May 9, 2025 • 24 mins
You want to get promoted. You want to be invited to the higher-level meetings. You want to make more money. You want to scale your career faster. How do you make that happen? In this episode of the Lead In 30 podcast, Lone Rock Leadership Co-founder Russ Hill shares three critical moves to unlock the career advancement you're seeking for yourself.
• Own your narrative by building a consistent story of impact and articulating how your work connects to strategic priorities
• Define what makes you different from others with your title and identify gaps in your professional story that need development
• Think like an owner by considering yourself responsible for the entire business, not just your department
• Make your boss's job easier by anticipating problems, reducing surprises, and removing friction in the system
• Always come to meetings prepared with potential solutions, not just problems
• Focus relentlessly on high-leverage activities that genuinely move the needle for the business
• Be visible by offering ideas, challenging the status quo respectfully, and taking on additional projects
• Expand your contribution before seeking to expand your role, title or compensation
• Focus visibility efforts close to customers and revenue-generating activities
• Determine which of these three areas requires your immediate attention for career growth
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you want to get promoted, trusted with more,
pulled into bigger conversations?
It all starts with doing threethings that will help you scale
your career.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastwith Russ Hill.
You cannot be seriousStrengthen your ability to lead
in less than 30 minutes.
(00:25):
The vast majority of my career,I have not owned the business.
So right now it's awesome.
I'm at the stage in life whereI'm one of the co-founders, one
of the owners of our firm.
But for the vast majority of mycareer, my life, I've been an
employee.
I've been a part of somecompany and I've wanted to grow.
Boy, I've been a part of somecompany and I've wanted to grow.
(00:47):
I've had this desire to move upthe org chart, to have expanded
opportunity, to make more money, to learn, to stretch myself,
to be viewed as a critical partof the team.
But you can't get there like onday two, right?
Hello, nice to meet you.
I'm Russ.
Thanks for hiring me for thecompany.
Now please promote me.
You know what I mean.
Hello, I'm here on the lowestlevel of the org chart.
(01:08):
I want to be on the seniorexecutive team.
Are you good with that?
Okay, good, no, it takes time.
It takes effort, the proathlete you watch in the various
sports leagues how many hours,how much effort, how much
attention, how many sacrificeshave they put in to get to that
stage.
(01:29):
And so, as you're on thatjourney whether you're listening
, and you're 20 years old or 23,and you're just coming out of
college and into that first job,that first career, or you're 43
and you've got you.
You you've been doing this fora while and you've been part of
this company, or you've been inthis industry, or you've and
you've got you.
You you've been doing this fora while and you've been part of
this company, or you've been inthis industry, or you've.
You've built kind of this trackrecord and you're wondering why
(01:52):
am I not getting promoted?
Why am I being overlooked?
Why is my influence not beingexpanded?
Why did I not get invited to bepart of that project?
Or why am I not being asked tobe part of that meeting, or
whatever it might be?
If you've got this desire, thisdrive to expand, grow your
career and to make more money,have a better lifestyle, all of
(02:14):
those sorts of things, then thisepisode's for you.
I'm going to share with youthree things that are absolutely
critical.
I found it to be true.
These three things in my ownexperience of moving up the org
chart.
But more than my own experience, more valuable than that is
seeing this in leader afterleader after leader who's
(02:34):
getting promoted inorganizations across all
industries.
Welcome in to the Lead in 30podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you an idea, a framework, a
story, a best practice,something for you to consider
implementing in the way that youlead others.
Nothing impacts your life morethan strengthening, improving,
(02:56):
upgrading your ability to leadothers.
That is one of the things thatwe focus on and what we do as an
organization.
You can find out more about ourcompany, our firm, lone Rock
Leadership, lone Rock Leadershipat LoneRockio.
Lonerockio.
We're adding new pages, newsections, new videos, new
(03:16):
content to that website all thetime.
It's nowhere near where we wantit to be, because we don't do
the vast majority of our salesor our growth through a website,
but it is a good resource forpeople.
Okay, and, by the way, I'm RussSilla.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest companies.
Flew back in to Phoenix, thePhoenix area, which is my home,
(03:37):
arizona.
It's about this time of year,about two to three weeks from
now, I'm going to be wonderingwhy I live here, because it'll
be 115 degrees again.
But for the last few monthsI've been very clear on why
because the back door, thewindows, have been open.
It's been beautiful while youall have been suffering through
spring showers and spring snowstorms.
(04:00):
But anyway, it's not the pointof this episode.
