She is the author of the bestselling book “Promotions Made Easy: A Step-by-Step guide to the Executive Suite” and the host of the podcast “Maximize Your Career with Stacy Mayer” where she tackles topics like executive communication, getting more respect in the workplace from challenging bosses and team members, and avoiding the common mistakes that sabotage career advancement. Her dynamic coaching intensive Executive Ahead of Time has helped hundreds of powerhouse corporate women get promoted into executive roles at some of the world’s largest and most prestigious technology companies. Learn more at stacymayer.com.
What actually leads to executive level promotions? Thinking and communicating like an executive leader. Thinking and communicating like an executive leader. Now the challenge is, we aren't actually taught how to do that. And we're very busy, like I said, with our job, and we have all of these other priorities in our life.
So what do we do? We give up. We tell ourselves we don't actually need the promotion, maybe I wasn't meant to be in the C suite. And I'm here today to change all of that.
Today, I will tell you why women in particular don't end up in higher level executive positions. Let me tell you about Christine. She was a Vice President of Human Resources, who reported directly to the CEO. Let's stop there for a second. She is the top of her line in Human Resources. She reports directly to the CEO. So why isn't she the CHRO? And I see this all the time. Why isn't she Chief Human Resources Officer. And if you look at it from the CEO's perspective, she doesn't actually merit the officer title, even though she heads up the entire HR department.
Number one, because she doesn't have a strategy. Number two, she does what she is told. And number three, and this might hurt a little bit, she is too good at her job. He didn't want to lose her from running the department. In fact, he would have hired a CHRO and put her underneath this person and that is why she doesn't have a C suite title.
There is a chasm between where you are right now and the leader you want to become. A chasm that you need to cross first but you might not even know that it's there. You sense it, because sometimes it's right in front of your face. It's when you get a glowing performance review, but not a promotion. It's when your colleague's title changes, but yours doesn't. It's when you receive a special project, but no additional compensation. And today, I'm going to give you that missing piece. I'm going to show it to you, and you're going to be able to cross that chasm in the blink of an eye.
What is Christine doing wrong? That is the million dollar question. If Christine had a traditional leadership coach, they would work on three things. In fact, when I was working in women's leadership, about eight years ago, I would have told her to do these three things. Number one, focus on making sure that her boss knows how great of a job that she's doing. Make sure that she reinforces her hard work that she's putting into her work. Number two, she would need to tackle her imposter syndrome. If you've heard this before, any of this advice, let us know in the chat. Make sure that she's up for the challenge, encourage her to put herself out there more. And also, number three, tell her that she needs to speak up more and stop waiting to be called on in meetings. And all of these would have worked. They would have temporarily helped Christine feel more involved at work. She might have even felt a renewed sense of accomplishment. But the problem is, none of these would actually lead to her getting promoted. She would have just become a better Vice President of Human Resources.
So then what is it? What is actually keeping you from transitioning into that Vice President or C suite position that you are already qualified to do? One, you had other priorities. You wanted to be good at your job, so you didn't focus on deliberately managing your career. And number two, you actually don't know what to do differently. And as women, we aren't often included in the hallway conversations about career development. We aren't brought into those higher-level conversations when we don't look and act like the rest of the room. So we have to seek out that advice for ourselves. We want to bring ourselves to the C suite. We want to bring everything that is great about us to the leadership table. So therefore we have to pave our own path, and that's a good thing. We have to chart our own way. And that is how not only are we going to create those executive positions for ourselves, but we're going to be able to make that bigger impact once we get there. Because I don't want to be the token woman on a board. And if you're a woman of color, I don't want you to be the token woman of color in the executive suite, only to find yourself fail once you get there.
As women, we see things differently. When you do get promoted to the C suite, you will bring a completely unique skillset to the leadership table. Yet it is that same unique skillset that causes the real problems for you. You know about the glass ceiling, right? You know that invisible ceiling that's blocking you from getting to the top into executive leadership. You've heard of this, right? I don't like that term, glass ceiling, it almost makes it seem like it's out of our control. Honestly, I don't even see it as glass. I think it's obvious. I think you can see it. I think you actually know what it is. You know that it's there. And it's called the SME ceiling. Your subject matter expertise is blocking you from advancing your career.
