May Busch* says the type of career thinking that gets people to middle-management level may not be sufficient for the next big jump into the C-Suite.
My client, Tina wanted my help to go for promotion to managing director. It was a big jump up and she wanted to do it on a fast-track timeline.
She had some key advantages like the right relationships and activities, but as we talked through her situation, it became apparent there was one thing working against her.
Tina had earned her last several promotions by focusing on how she could be helpful.
Her ‘how can I help?’ mindset allowed her to add value and gain the support of key stakeholders and her team.
Thinking of herself as being helpful got her this far, but it wouldn’t be enough to get Tina promoted to managing director, especially a year early.
The key was making the mental shift from ‘helper’ to ‘organisation builder’. She had to change her thinking.
The way you think, the thoughts you focus on and how well you harness your mental capacity are key drivers of your success.
Your thinking is critical because your mindset affects your behaviour which affects your results.
The kind of thinking that got you to this level almost certainly won’t be the kind that gets you to the next level.
It’s natural to focus on the topics that are essential to excel at the job you’re in now, but if you limit your thinking to where you are, you’re probably undermining your advancement.
To show you’re ready for the next level, it’s time to zoom out and look at the business from a higher vantage point.
This means upping the level of your thinking beyond the day-to-day tactical and operational needs to what’s strategic and important to the organisation.
It also means opening yourself up to new ideas and thinking about how you can innovate, rather than focusing solely on the details of your current projects.
I didn’t realise I was caught in the trap of thinking too narrowly until I attended my organisation’s offsite.
Senior management wanted our views as middle managers on questions like: “What would you do differently if you were running the firm?”
Or: “What do you see as the biggest challenge in the next 12-to-18 months?”
I had no idea, having never thought about these questions, but as I listened to my colleagues share their opinions, it was clear most of them did.
When you take time to think about bigger strategic issues and opportunities, you’ll feel far more confident to have a strategic conversation with senior management.
For much of my career, I lived in fear of failure. I was afraid of looking bad, getting it wrong, being ridiculed.
While these are very human worries, they were holding me back.
I had adopted what Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck calls a ‘fixed mindset’. It turns out that this fear-of-failure mindset is quite common among high achievers.
You’ve been told you’re smart, and you’ve been successful, but that success means it can truly feel like you’ve got a lot to live up to and a lot to lose.
No wonder failures, setbacks and mistakes seem scary and something to avoid at all cost.
Instead, you’re far better off adopting Professor Dweck’s ‘growth mindset’ where you see mistakes as learning opportunities.
Having a growth mindset will take you much further in your career and life — and you’ll be happier as well.
When you adopt a growth mindset, it helps you to no longer fear failures but rather how you can learn from them.
If you have a fixed mindset too, don’t worry. Thankfully, it’s something you can change.
It’s a matter of noticing what kind of mindset you’re in and then making adjustments.
As you keep reframing situations for yourself and learn to see the growth opportunities embedded in every mistake, then it’ll become your new default.
Related to your mindset are your mental habits. The things you regularly think or say to yourself, especially your reaction to challenges and setbacks.
Maybe your habitual thoughts and mental framing of the situation are helpful, like “I’m great at getting things done in crunch time” when you’re up against a big deadline.
Other times, they might keep you from performing at your best.
For example: “The last time I did this, it was a disaster”; “I’m afraid to mess it up”, or “they’ll fire me if I can’t get this right”.
Habitual thoughts can help or hurt your performance and progress, so it’s important to pay attention to what yours are.
For me, it was the ‘what if’ habit that held me back.
Thoughts like: “What if I’m wrong?” kept me from speaking up and “what if I look incompetent?” held me back from trying things outside my comfort zone.
It wasn’t until I addressed these mental habits that my career took off.
When you catch yourself indulging in negative self-talk, give yourself permission to question them and start building a new mental habit.
Is that always true? What makes me say that? What else could I say or think? What strength would better serve me here? What if it turns out better than I could have imagined?
Remember, while you can’t control the first thought that comes into your mind, you can control what you do with it.
So notice your mental habits and cultivate the kind that serve you well.
This will help you behave intelligently when you encounter problems, challenges, conflicts, tensions, uncertainty and the unknown in your career.
As for Tina, she was a quick study and fast implementer of the mental shifts she needed to make. In the end, she got that early promotion.
*May Busch works with smart entrepreneurs and top managements to build their businesses. She can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared at maybusch.com.
