If you’re aspiring to join the C-suite and beyond, the tips below may help:

Speak effectively about your work

All candidates considered for senior-level roles are qualified. The biggest differentiator is your ability to effectively communicate the work you’re doing. You want to educate others about your accomplishments in a memorable and likable way.  Learn to be a spokesperson for the amazing work you’ve done and share the lessons learned that can help others in the organization. Avoid the trap of focusing only on the pursuit and execution of your goals without communicating the results you’re achieving.

Executive recruiters can’t extract the complexity of what you’ve done from your resume without your narration. Recruiters for senior-level positions expect a healthy list of impactful accomplishments. On-time and on-budget are no longer enough. What grabs their attention is the candidate who can go beyond WHAT they accomplished and articulate HOW they accomplished it.

• Can you clearly demonstrate your ability to bring people along with you?
• Did your relationships deepen after the assignment or did people want to lean away from you?
• How did you drive transformation and what was the specific business impact?

Get personal

One of the board directors at the session mentioned that she was passed up for a C-suite level role because her board didn’t “know her”. She recognized that she only talked about business with the board and skipped the relational stuff, worrying that the board directors were too senior for small talk. Since then, she’s made the time to connect more personally with these important decision-makers and not only did she make it to the top job at her firm, she’s now an independent director on several public and private boards.

Stay connected and be helpful

If you are shooting for a C-suite role, what are you doing to get relevant face time with individuals who are exposed to high-level opportunities? To get in front of key decision-makers, find time to reconnect with senior-level contacts in your industry, grab lunch with executive recruiters, or join a non-profit board. Once you do connect, deepen your impression by finding ways to authentically help the people around you. Sponsors and mentors are also critical. If you don’t have any, that’s a warning sign. According to one executive, if you want others to advocate for you, first, they must like you. Then they must believe you generate good ideas. And lastly, they must believe you can execute.

Take the high-visibility assignments

To get noticed in your organization, work on projects and initiatives that matter. This will probably mean taking a risk that’s outside your comfort zone. Figure out what is keeping your executives up at night and volunteer to help solve their problem. Remember that for senior-level projects, you can’t win by yourself since the scope of your projects will likely be enterprise-wide. You’ll need to work with others to succeed and build a track record of delivering results. What are you doing now to build up your influence structure to succeed across your organization?

Understand and assimilate key trends

In the past, recruiters were looking for leaders who were decisive and could make tough calls. Now, they are also looking for softer skills – the ability to relate to the workforce and think about diversity, to name a few. As an aspiring leader, you should focus on the business impact of prevailing trends. How will artificial intelligence change the profit and loss equation? How do you think through your investments around cybersecurity? How do you leverage international assignments to add value to your company? How does diversity impact your organization?

Focus on Employability as opposed to Employment

When you’re assessing professional opportunities, think about the skills you need to enhance your employability. Don’t get hung up on a particular function, job track, or title. Leverage your current role to improve how you add value and leave the role better than when you found it. Find ways to build core business skills, connect with key stakeholders, and raise your public profile. You want your boss to know that you’re agile and an asset to any employer. Summed up memorably by one of our senior speakers,

“I love you and the organization. But please don’t confuse that with needing you and the organization.” 

Play politics well

In most companies, politics exist because you have limited resources and competing motivations. At the most senior levels, this dynamic is supercharged because ambitions are bigger, and all the players are good at getting what they want. If you’re not willing to play politics, you’ll be a victim of politics. Learn to read the people around you. Are they looking out for themselves or looking out for the organization? What makes them tick?

One board director recalled the importance of asserting yourself without making others look bad. She recounted a time when someone was claiming credit for her work and instead of calling it out, she found it very effective to play dumb. Instead of, “Why are you taking credit for my work?“, she said, “I heard this was represented in this way. Is there anything I can clarify to help you move forward with your goals?” The other person got the message.

Rising to the pinnacle of your organization is not easy but if you can speak effectively about your work, build authentic relationships, and help others achieve their goals, you’ll have a good shot.

Photo by Benjamin Child

The post Seven Tips to Help You Rise to the C-Suite and the Board appeared first on Robert Chen.

