, let's just get right into it. Okay, number one leaders who scale. Leaders who expand their impact, leaders who are going someplace in their career. They own the narrative. They own the narrative. What do I mean by that? They build a consistent or they build a story of consistent impact, consistent performance, and they're able to articulate, frame up their work over an extended period of time in term. In the terms of that impact, they're impacting strategic priorities, not just tactical wins. You got it. So they're connecting the dot. They're connecting the dots between their team's outputs and the broader company outcomes. This narrative, they're able to articulate it. They've put it onto a sheet of paper, into an Apple note, into a Google doc, whatever.

Speaker 1:

What impact am I having here? Why am I interested in these different opportunities? Where have I contributed? What do I bring that's unique? We have 25 sales directors. We have 450 nursing managers, we have 1200 whatevers. How are you different? What's unique about you? If I ask you that question and you can't answer it immediately, you don't have a narrative, you have no idea what it is, what's unique about you, and you need to be able to find it, to define it with clarity. So, if you're starting out at our organization, what's unique to you? Why should we put you into this role?

Speaker 1:

A resume is this? You know, so interesting, how outdated it is. It gives me as a hiring manager, as an executive, as somebody looking at you, it gives me the nuggets of kind of different positions that you've held. If that is kind of the end state of how you summarize yourself, that is so misguided because there could have been again a thousand people with that title at that company or in that industry. Your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your whatever you you've got to be able. It doesn't give me what you learned, why you did that? What you gained from it? What wisdom did you walk away from? Why was that important? So you define the narrative of your career. I'll give you a for instance.

Speaker 1:

So in my career, when I was in the media business for the first 15 years of my professional career, I was very interested in just being very well-rounded. So my one of my first management assignments was at a very successful media brand. It was number two in its market ratings and revenue wise at the time that I became a part of the management or leadership team and we worked really hard to get it to number one, from number two to number one. That's really hard to overcome. That final hurdle, right, and, but it was a it a legend of a brand, very storied history. I took what was already built and then and then just helped keep improving it, stretching it. Well, okay, that's great, I can help take a brand from and, but I wasn't at the front of the forefront of it. I was one of the, the, the, the leaders in it let's call it like director level, and most organizations kind of at that level. So I wasn't steering the whole effort.

Speaker 1:

What I, what I was lacking the narrative, the narrative I was building was lacking being near the top, either either a senior executive, or being up near the top of a brand that was hemorrhaging a turnaround project. I'd never led one, so my narrative needed to include that chapter, that paragraph. That's why we moved our family to Arizona, because I was moved to help transform an underperforming, hemorrhaging brand to the top of the performance measures in revenue ratings, all those key metrics, and so that took five years. I had to build that narrative, that story, that chapter took five years for me and my team, for me to assemble the team to diagnose the problem, to execute on it, for the market to respond to it, build the strategy, execute on that, update it. That narrative I was building.

Speaker 1:

And so, over time, this is so frustrating, especially when you're really driven because you want it to happen tomorrow and yet you don't have enough work experience, life experience for us to your, your vision's not not broad enough, and so we appreciate your work ethic, we appreciate your drive, we appreciate your commitment, we appreciate your successes. You just need to compound them, you need to build multiple. So what's the narrative for you right now? What does it need to be? You're owning that. Own the narrative. That's what successful leaders do. They've got it on the tip of their tongue, they've written it down, they've journaled on it, got it. If I was in an elevator with you this weekend or next week when traveling I see you, or we're walking out to the rental car shuttle or whatever it might be, and I ask you about it, could you articulate yeah, this is it In a few sentences.

Speaker 1:

Number two leaders who scale, who we want to promote in this company, whatever company that is, they think like owners. Number one own the narrative. Number two think like owners. High scaling, fast scaling leaders Don't just execute, they think they're on the hook for the entire business. They're not narrow in their thinking. They don't just consider the success of their vertical, of their department, of their function. They think broader than that. Yes, they have to achieve, they have to deliver in their vertical, in their part of the company, in the areas that they're responsible for. But they think broader. A couple of other things that I mean by think like owners. They make their boss's job easier.

Speaker 1:

I remember in my very first management role thinking you know what my job really is? It's to make my boss look good. Now you might roll your eyes at that or think really, I don't know about that. Right, that was what I focused on. It worked darn well for me. I knew that he was going to own most of the successes that I and my team delivered. I knew how. I knew how it was going to play out. I knew the politics of it. I knew how, the human behavior. I knew that I couldn't articulate that super well, but I knew that, okay, he's going to this is going to make him look really good, but behind the scenes I know it's really me and my team we're the ones delivering on it. But he's going to get the credit, he's going to walk the stage, he's going to go on the trip, he's going to do all that. I was okay with it because of where I sat on the org chart. I wasn't bitter about it, it was okay. I made sure he knew. And then, oh, actually, like a year or two into it, I thought, oh my gosh, russ, it's not just whether he knows it, you need to make sure your boss's boss knows that how you're contributing, because he's probably not telling that part of the story. And so I had to do it in an appropriate way where my boss didn't feel like I was working around him or going around him.