If you start changing this today and stop relying on your subject matter expertise, then you will see yourself advancing into executive leadership. Getting recognized for being good at your job is not a reward. A promotion is not a reward for your hard work. Doing a better job at your current job is actually keeping you from getting promoted into executive leadership.
So how do you get promoted into executive leadership? And it starts with managing your promotions like you manage your work. So how do you do your work? You plan two weeks out, you plan three months out, you plan six months out. If you have a quarterly target, you work an entire quarter. You don't show up at your performance review and negotiate for your promotion. That's like expecting to meet your quota the last week before the deadline.
Instead, you are going to proactively build relationships with executives. You are going to pull yourself out of the weeds and you're going to have a bigger vision for your career and life. So let's break that down. Setting yourself up for an executive level promotion starts with you understanding that you can no longer rely on your subject matter expertise to get ahead. You have to shift perception and start showing up as that executive leader instead.
For the first 20 years of your career, you relied solely on your subject matter expertise to get ahead, and that's a good thing. But it is not the only thing that you can rely on if you want to get promoted into that executive position. So what are you going to start doing to shift perception? Right now, you're seen as the subject matter expert. Even if you're a Vice President title, if you still find yourself in the weeds, or putting out fires in the middle of the night, the perception is that you are an excellent subject matter expert. And this is why amazing leaders like Christine in my earlier example, doesn't have that actual voice at the table. So instead of being seen as the subject matter expert, or even a high potential leader, you want to start showing up as the executive leader. You want to become the executive ahead of time. Harvard Business Review conducted a survey of CEOs and how they manage their time. And as you can imagine, their ability to manage their time well was often dependent on their executive team. And the qualities they valued most in their executives were trust. Not trust that they were the smartest person in the room, but trust that they could do the job at the executive level:
And here's the good news. How would a CEO know that their executive team had these qualities? Because they communicated them. They let their boss know that they understood what they're personally working on aligns with the organization's vision. They were able to reiterate the long-term strategy. They're able to proactively build trust and push the status quo. These are all communication techniques. And you are going to start using them to shift perception that you are also an executive leader.
Here's what you do. Identify where you want to be long term. Let's say three promotions from now, where are you? What role are you playing? Who are your allies? In my experience, the women in the C suite who actually make it to the C suite someday are ones who admitted to themselves that they want to be in the C suite. So let us know in the chat, what would be your C suite title? Identify what that's going to be for you. What is your 3x vision? Because, frankly, having you in the C suite matters. And we need you at the top. Let me tell you about Janine. She was a vice president at her organization, and she reported directly to the Chief Business Officer, and always exceeded her sales target. So in other words, she was really good at her job. She was told by her boss several times to just keep doing what she is doing, and that she was in line to become senior vice president. Yet when the senior vice president position opened up, they brought in somebody from the outside, right. And we see this all the time. And perhaps it's happened to you, if you've been passed over for promotion. I want to think about this for a minute. Based on what I've said before, why do you think that Janine wasn't promoted to senior vice president? So she asked her boss, and this is what he said to her. He said that it wasn't the right position for her and don't worry, we will have something else for you soon. Sounds okay on the surface, right? Wrong. This is his passive aggressive way of saying you're not ready. We don't perceive you as a senior executive leader. And that is why she didn't get promoted. Instead of focusing on getting better at her job, she has to focus on shifting perception. She has to get clear on her long term goals. She has to elevate the conversations, as I just shared with you, by 5% with her new boss, and she has to build allies across all of the executive team. We work together on this plan, and it worked. She was promoted shortly afterwards to senior vice president. And not only that, here's what I really want you to know. Because she was intentional about getting her promotion, because she wasn't just promoted by chance, she has had so many opportunities come her way since she got promoted. She has developed an extraordinary relationship with their CEO. He meets with her every time he comes into town. He's always seeking out her advice on higher projects. She has been asked to present across the entire organization to other sales teams. And she is a thought leader in her sales industry. She started her own podcast, she appears on panels, and she's been asked to mentor up and coming women. Plus she received a $30,000 bonus when other members of the executive team only received a $2,000 bonus. And her boss told her that the reason she was receiving the bonus was because of her executive communication skills. That is it. That is why she received more money. That is what the organization values. That is why they value executive leaders. She shifted perception, not only got all of the things that I mentioned, but also got an additional $30,000. And this is why going for not just getting the promotion, but actually taking the steps that I'm sharing today, matter.
