Career growth is about timing and effort. When the timing is right, and you’ve shown enough effort, you’ll surely step up the organizational ladder.
In the recent years, women have grown exponentially in the business industry by leading huge organizations. Names like Sherly Sandberg from Facebook and IndraNooyi from PepsiCo are among Forbes’ 20 Most Powerful Women in the World. They have their own stories to achieve success, but they’ve also definitely shown signs that they are ready to lead a team.
However, there are certain factors you need to consider to evaluate yourself if you really think you’re ready for that leadership position.
Below are the signs that your time is up to sit in the corner office:
1. Valuing responsibility and not the reward
When you perform tasks for the betterment of your company’s’ processes and gains and not for the credit and recognition from your colleagues, that’s when you know you value responsibility and not the reward. It is not about boosting your ego, rather seeing yourself thinking about the moves of your company moving forward.
And when you take more responsibility, you do more. This is a sign to the seniors that you’re ready for that leadership role. You do your responsibilities head-on with a laser-like focus. It’s not all about being quick. It’s also because they value other factors which lead us to the next point.
2. Seeing the big picture and deciding when it’s needed
An executive role entails management of a larger number of people. This means that you should oversee the whole company and not just your role and your team—understanding that your work and decisions will affect the totality of where you’re working. Furthermore, knowing how the other teams work and how each team relies on one another will make you have informed decisions.
At this point, you should’ve mastered the basics (if not, you should start now). Take the initiative to study your competitors and draft decisions that your company will take in the next business quarters.
At the end of the day, seeing things up top gives you the privilege to touch points for improvement, and you’ll only be credible at this when you know the intricacies of all your company’s processes.
3. Opening communication channels to be reached by your people
It’s safe to say that it is easier to be liked than respected. You can like a lot of people for doing a certain thing, but it takes more to be respected.
To be respected, you should adapt to different types of people because let’s be honest, you can’t interact the same with every person in your company. Being able to adjust by yourself is a sign of maturity and growth. Some like formal meetings while others prefer it more casual like talking over some projects in a coffee run.
4. Using personal opinion for everyone’s welfare
If you’ve observed that you’re frequently being asked for your opinion by the higher management about certain decisions in your company, that’s a tell-tale sign that you’re being targeted for an executive role. It means that you’re being trusted, and what you say is unique enough to change the decision significantly.
But at the same time, you can’t always agree with what they’re doing. A “no” from you can also mean that you’ve seen a better avenue to spend everyone’s time in.
4. Being available at critical times
This is the classic trial by fire. When people come to you during critical moments in your company, it means that you are calm and collected enough to lead everyone.
The leader should bring the people together and calm their senses to think straight. On your end, you shouldn’t crumble and breakdown. Instead, use this pressure to show what you can do in these moments and lift everyone up.
Being at the edge of your comfort zone will surely expand your capabilities, too. Critical times may also mean carrying out tasks even on such short notice. This does not rattle you. Instead, you should show them that you are flexible in any given time frame and can deliver quality work.
6. Continuing to hone people and their skills and talents
As you move up the career leader, more people will come to you for mentorship. This means that you have enough experience to teach ways to be successful in your company.
Use this time to learn from them, too. Make it a two-way channel to improve each other in the process. Since you’ve been in their position, you know that buildingstrong and goal-oriented teams require a leader who is in the same mindset. Especially when you start recruiting people as you build your own team, they rely on you to develop and nurture these young blood in your company.
7. Presenting confidently in presentations
You surely have experienced the nerve-wracking first presentation. Now that you’re ready for an executive role, you’ve gone far from that person. You’ve explored the possibility of interaction with the group you’re presenting to and have fostered a free-flowing exchange of information in the room.
8. Being recognized as a leader
And lastly, you’ve been considered for an executive role because the senior management has seen your hard work. Even though you have a heavy workload, the quality of your work doesn’t suffer. They’ve trusted you with more work. Therefore,they are confident to trust you with an executive role in the company, too.
Don’t feel pressured if the day that you’ve been waiting for has finally come. Rather, take this as a new step up your career ladder and put your best foot forward. Besides, you’ve been eyed for this level up because your co-workers and senior management believed in your capabilities and skills.
You just need to keep the ball rolling, be consistent with what you’re doing, and hope for the best. Lastly, congratulations.
In this infographic by Manila Recruitment, they have defined the anatomy of a person who’s a good fit in a managerial position.