Ask yourself: Would I trust and want to work with someone like me?

If not, choose a better character for yourself.

The post Character = Choices, Thoughts and Actions appeared first on Robert Chen.

Ryan Holiday, in his new book, Ego is the Enemy, makes a great point about not confusing talk and recognition as real accomplishment. Look at what you’ve done and what you’re currently doing and ask yourself – is it of substance?

Are you impressive or do you just sound impressive?

Be honest.

The post When you’re trying hard to impress others … appeared first on Robert Chen.

You thrive on feedback. That’s how you got to where you are today. You actively seek out advice and insights from your mentors, great books and life experiences.

Since you’re open-minded and motivated to succeed in the shortest time possible, you experiment with all the different winning strategies that you come across. Some working well and others not so much and you keep searching for the holy grail to sustainable excellence.

There is a risk to your openness. By taking on so many suggestions, it’s easy to lose touch with who you really are.

This happens to me from time to time. I speak with a senior executive who inspires me to be one way. I read a book that motivates me to try another way. I run into an old friend who has completely revamped her life and swears by a third way.

And I try all of these ways and they all have their merits. But when I stop to reflect on who I’ve become, sometimes it’s not so clear who I am. In these times, I pull out a quote from Aristotle to help me sort through this uncertainty:

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

To remember the type of person I am, I just need to look at my actions. Our actions directly represent our decisions, which are driven by our beliefs and values.

If you do kind things consistently, you are a kind person. If you exceed your manager’s expectations all the time, you’re a high performer. It doesn’t matter what you say you are, what matters is what you do. I can talk about how much I want to focus on family and be a great father but if I constantly come home late from work and spend very little time with my son, I’m not a great father.

The bright and empowering side of this realization is that I don’t need to sort out how I see myself. I just have to consistently act in a way that reflects who I want to be. If I want to be authentic, I can share my true views and vulnerabilities. If I want to be a writer, I’ll write 1000 words a day. If I want to be bold, I might cold call a CEO to get an interview.

For those of you who plan to make a drastic change around people who know you, understand that it’s hard for people to see past the “old” you. If you’re in this situation. you might want to read this article on upgrading your identity.

If you’re not sure what actions to take, observe those who you want to be more like and mimic their behaviors. You decide who you are by controlling what you do.

Just focus on changing your actions.

Ask yourself:

1. What type of person do I want to be?
2. What actions would this person take?
3. When can I apply these actions?

You can also use the inverse method:

1. Who do I want to make sure I never become?
2. What actions would this person take?
3. When might I be susceptible to these actions?

Photo by Md saad andalib

The post When you are not sure who you are anymore … appeared first on Robert Chen.

“So, what can I do to get promoted?” 

Many of the managers I coach have told me this scenario is becoming more and more common. In an era of ever-shortening job tenures, employees seem to be taking the initiative on advancing their own careers more than they used to. They’re less likely to wait for someone to give them what they believe they deserve.

That may not always pay off. Instead of admiring your initiative, your manager may find your request annoying, entitled, and lacking in the self-awareness it usually requires to earn a promotion. In fact, after reading my article on asking for what you want, one senior executive wrote to me to vent his frustration on precisely this point. Here’s how he put it:

“there’s a certain level of accountability that’s missing in our society today. Before you ask, I think you need to demonstrate a level of proficiency/impact … I have had people ask me for more when they haven’t finished their “current job”. One needs to be self-aware and assess where he is before asking for more. I am put off when folks ask for more too early. This is also the number one gripe managers have with millennials.” 

He goes on to suggest that employees ask themselves (before asking their managers),

“What do I need to do before you say yes?”

To get the guidance you need without coming across entitled, consider doing the following before you approach your manager:

1. Master your current role

Doing your job competently does not mean you’ve mastered it.

In Joe Azelby’s book, Kiss Your BUT Goodbye, he highlights how what he terms “PSA”, or “Premature Self Adulation,” limits one’s career. The key point is that you want to have a clear picture of your abilities—specifically, one that squares with your boss’s view of them.

