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Learn how to understand your leaders' goals, communicate persuasively, pre-sell your ideas, and challenge your leaders with grace and credibility. Transition from doing to leading and become a successful leader.
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— Nina Bhatti, Founder, Kokko Inc. “Opportunity does not come gift-wrapped.You must take risks.”
To be an effective leader, you have to be a strong communicator. One of the most important areas of leading and communicating is with your own management. — Lori Carlin ProctorSenior Retail Supply Leader, Procter & Gamble
Influencing Upward Understand your leaders and their goals
Everyone makes decisions differently. The better you understand your leaders, the easier your life will be and the more successful you will be. Understand their business, their goals for their business and their decision-making style. — Kim Brown StricklandVP of Finance, Merchandising and Marketing, Walmart
Influencing Upward Understand your leaders and their goals Communicate in a style that they find persuasive
Take time to understand your leader and their preferred communication style. Observe how others communicate effectively with them. — Linda NordgrenVP & GM of Merchandising, Safeway Inc.
Don't be afraid to ask your leader how they want to be communicated with. — Cyndi Mitchell Founder, Ayuda Heuristics
Influencing Upward Understand your leaders and their goals Communicate in a style that they find persuasive Pre-sell your big ideas
Never underestimate the importance of the meeting before the meeting!
3. Pre-sell your big ideas Does this make sense to you? Do you agree with this? Do you think this is a smart way for us to be investing our time and money? Does this align with the initiatives in your area? And if it does, will you back me up when I give my presentation?
Influencing Upward Understand your leaders and their goals Communicate in a style that they find persuasive Pre-sell your big ideas Know when and how to challenge your leaders
Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Be your authentic self, and challenge direction with courage and good grace. — Linda NordgrenVP & GM of Merchandising, Safeway Inc.
4. Know when and how to challenge your leaders It’s all about consistently delivering good results — and having credibility Make sure it’s the right time Have all your facts together Speak high level about the situation but answer detailed questions The more solid facts, the better your chances Know when to pick battles and when to let go. — Kim Brown Strickland
The key is having a good case and not backing down if at first they don’t agree. Be politely persistent. — Kim Brown Strickland
Influencing Upward Understand your leaders and their goals Communicate in a style that they find persuasive Pre-sell your big ideas Know when and how to challenge your leaders
— Cate Huston “Time spent understanding peopleis never wasted.”
You have probably built success as a specialist who is adept at knowing your topic or your area of the business. It is one of the reasons you have gotten promoted.As you go higher, you will be valued for understanding the business and how various pieces of the business integrate into the whole. — Lisa Walsh, VP, PepsiCo Sales
Transitioning fromDoing to Leading Envisioning Thought leader Agenda-setter Strategist Team’s success • Executing • Subject matter expert • Problem-solver • Tactician • Your success
My “get ‘er done” mentality—as the go-to person, and the only one who knew how to do certain things—got in my way of moving ahead. I couldn’t step out of my own role to take on new opportunities. — Dona Munsch, VP Cloud Operations, NetApp
Your time portfolio: • Analyze your calendar • Take a look at the last month • Color code activities: are they strategic or tactical? • — Dona Munsch
Transitioning fromDoing to Leading What do you need to let go of? What will you do more of?
“There are very few roles today that have 'command and control' authority. Leading by influence is the most powerful form of leadership, and is something that can be learned. All organizations need leaders at every job level.” — Holly Meidl, SVP, Healthcare Division, Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd.
Seed your career with early leadership experiences Through interviews and focus groups with 16 women, Cindy Pace, Ed, uncovered a key finding: Women learn to lead by direct experience with managing people, relationships, and challenging situations. Significantly, they benefited from these experiences within the first 5 to 7 years of their careers.
“Do not rely on positional power. Saying ‘do this because I said so’ is the weakest form of leadership.” — Jody Mahoney, SVP Business Development and Industry Partners, Anita Borg Institute
I asked 16 leaders… “What skills do you most appreciate seeing in employees who step up and lead without authority?”
Be inquisitive • Ask questions before setting a direction. • Show enthusiasm and a desire to learn. • Listen. • Do your research. • Understand your stakeholders’ viewpoints and develop a well-rounded view of the issue. • Don't be afraid to ask for guidance.
“I most appreciate the skill of listening to others before stepping out to lead.”— Holly Meidl, SVP, Healthcare Division, Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd.
“Once you have identified the change you want to make, create a stakeholder map of those who will be most impacted.Ask a lot of questions on your listening tour. People like to share their expertise and will help you.” — Dr. Patti Fletcher
Take ownership • Be proactive. • Have a can-do spirit. • Be willing to get your hands dirty. • Notice and assist with problems outside of your role. • Help to solve the pain points that are not anyone’s mandate. • Be personally accountable for the outcome.
“See a gap, fill a gap!” — Leila Pourhashemi, VP Business Operations, Ancestry
Take risks • Leadership is a skill that’s best learned by doing. • You must take risks! • Volunteer for something that you or your organization have never done before. This means placing a bet on yourself. • Don't be afraid to fail and learn from those failures.
“Step up to the risk of leading, whether or not you have the authority.Leadership is risky — embrace it. Try and do new things, fail, recover and eventually succeed.” — Jody Mahoney, SVP Business Development and Industry Partners, Anita Borg Institute
Be a practical visionary • Have a passion for change and improvement. • Develop a clear vision and be able to see the end result. • Clearly communicate your vision to others, and explain why it matters. • Create energy, excitement, and unity around the issue. • Understand where your priority fits with other priorities. • Be action oriented, keeping an eye on your vision as you drive it to resolution.
“Great individual contributors look out for the whole team. They take folks under their wing.” — Kimberly Scardino, Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance
Put the team first • Don’t be a lone ranger. • Build trust and engagement. • Have patience with others, and be humble: No one knows it all. • Be transparent about what’s happening behind the scenes. • Give credit to others. Call out people who do great work. • Develop the ability to work with different personalities. • Enlist support from decision-makers and advocates.
“Listen to people. Really listen — not just with your ears, but with your eyes and your instincts. Understand their motivations and you will understand how to motivate them.” — Tracy Cote, Chief People Officer, Genesys
If things go off-track: Return to the list of five skills. Assess which one is missing, and take action.
See yourself as a leader now. Leadership is an action,not a position. — Dr. Cindy Pace
