599: How Executive Presence Wins Promotions Before the Job Is Posted

What if your next promotion is already being decided, even though the position has not even been posted? Welcome back to Speak Up, the number one ranked business communication podcast, where we help hyperforming introvert leaders, including you social introverts, turn your ideas into influence and improve business outcomes. Because being brilliant does not automatically make you influential. I am your host, Laura Kamacho, your career accelerator, executive presence strategist, and godmother. By the end of this short episode, you will know why executive promotions are often decided months or even years before a role officially becomes available. The difference between highly visible and deeply trusted and why that distinction shapes your career trajectory. The exact three things you need to work on right now to position you for future executive opportunities. The logical thing is to assume that promotions happen when the position opens, but they actually happen months or years before that through accumulated trust and relationships. And I do want to offer the one caveat. It's also true, it's not very common, but sometimes a role is flagged for somebody, but of course they interview other candidates and one of the other candidates actually wiles them so much that they don't go with the chosen person. So if you're ever in a situation where you feel like, I think they're going to go with this other person because he's internal or she's been flagged as the up and coming person, don't miss out on that opportunity. You never know. This episode is about what usually happens with these executive roles. So by the time you become aware of some new executive role, probably someone is already the favorite, and that's what succession planning is all about. But let's go for what you can do to put yourself in the most favorable position. Now the person selected may not be the smartest or the hardest worker, but I can tell you they have spent months or years building relationships, credibility, and trust that makes the decision makers think that's our person. If you're waiting till the opportunity appears to start preparing, you're already behind. And as side note, you might want to look at your CV or resume. Research on succession planning consistently shows that organizations identify and develop leadership candidates long before executive openings occur. Boards and senior leaders are expected to maintain a pipeline of successors rather than beginning the search after someone leaves. So maybe you've been telling yourself, hey, when that VP retires, when that judge steps down, when my boss leaves after the re-or, then I'm going to get down and start cracking on getting ready for a promotion and interviewing and all the things because it's a big process. Here's what actually happens. The reality is that you're already being evaluated in every meeting, every presentation, every difficult conversation, every cross-functional project. So you are already in the spotlight for future possibilities, no matter what your level is in the organization. If you're a team leader, you're probably not considering you for CEO, but they're looking for you to be a future senior manager director. But the thing is, a lot of high-performance things that they're being evaluated exclusively on their performance. And that may be true at lower levels, but not at senior levels. You're being evaluated on your judgment, your strategic thinking, your confidence. Who trust you, your ability to get by in, the people who know you, the people who advocate for you when you're not in the room. A lot of you know that you're expected to have this arsenal of allies who will say, yes, she will make an excellent vice president. But that's how two people with identical resumes can have completely different careers, the lack of sponsors or supporters. Harvard Business Review has summarized decades of research showing that sponsorship, not just mentorship. Like you can mentor someone and not think that they're great for the next position, but the year's still dropping them improve, right? But sponsorship is one of the strongest predictors of advancement into senior leadership. And sponsors are not just advisors. They're advocating for you where the decisions are being made. And no amount of technical excellence can replace that trust. Now, I know a lot of you're thinking, Laura, it's all about office politics. And I know we all don't like office politics. In fact, we dislike them. And I understand that. I do too. It used to make me just feel nauseated when people started talking about that. But I think the problem is we've defined politics incorrectly. What most people call office politics is really enterprise trust. It's really relationships. Relationships aren't could exclusively about favoritism. They're about reducing uncertainty. That is a big thing. Reducing uncertainty of what you're going to do when you have more responsibility, when boards, executive committees, nominating commissions, choose someone. For them, it's a high risk decision, right? And they have a lot at stake, usually. So they're going to be thinking, who have we seen under pressure, who has trust cross functionally, who has demonstrated good judgment? Who do we feel good around relationships? Or simply how people gather that evidence? It's not about manipulation. Although people can be trying to manipulate through relationships. But that's not us. Politics think about that as an accumulation of trust. And people think, I've worked with this person, he can handle it. She can handle it. It's someone recommending your name before you know the role exists. So your work is getting you respect, but it's the relationships that get you the opportunities. So think about we're beginning the second half of the year. Can you believe that already? But I want you to just think about quickly, where do you want to be in three years? Do you want to be vice president, partner, chief technology officer, vice president? Now ask yourself a different question. If that opportunity appeared tomorrow, miraculously, would people be thinking, oh yeah, we should put you up? Is that a thing? Do you think so? Probably you don't know. So that would be something to investigate. He's brilliant, but technically great, but that's where promotions actually fizzle. Research, published in organization science suggests that leaders frequently make succession decisions based on perceived future leadership potential, even before you're a strong position in your current position. People who consistently reach senior leadership, they're not waiting. They're preparing for that. And that's when I work with people in the executive president's mastery. Let's say it's a senior director going for vice president. We're preparing for senior vice president. You've got to prepare for beyond the next step. If you're taking a trip, you don't just prepare for the next time you're going to get gas. You prepare for the whole trip. I'm not saying you have to have your whole life planned out, but you want to know the trajectory where you want to go. So you want to be preparing before the opportunity shows up and building those executive relationships. Remember, build your well before you need it. That will shape how people experience you long before the promotion decision is made. So what do you want to work on right now? Three things, okay? First of all, are your stories. You need to have a spreadsheet of your stories, your origin stories, stories about things you've learned, traditional interview questions. Tell us about a time when blah, blah, blah, like you want to have when things were hard, when you didn't know what to do, where you had massive success, you don't need to record the whole story, but the incident, the keyword and a date, even if it's just a year or a quarter. And then if you really want to make it valuable, you can put the lesson from the story. Is it about conflict? Is it about leadership? Is it about strategy? How you introduce yourself? That's another story, but you need to have your portfolio of stories. And second, you need evidence, right? Show, don't tell. Don't assume that people notice your impact. You need to be able to communicate that strategically and not arrogantly by simply connecting what you have done or your teams have done through the impact on the company. So that's number two, collect evidence and number three, your key relationships. You need to be building genuine trust with the people whose confidence you're going to need in the future, and you need to know who those people are. If you're serious about earning a significant leadership role over the next one to three years, do not wait until the position appears, by then you are behind. And just so you know, inside the executive presence mastery system, that's exactly what we build, that executive level communication. We prep for the executive relationships, the presence that causes decision makers to see you as the obvious choice before the opportunity even exist. If you You would like to explore whether this is the right fit for you. There is a link in the show notes to set up time for us to chat about it. Because you know that the executive promotions are not usually won during the interview. They're won before that interview starts. Have a fantastic and glorious day and I will catch you on the next episode.