You may believe you’re doing a great job, but is that recognized by others and reflected in the less-subjective measures of your performance? If you’re in sales, for instance, are you the top seller on your team? If you’re in a service role, are your client-satisfaction scores the highest possible?

Before you ask for a promotion or more responsibility, crush your current job by doing every aspect of it consistently better than others. “Satisfactory” probably isn’t good enough.

2. Know your WHAT as well as your WHY

To make for the most productive conversation with your boss, know not just WHAT you want but WHY you want it. Sometimes your boss may not be able to give you WHAT you ask for at the time that you ask for it, for reasons beyond her control – office politics, market conditions, what have you. But she may still be able to meet your requests in other ways if you can articulate your WHY.

When you ask for a promotion, what is the real ask? Is it more engaging work, better access to key clients, developing your skills, earning more money, etc.? None of these is necessarily more valid than the others, but you need to be clear and honest about your rationale. Once your boss knows why you’re interested in a promotion at this stage, they’ll find ways to accommodate you as best they can if they truly value you.

3. Make it easy to say “yes”

Be ready to have something to show for yourself that proves your worth. Have specific evidence of your performance. Especially if you’re worried your boss will feel you’re not ready, you want to show that:

• You’re already doing what will be asked of you in the new role
• Your new role will help your boss or firm achieve their strategic goals
• Others, including those senior to you and your boss, will vouch for you

When you show how your promotion helps your boss and remove many of the risks, the decision becomes much easier to make.

The next time you want to ask for a promotion, remember to first:

1. Crush it in your current role
2. Understand clearly WHAT you want and WHY you want it
3. Collect evidence that makes it hard to say “no”

One bonus tip is to pick the right time to ask. Know what’s happening around you – if you’re not in the right industry or your firm is experiencing tough times, there might not be any room for you to move up. If you’re in this situation, figure out what you want and why you want it. This will help you decide whether it’s worthwhile to stay or to go.

Adapted from Robert’s article at Fast Company.

Photo by Jason Hargrove

The post 3 Things You Must Do Before Asking for a Promotion appeared first on Robert Chen.

When you are great at something, you’ll find yourself with more opportunities than you have time. Now the previously successful, say-yes-to-everything approach begins to hurt you. Not only will you be overwhelmed, but the more serious consequence is that you’ll end up confusing others about your brand.

To continue your success, you need to build and more importantly, maintain a strong brand.

Brands are the shortcuts people use to make decisions. When you buy Coca-Cola or a BMW, you know exactly what you’re getting. When people “buy” you, how sure are they about the quality they’ll get from you? The more uncertain they are, the more likely they’ll invest their time, money and energy with someone else.

To build your brand, take control of how others experience you:

• How you look and make others feel
• What you say and do (and how you say and do it)
• Where you are and are not

Before we look at how you can manage other people’s perceptions in these three areas, you must first be clear on your brand. If you’re not sure, a quick and easy way to get started is to ask yourself:

What adjectives do I want

[my target audience or ideal client] 

to think about when they think about me and my work? 

Take a few minutes and write down 3-4 adjectives you want your target audience to use to describe you. If you don’t have a target audience yet, think about the individuals you enjoy working and interacting with most often. For me, I want high-performing leaders to describe me as practical, focused on excellence, caring and thoughtful.

To build a strong recognizable brand, consistency is key. It’s not enough that you see yourself as the adjectives you’ve chosen, you need others to see you that way as well.

So how do you ensure others will use the same adjectives you chose to describe you?

Below are practical tips based on my work with leaders at Fortune 500 companies and top academic universities:

How you look and make others feel

Think back to an event where you took notice of someone you didn’t know.

The first thing you probably did was to size them up based on what you saw – their dress, their body language and the response they received from others. Processing this visual information, you guessed at their seniority, level of success, job function, etc. This judgement helped you decide whether you approached them to engage and learn more about them.

If you decided not to engage, then your impression is solely based on what you’ve seen. If you do approach them, you further fine-tuned or corrected your assumptions based on what you heard and saw during your interaction.

This automatic tendency to judge based on what we see is natural and a survival instinct. You judge others and people judge you constantly. You want to keep in mind that as you become more successful, the amount of time people have to get to know you at a deeper level drops dramatically. They will judge you based on what they see and the little they know. Unfortunately, in most cases, you won’t be able to correct any faulty assumptions.

