Hi All,
Posting excerpts of my blog posts here for those who are aiming for senior leadership roles.
Click on the link for the full blog post.
Also, if you want help with conversations, I'm offering free quick 15 min sessions to boost your confidence.
---
For optimum career growth, we all know that a manager must:
- Confront underperforming engineers
- Pushback the management against burdening the team
- Do the performance reviews
- Give real feedback when your direct asks the dreaded question, ‘Do you have any feedback for me?’
- Reach out to people in your network for opportunities
- Negotiate job offers
It's part of your duty. Yes, they’re uncomfortable, but you kind of get comfortable with those as you’re on the job.
Here's the thing: If you want to step to the next level of leadership, you must make a habit of different conversations.
I’m talking about powerful conversations.
You know… the ones that drive up your anticipation anxiety, make you mentally rehearse the right words 1000 times, and keep you up at night.
But those conversations create turning points to a non-linear career growth trajectory.
Here are the kind of conversations you want to step into (despite your discomfort):
- Confronting your boss about the promise they didn’t keep
- Giving in-the-moment feedback instead of delaying it to the performance review time (when nobody would remember what that was about)
- Asking for and sitting with the impact of your statements and actions (“how did my feedback make you feel?”)
- Cleaning up your messes (if you’re not making messes, you’re not stepping into discomfort enough)
- Asking your manager for the exact scope of work you want for your career
- Or telling your mentor/sponsor/the potential-hiring-leader exactly what you want and don’t want (despite how you might appear to them).
Senior leadership is about powerful conversations that lead to powerful decisions.
Powerful decision-making comes from your willingness to step-into powerful conversations.
---
Hope that was helpful. Let me know your experience with such conversations in the comments. What other examples would you add that helped you in your career?
PS: Also, I've opened my calendar to help people with critical conversations.
Don't rehearse those conversations 1000 times mentally. Here's the link- 15 min Critical Conversation Boost.