I'm so glad to have you here.
Okay, three things that reallyhelp you get noticed, help you
scale your career, and we'll getinto some caveats related to it
at the end.
But if I had to boil it down,it's three things.
Here's the first one, let'sjust get right into it.
Okay, number one leaders whoscale.
(04:21):
Leaders who expand their impact, leaders who are going
someplace in their career.
They own the narrative.
They own the narrative.
What do I mean by that?
They build a consistent or theybuild a story of consistent
impact, consistent performance,and they're able to articulate,
(04:46):
frame up their work over anextended period of time in term.
In the terms of that impact,they're impacting strategic
priorities, not just tacticalwins.
You got it.
So they're connecting the dot.
They're connecting the dotsbetween their team's outputs and
the broader company outcomes.
(05:07):
This narrative, they're able toarticulate it.
They've put it onto a sheet ofpaper, into an Apple note, into
a Google doc, whatever.
What impact am I having here?
Why am I interested in thesedifferent opportunities?
Where have I contributed?
What do I bring that's unique?
We have 25 sales directors.
(05:29):
We have 450 nursing managers,we have 1200 whatevers.
How are you different?
What's unique about you?
If I ask you that question andyou can't answer it immediately,
you don't have a narrative, youhave no idea what it is, what's
(05:50):
unique about you, and you needto be able to find it, to define
it with clarity.
So, if you're starting out atour organization, what's unique
to you?
Why should we put you into thisrole?
A resume is this?
You know, so interesting, howoutdated it is.
It gives me as a hiring manager, as an executive, as somebody
(06:11):
looking at you, it gives me thenuggets of kind of different
positions that you've held.
If that is kind of the endstate of how you summarize
yourself, that is so misguidedbecause there could have been
again a thousand people withthat title at that company or in
that industry.
Your resume, your LinkedInprofile, your whatever you
(06:34):
you've got to be able.
It doesn't give me what youlearned, why you did that?
What you gained from it?
What wisdom did you walk awayfrom?
Why was that important?
So you define the narrative ofyour career.
I'll give you a for instance.
So in my career, when I was inthe media business for the first
15 years of my professionalcareer, I was very interested in
(06:58):
just being very well-rounded.
So my one of my firstmanagement assignments was at a
very successful media brand.
It was number two in its marketratings and revenue wise at the
time that I became a part ofthe management or leadership
team and we worked really hardto get it to number one, from
(07:18):
number two to number one.
That's really hard to overcome.
That final hurdle, right, and,but it was a it a legend of a
brand, very storied history.
I took what was already builtand then and then just helped
keep improving it, stretching it.
Well, okay, that's great, I canhelp take a brand from and, but
(07:39):
I wasn't at the front of theforefront of it.
I was one of the, the, the, theleaders in it let's call it
like director level, and mostorganizations kind of at that
level.
So I wasn't steering the wholeeffort.
What I, what I was lacking thenarrative, the narrative I was
building was lacking being nearthe top, either either a senior
(07:59):
executive, or being up near thetop of a brand that was
hemorrhaging a turnaroundproject.
I'd never led one, so mynarrative needed to include that
chapter, that paragraph.
That's why we moved our familyto Arizona, because I was moved
to help transform anunderperforming, hemorrhaging
(08:20):
brand to the top of theperformance measures in revenue
ratings, all those key metrics,and so that took five years.
I had to build that narrative,that story, that chapter took
five years for me and my team,for me to assemble the team to
diagnose the problem, to executeon it, for the market to
(08:40):
respond to it, build thestrategy, execute on that,
update it.
That narrative I was building.
And so, over time, this is sofrustrating, especially when
you're really driven because youwant it to happen tomorrow and
yet you don't have enough workexperience, life experience for
us to your, your vision's notnot broad enough, and so we
appreciate your work ethic, weappreciate your drive, we
(09:02):
appreciate your commitment, weappreciate your successes.
You just need to compound them,you need to build multiple.
So what's the narrative for youright now?
What does it need to be?
You're owning that.
Own the narrative.
That's what successful leadersdo.
They've got it on the tip oftheir tongue, they've written it
down, they've journaled on it,got it.
(09:24):
If I was in an elevator withyou this weekend or next week
when traveling I see you, orwe're walking out to the rental
car shuttle or whatever it mightbe, and I ask you about it,
could you articulate yeah, thisis it In a few sentences.
Number two leaders who scale,who we want to promote in this
company, whatever company thatis, they think like owners.
(09:46):
Number one own the narrative.
Number two think like owners.