Think of your senior executives or the President of your country (if you’re already a senior executive). How much do you really know about them? Probably not too much yet you may already have a strong judgment about the type of person they are.

This is why you need to manage how people see you and look the part you want to play. When people see you, will they automatically assume the adjectives you’ve chosen? How do you match up to what they are expecting? If you show up to Facebook with a dark suit and tie and talk about the work you do with Silicon Valley tech companies, don’t be surprised if people suspect your credibility.

Disney does a great job tightly controlling your experience with them. Everyone I’ve spoken to about Disney, uses very similar adjectives: over-the-top service, awesome experience, and not cheap. For those who haven’t experienced Disney firsthand, there is a high probability that you’ll have a great time when you do go.

When others interact with you, what do you want them to walk away remembering and feeling? How do you want to emotionally connect with them? What would you like them to say to their network about you? Is it consistent with the adjectives you’ve chosen?

To practically influence how others experience you, be thoughtful about:

What you say and do (and how you say and do it)

Your physical appearance, words, and actions make up the experience others will have of you.

We’ve covered what people see, now let’s focus on your words and actions. Do they align with how you want others to see you? Are you using words that resonate with your target audience and does your vocabulary match what they are expecting from you?

How do you say what you say? What does your tone, speaking rhythm, accent, and energy say to others? Powerful people tend to speak more deliberately. British accents tend to sound more sophisticated. Passionate people tend to speak with more energy. These are all ways people can interpret how you talk.

Now for your actions. What activities are you engaged in and do they help others see you the way you want to be seen?

For example, if you take copious notes during a meeting, people will likely see you as being a junior employee (unless you’re Richard Branson).

Other questions to consider:

• When speaking at conferences, what topics are you speaking on?
• What books are you reading?
• Do you take on projects that are consistent with your brand?

Which leads me to the last area of focus.

Where you are and are not

When you’re successful, people want to enlist you to help them. This means countless partnership or speaking requests, special project proposals, and event or board invitations. As a high performer, you’ll be tempted to help especially with requests from those close to you in your network.

Before you say “yes” to any opportunity, ask yourself:

How consistent is this activity with the reputation I want?

When managing your brand, knowing where you shouldn’t be is just as important as knowing where you should be. If you’re building a reputation as an expert on disruptive technologies in manufacturing, it’ll be confusing if others see you frequently speak on investing and personal finance, even if you can give quality advice on those topics.

Again, to build a brand that people recognize, you must be consistent. People have to have a similar experience every time for an extended period before they begin to automatically associate you with your brand.

This means better allocating your limited time by saying “no” to opportunities that won’t allow you to exude the adjectives you’ve chosen. When you attend an event that is either neutral or negative in building your brand, you’re essentially saying “no” to an event or activity that can positively enhance your reputation.

The same idea extends to the people you associate with and your environment. You will be judged by the company you keep and where you spend your time. If you spend a lot of time with innovative people, others will assume you’re innovative. Some people assume Googlers, Google employees, are smart and quirky despite never working at Google or meeting a Googler. Others assume those in labor-intensive roles are less-educated.

Look closely at where you’re spending your time and who you’re spending it with. Would your surroundings make a strong case for your desired image or is it something you need to hide?

Take time to architect your brand.

One tip is to study characters on TV or film. Great actors believably take on different character roles. The way they do it is by understanding what people expect from a certain character and matching their look, feel, actions and environment to the mainstream expectation. Professors wear tweed, sport beards and drive Toyotas. High-powered businessmen wear custom suits, gel back their hair and have chauffeurs. Bankers wear ties. Consultants don’t. The list goes on.

Decide on the brand you want and find an actor or actress that believably exudes those qualities. How does he or she look, act and make others feel? How is their environment portrayed? Get specific on the behaviors and mimic them.

It’s not easy to build a brand. That’s why the good ones are worth so much.

Photo by Vadim Timoshkin

The post Knowing Where You Shouldn’t Be and Other Tips for Long-Lasting Success appeared first on Robert Chen.