Speaker 1:

But one of the parts of thinking like an owner is making your boss's job easier. Anticipate problems. Remove the friction in the system. The second element of thinking like owners is you reduce surprises. The biggest challenge for a business owner, for senior executives, are the surprises. They're constant. There's nothing you can do to completely remove them, but you can remove as as many as possible. There's no executive in your organization who wants to be blindsided. Do not come into that meeting and make a comment where I go holy crap, where did that come from? Or I had no idea we were losing that amount of money. I had no idea that project was off the rails. It was red and not green anymore. You got it. So reduce surprises. You're looking at the horizon, you're watching the radar and you're updating people so that they aren't surprised. You make your boss look really bad. You, you create all kinds of problems. You put the company into a reactionary mode when you aren't ahead of it. You think, oh no, maybe I can turn this around, maybe we can fix it.

Speaker 1:

Let the, let your team know, let people know you show up with owners. Show up prepared. They're prepared for one-on-ones, they're prepared for meetings with agendas, they take positions, they're very concerned about efficiency. They have insight, clarity, suggestions, right, and so they don't just come. They never come to the one-on-one with just the problem. They never come to the meeting with just the problem. They've thought through some potential solutions so they're ready to go with that part of it. They focus on thinking like owners, the leaders who scale in this area. They focus on high leverage work, task activities, things that move the needle, that don't just make noise. High leverage work that's what an owner cares about. They don't care about keeping everybody busy or whether everybody shows up. Are we actually moving the needle today? That's what think like owners, all those things.

Speaker 1:

What I mean by the third area you want to scale, you want to get promoted, you want to be visible, you want to be invited into the conversation. You own the narrative. You think like an owner. And third, you're visible. Be visible. What do I mean by that? Visible is all about making sure that you're offering ideas, that you are contributing to innovative solutions. You're challenging the status quo quo. You're doing all of that in a respectful way.

Speaker 1:

I'll give you an. I'll give you a. For instance, yesterday. Yesterday I was in a meeting with a new client of ours. They're going to put uh several hundred of their uh managers in north america through lead in 30 uh, starting in two weeks from now. They're a brand new organization to us. They had somebody that went to our website that signed up for certification, meaning they wanted to become certified. They're in the HR space, they happen to work in L and D, learning and development and and they wanted to get certified or at least find out about lead in 30. They'd heard about it, so they got certified in the content to be able to deliver it internally and see whether or not you know it would fit.

Speaker 1:

They went in clarity, alignment. They were like holy crap, these are two areas that are so critical. We don't have clarity in our organization. It's affecting our business outcomes this is an organization of more than 10,000 employees and an alignment We've got challenges with alignment. So they they thought, okay, we need, we need to put, put people, put people through this. So, long story short, we built relate. They reached out to us. They went through a certification process. We do that every three weeks online. We offer it free. All those details are on our website if you're interested in it. And so these HR folks came. They're like we want to introduce you to some folks.

Speaker 1:

Long story short, we're in the corporate offices on their campus yesterday first time, and we, we, uh, they, they gave us a full day with the senior uh executive team for north america. So we're in there and I'm facilitating the meeting. The, the, the senior executive, and, and and his direct reports are all in there, as well as a couple of the L&D folks, and we take our first break. So we're an hour and a half into this in-person meeting. The conversation's amazing. It's so impactful. Everybody's relieved because they didn't really know us, our firm, that well, and so you know they had a little bit of concern about that and we put all that to bed in the first hour, hopefully in the first five minutes. Anyway, we take the first break and the senior executive and I huddle for a minute. So I'm asking him, cause I have, like hardly any relationship with him. I asked him hey, how do you? How do you feel the meeting's going? What do you? What adjustments should you want me to make to the way I'm facilitating this, the discussion? And he said I haven't heard from and he mentioned a couple of names. I haven't heard from these two members of the team enough. So can you call on them or call them out, russ, like I really want everyone in the room contributing? Those two executives were not visible. No, they were not visible.

Speaker 1:

I've done a lot of podcast episodes about visibility, accessibility and transparency how critical those are important. Especially they're important in an onsite, in-person company. But a hybrid holy cow. In fact, I was talking to my son who just started his career, coming out of college in the last two weeks and I was talking to him about he's got a couple of days a week where he is remote. That's just the way that their company works. So three days on site they dictate what days those are. So he commutes into the, into the, to the this company it's a healthcare company and then the other two days he's he's a remote. So I'm talking to him, we're on a phone call and I'm catching up with him on it as I'm headed to the airport the other day and I said to him. I said, tyler, I would have you think about how you're visible on the days that you're not in the office. What's your strategy for being visible on those days? So we talked about what that looks like and the dynamics of his team, his bosses and different things, and visibility is so critically important.

