What Decision Makers Really Want In Leaders (Analysis of 100 Promotions)

Your first leadership role is not always a reward on performance. It's also not always a compensation for your effort or a sign that you've mastered your craft. But it is a test of whether or not you can create value beyond yourself. After analyzing 100 real promotions into first leadership positions with my clients in multiple industries, I've discovered that decision makers aren't purely assessing candidates based on skill or effort or even loyalty. In fact, they're looking for something far more strategic. Five specific values explain why certain people become leaders and why others, even with equal or greater capabilities, they remain as individual contributors. Once you understand these five specific values, you will see exactly what leaders are looking for and how you can be an alignment with that in case you desire to be positioned for a promotion. You're listening to Career Revisionist. The podcast where ambitious professionals pursue mastery, break through invisible ceilings and accelerate into leadership. And now to guide you on the journey. Dr. Grace Lee, neuroscientist, executive mentor, and your trusted voice and career leadership. Let's dive in. Value number one is the expiration value of the role. Now, when you got into the role that you have right now, chances are you were applying to a job description. There was a job posting, you applied into it. And maybe that was several years ago. Maybe that was over 10 years ago. And you can understand that in a organization, regardless of what size it is, especially if your organization is growing or an industry that's growing, that role that you applied into, where you initially got into the company. There is an expiration date. And the faster the company grows and greater the industry evolution, there is, then the closer the expiration date of that role. So that is an expiration value. If you understand this, when do you understand the expiration value? That is going to inform you exactly how and where in what dimensions you need to be preparing yourself for the next evolutionary value of your role. There's an expiration value and there's an evolutionary value. Do you understand what that is? So this is really important to be able to exhibit value-based thinking and not time-based thinking or scarcity-based thinking. The savvy leaders who prepare themselves, what they're doing is they're already thinking from a higher level of altitude and they're already thinking and making decisions from their future self in the direction they see themselves going, because they understand the expiration value. And it's inevitable. No matter how steady your company is, and let's say you're in an organization that hasn't really changed much from the outset and the structure of the offering hasn't really changed much, regardless. Organizations desire growth and they aim for growth as well in their within their industries. And that's the economics of it. And as a result of that, inherent in that economics is the assumption that people are growing with the company. And what does that mean? A person is to grow within that company, it means their role evolves. Right, so it's about you being able to make decisions from your future self, not who you are now. Value number two is the economic value of perception. I'm referring to your own perception, because here's the principle, is that your perceptions will create an economic value for you, whether you realize it or not, and whether or not your perceptions were intentional or not, or by default. Because here's the thing, when you perceive through your worldview, what either shrink or expand your economic value or your economic potential, and it creates the decisions and the series of decisions that you will make that will determine the outcomes of your career, growth and trajectory. Because as long as you perceive things around you, you will assign a value to it. Everything that you expend, your time, your focus, your money, everything that you can expend, everything that you can put out there, and allocate out there, that was your resource to do so. You perceive in your environment, your immediate environment, values. And depending on what you perceive, it will determine how you allocate these resources. And how you allocate these resources. I'm talking about your money, your time, your focus, right? So how you allocate these resources will determine your outcomes. How and where you allocate these resources, but they're affected by your perceptions. And perception is one of the things that you have absolute control over. Everything else around you, outside of you, zero, you have zero control over, but perception, 100% is within your control. A lot of professionals treat these things. The time, their money, their risk, their opportunities, most, a lot of professionals treat them as constraints. But leadership savvy individuals, for thinking individuals, treat them as investments. And this is where the key shift is. Because here's the thing. If you, if you, through your perceptions, if you think time is money, then everything will appear too extensive. If you believe learning is a cost, then you will stop growing. If you believe asking for help means weakness, then you're going to stay as yourself in solo execution. If you believe taking initiative is risky, then you'll stay invisible. If you believe leadership positions are granted, then you will wait instead of taking the necessary actions to become a leader. Can you see how with all these examples that your perception creates your economic behavior, which then in turn will either create or destroy your promotability? And individuals who really understand this, they think about their economic behaviors. And that's why they use those resources. They're time, they're money, they're focus, they think about their opportunities, they create, they are deliberate about their perceptions because that creates their economic, their economic behaviors. And as a result of that, they create more value than they consume. Pro-rotional tactics are everywhere, and they are available for free widely on the internet. But if you're looking for real strategies and proven frameworks, then I invite you to work with me. Below this video, there is a link to speak to one of my trusted career advisors. And if you do come into my mentorship, I'm going to be working with you in terms of these five values. How do you embody them? How do you make them real? How do you become the person who can be able to make these values visibly in an authentic way with your integrity intact? But more importantly, how can you become somebody who continues to grow because you're for success in your career? You've achieved it, and maybe other successes as well. But at some point, what's more important is the sustainability of that growth. So if you're serious and committed about sustaining your career growth and your personal growth as well, then the mentorship was built for you. Click the link below, book a call, we'll have a conversation if it's the right fit. I look forward to mentoring you and supporting you on the inside. Value number three is the priority value of leaders. By now, if you are someone who has been interviewing for promotion or you've gone through some rounds already or previously gone through some rounds already, you might start to notice that promotions are not entirely given due to fairness. But they are given due to priorities. And when I say due to priorities, I'm referring to your priorities. Right, earlier I talked about perception. 