So what would you do? Think about it. I want you to think about what you would do with an additional $30,000. Would you take a nice vacation? Would you save it towards retirement? And as you're thinking about what you would actually do with the money, I want you to really think about why Janine received that $30,000 bonus. It was because her company values her as an executive. And executives get paid a heck of a lot more than subject matter experts. I'm sorry, but it's true. So you have a long term 3x vision for your career that you are actively pursuing. You are communicating that in a more visionary way with your boss. And from now on, you are going to start communicating with other executives as well.
You are going to start to proactively build relationships with executives all across your organization. You're creating allies. What are allies? They are the key people in your organization who will advocate for you when an executive position becomes available. These are your allies. And you need to have them before, not at performance review, but before you expect to land a promotion. I call this process 15 minute ally meetings. The premise is simple. You're going to meet with multiple members across your organization at regular intervals for 15 minutes at a time. That's it, just 15 minutes. And in these conversations, you are not talking about work. They are networking conversations. You are building trust. You are shifting perception and being seen as an executive leader. You are showing up as the executive ahead of time. All of the qualities that we talked about that actually matter to the executive team. Let me tell you about Tanisha. Tanisha was a Business Director at her organization. She managed 200 people. And she was working 60-hour weeks and on weekends. She was really phenomenal at her job, but she knew something had to change. She had a few mentors at the company but nothing was really helping her progress. So I taught her how to implement these 15 minute ally meetings instead. She built relationships with everyone, her CHRO, her CMO, her boss's boss, the head of DEI. She made sure every executive at her company knew who she was and what she stood for as a leader. And she started to get noticed. She even received a Leadership Award from her company for a trip to Hawaii that she could take after the pandemic. But because she was working with me, and she was sick of it, she knew that kudos were not acceptable, right? She wanted the title to match. So she kept going. She kept painting the vision. She kept showing these executives that she was ready for more. She kept becoming that executive ahead of time. Until the day she received that call from her CMO, where she said, I want you on my team. I'm going to create a role for you, and I want you to ask for everything that you want. Title, compensation and team. She now has a higher title, higher pay and more time freedom to spend with her family. She is now an executive leader. And you can do that too.
Over and over again, I have watched this process succeed. Women have gotten double promotions in a six month period. They have gotten skipped level promotions. Now they are senior vice presidents and C suite leaders. And I believe that's truly what women’s leadership is. It's not just about getting pats on the back and kudos. It's about being in a position to actually influence the organization in a positive way. In order to do that, you need the title. Women’s leadership should be about getting more women into the C suite, not simply making them better workers. Remember Christine? She should have been in the C suite, yet they were going to hire another guy to do that work. Christine could have done that role, and we need to change that. And the only way we're going to change that is to give Christine the tools to step into that role. So I challenge you to try out this blueprint that I've laid out for you. Number one, get clear on your long term goals. Number two, begin elevating that conversation with your boss by 5%. And number three, build allies with all of the members across the executive team. When you do this, you will get recognized and you will get promoted. My vision is to double the number of the women in the C suite. And to achieve that goal, I wrote a book, I created a weekly podcast and executive ahead of time, my flagship program for corporate women to get them promoted and have success once they get there. I want to change the way companies operate from the C Suite out. And that mission starts with you. You are an incredible manager. Your organization needs you in a higher level executive position.