Speaker 1:

When I was early in my management career, I went to leadership meetings and I never spoke up. Now I'm not advocating that you take over the meeting. Don't be that guy or gal Like. We don't need to hear from you on everything. Your radar needs to be in place and it needs to be efficient and effective, but you need to weigh in on the topic. Be visible.

Speaker 1:

And I'm not just talking about meetings too. I'm talking about how are you offering ideas? How are you challenging the status quo? Where are you helping us innovate? Where are you raising your hand? What projects are you taking on? How are you expanding your real estate in this company? And, and and you know it's so messed up with so many people is they think that compensation should expand before contribution, and they've got it all backwards. So, in other words, give me that title, give me that role, give me that additional responsibility and and and increase my compensation and then watch the impact I'm gonna to have Backwards, backwards. That's why you're stuck. You're doing it backwards.

Speaker 1:

What I'm suggesting to you is that you go contribute in ways that are outsized for your role. This goes back to, kind of, the first point about the narrative. It goes back to how are you different than every other director, vp, supervisor, executive, whatever it is that we've got in our company? What's unique to you? What do you bring to the table that we would not get with somebody else? So you're offering ideas, you're challenging the status quo, you're taking on additional projects, you're reducing the noise in the organization, you're focusing us on what matters most, you're building this. That's what's happening.

Speaker 1:

And then, after you've done that for a while now, we can talk about expanding your role. Go, expand your influence, your contribution, go I'm going to say it again, slow, listen to me here. I promise you this is incredibly important. If you really want to get promoted, if you want to grow, if you want to be invited into the other conversations, expand your contribution before you seek to have a conversation about expanding your role, your title, your position, your compensation, you with me? That, that, that I don't know how I figured that out. Maybe everyone knows that and it's just common sense. I sure don't know how I figured that out. Maybe everyone knows that and it's just common sense. I sure don't see it out there. But for some dumb reason, I don't know who to give credit to, because it has to be somebody, a book, a mentor, a parent, I don't know who it is.

Speaker 1:

But I understood that principle early in my career that every you know, I saw these people go in and seek promotions. They were rejected, they weren't noticed. I saw people want more money, complain, be bitter, um, and and just talk negatively about how my salary is the same as what? This stupid cost of living? Two percent really? They think that's it. Well, yeah, but hello, two percent. You don't even just like, like, why do you even get paid more? Like? That's such an insensitive entitlement you're you should not make more. Think if you own the business, would you pay somebody more just for showing up or doing the role? No, you're expanding the role, the title, the salary, the income of people who are outsizing their role, who are expanding their contribution.

Speaker 1:

Be visible in our organization. You're going to get invited to the conversation. Part of being visible, too, is I would tell you that where would I focus in that area? As close to the customer as possible. As close to the customer and impacting the customer as possible. Enabling the sales team, help them sell, help them close deals, help them renew the contract. I'm going to be visible in that space. Those of you in support roles or other areas of the organization that complain about the sales team or view this, that or the other yeah, they've got these problems. And yes, whatever, I get it, but that we wouldn't have revenue without them. And yeah, I know you might develop the products. And yes, I know they wouldn't have as many leads if you weren't doing the marketing. Yes, I know that you're keeping them out of trouble and compliance and all these others, I I get it, but at the end of the day, if your department is successful and sales isn't, we're not going to exist. So, be visible and enable, help the sales team. Those that are nearest to the customers, those that are coming up with solutions, innovating for the customer Three things in this episode I want you thinking about.

Speaker 1:

Which one of these, by the way, do you need to focus on most right now? Maybe it's all three. Like hello, I just need to get number one. Own the narrative. Have you defined it? Do you know what it is? Own the narrative of your career. What's the story you are building? What's lacking from that movie right now that would get you invited to into the conversation. Make this about what you own, what you can do, not the executive. Who? Who will determine whether or not you're promoted? It's not about them right now. It's about uh, it's about you, it's about me. What do we own? So own the narrative. Number two think like the owner. You own this business.

Speaker 1:

Be that concerned about waste, be that concerned about expanding the top line, be that concerned about high leverage activities, reducing surprises, being prepared, high leverage work. Three be visible. If you're not visible, if you're not seen, if you're not being seen by how you're contributing, then forget about being promoted. It's a pipe dream that. Those are three areas I would suggest to you, based on my own experience and what I see in executives. Connect your work to a bigger story. Bring leverage, clarity and foresight. Step into the spaces where leadership is seen and felt. Those are critical in scaling your career. Put those into practice. You can thank me later. That's what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast. Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.