100% urine control of your perception. Well, guess what? Priorities falls under the same bucket. You're also 100% in control of your own priorities. But do you know what those are? Do you really understand and do you really know what your priorities are? Not when you think they are, not when you tell people they are because you want to position yourself as a professional. So you tell people these are my priorities when your life doesn't even reflect it. But truly, at the end of the day, when you have nothing to prove to somebody, you don't need to impress anyone and you have nothing to hide. Do you know what your priorities really are? And are those priorities aligned with the economic engine of the business? Leaders are successful in that business because their priorities are aligned with being able to produce great amounts of value, the value necessary to be able to dedicate to the business to see its economic engine flourish. Are your priorities as such aligned? Or are your priorities aligned with a different outcome? And that's the priority value of leaders. And if you don't understand this, if you don't understand the economy of this priority value, then you will continue operating with the values that you have always had unbeknownst to you sometimes. And you might be able to say things to position yourself or say things that maybe you think they want to hear. But the fact is the reality is that your priorities will display through more through your actions than through your words. And this is important that you understand the economic value of your own priorities, which you have 100% control over. So that's value number three. Value number four is the psychological value of presence. Now, when you are starting out in your career, if you're an individual contributor, you're looking for your first leadership position, you don't have authority yet, which is why number one, it's important to understand how others do perceive you, especially decision makers, how they are perceiving you. And through that awareness, it's important to be able to shift your presence so that you make your presence more valuable. Think about this. Promote. Motion into your first leadership position means that you'll have access to some relationships you never had access to before. And chances are these new relationships you'll be accessing are ones that have a higher authority in leadership and greater value and strategy in terms of decision-making. If you're going to be accessing those relationships, well, they want to make sure that your presence is going to be of value to them. So is it or is it not? And that is the value of presence. Is how can you become someone whose value, whose presence is more valuable to them? And as a result of that, it is more costly not to offer you the opportunity than it is for them to offer it. Makes sense? So that's why it's important to understand how to become someone who has a very strategic value on your presence. And when I'm referring to presence, I'm talking about just you being there by virtue of you being there as a totality of your character, as a totality of your skill set, as a totality of your ability to communicate, as a totality of your ability to make higher level decisions and to be able to lead others from a source of truth and from a source of inspiration and experience, all of those things from the totality of that that your presence is more by you being there that the economics of it, that environment are thus improved greatly. That's is your presence becoming more valuable. Value number five is the productive value of teams. Productive value. Now, most people, when you hear that word, productive value, you're thinking about individual productivity. So your own productivity. How much can you get done? How quickly can you get it done? And how efficient was that process of that workflow? Most people think about that. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about how much more elevated can you create value efficiently and with leverage as a result of building scalable teams? So this is the productive value of a team. Now, you might be thinking, well, that's a catch 22 because I'm an individual contributor and I'm listening to you because I want my first time leadership role. Well, that's why it's important to expand your thinking. Your team is not only a team of direct reports. Your team right now is your team of peers, including your direct manager. Your team is also the team you already had the authority built. For example, do you have a team of people who are mentoring you, guiding you, coaching you? You have a team of people who are creating a supportive environment. Those are teams you can build right now without waiting for your first time leadership role. And that is the productive value of a team. The team you build in your personal life to support you. And the team that you currently have right now in the company and the team that you are creating deliberately from deciding from your future self, the team you will have once you get your first leadership role. You see these five values that I shared with you today, they are also principles, but there are principles that don't require a leadership title. You already have the resources if you're committed and you're decisive to utilize them and allocate them accordingly. They don't require a title, but they do require a shift and a real change in how you think, how you show up, and the real measured value that you bring to the room. Because once you understand these values and you really integrate them, internalize them, you integrate them, and they become visible not to yourself but to others as well, then that first leadership position isn't just going to be a hope on the horizon, but it becomes something that you embody because you've become somebody who can definitively make it yours. (upbeat music)