High scaling, fast scalingleaders Don't just execute, they
think they're on the hook forthe entire business.
They're not narrow in theirthinking.
They don't just consider thesuccess of their vertical, of
(10:11):
their department, of theirfunction.
They think broader than that.
Yes, they have to achieve, theyhave to deliver in their
vertical, in their part of thecompany, in the areas that
they're responsible for.
But they think broader.
A couple of other things that Imean by think like owners.
They make their boss's jobeasier.
(10:32):
I remember in my very firstmanagement role thinking you
know what my job really is?
It's to make my boss look good.
Now you might roll your eyes atthat or think really, I don't
know about that.
Right, that was what I focusedon.
It worked darn well for me.
I knew that he was going to ownmost of the successes that I
(10:53):
and my team delivered.
I knew how.
I knew how it was going to playout.
I knew the politics of it.
I knew how, the human behavior.
I knew that I couldn'tarticulate that super well, but
I knew that, okay, he's going tothis is going to make him look
really good, but behind thescenes I know it's really me and
my team we're the onesdelivering on it.
(11:13):
But he's going to get thecredit, he's going to walk the
stage, he's going to go on thetrip, he's going to do all that.
I was okay with it because ofwhere I sat on the org chart.
I wasn't bitter about it, itwas okay.
I made sure he knew.
And then, oh, actually, like ayear or two into it, I thought,
oh my gosh, russ, it's not justwhether he knows it, you need to
(11:33):
make sure your boss's bossknows that how you're
contributing, because he'sprobably not telling that part
of the story.
And so I had to do it in anappropriate way where my boss
didn't feel like I was workingaround him or going around him.
But one of the parts of thinkinglike an owner is making your
boss's job easier.
Anticipate problems.
Remove the friction in thesystem.
(11:54):
The second element of thinkinglike owners is you reduce
surprises.
The biggest challenge for abusiness owner, for senior
executives, are the surprises.
They're constant.
There's nothing you can do tocompletely remove them, but you
can remove as as many aspossible.
There's no executive in yourorganization who wants to be
blindsided.
Do not come into that meetingand make a comment where I go
(12:15):
holy crap, where did that comefrom?
Or I had no idea we were losingthat amount of money.
I had no idea that project wasoff the rails.
It was red and not greenanymore.
You got it.
So reduce surprises.
You're looking at the horizon,you're watching the radar and
you're updating people so thatthey aren't surprised.
(12:35):
You make your boss look reallybad.
You, you create all kinds ofproblems.
You put the company into areactionary mode when you aren't
ahead of it.
You think, oh no, maybe I canturn this around, maybe we can
fix it.
Let the, let your team know, letpeople know you show up with
owners.
Show up prepared.
They're prepared forone-on-ones, they're prepared
(12:56):
for meetings with agendas, theytake positions, they're very
concerned about efficiency.
They have insight, clarity,suggestions, right, and so they
don't just come.
They never come to theone-on-one with just the problem
.
They never come to the meetingwith just the problem.
They've thought through somepotential solutions so they're
(13:20):
ready to go with that part of it.
They focus on thinking likeowners, the leaders who scale in
this area.
They focus on high leveragework, task activities, things
that move the needle, that don'tjust make noise.
High leverage work that's whatan owner cares about.
(13:45):
They don't care about keepingeverybody busy or whether
everybody shows up.
Are we actually moving theneedle today?
That's what think like owners,all those things.
What I mean by the third areayou want to scale, you want to
get promoted, you want to bevisible, you want to be invited
into the conversation.
You own the narrative.
You think like an owner.
And third, you're visible.
Be visible.
(14:06):
What do I mean by that?
Visible is all about makingsure that you're offering ideas,
that you are contributing toinnovative solutions.
You're challenging the statusquo quo.
(14:29):
You're doing all of that in arespectful way.
I'll give you an.
I'll give you a.
For instance, yesterday.
Yesterday I was in a meetingwith a new client of ours.
They're going to put uh severalhundred of their uh managers in
north america through lead in30 uh, starting in two weeks
from now.
They're a brand neworganization to us.
(14:50):
They had somebody that went toour website that signed up for
certification, meaning theywanted to become certified.
They're in the HR space, theyhappen to work in L and D,
learning and development and andthey wanted to get certified or
at least find out about lead in30.
They'd heard about it, so theygot certified in the content to
be able to deliver it internallyand see whether or not you know
it would fit.
(15:10):
They went in clarity, alignment.
They were like holy crap, theseare two areas that are so
critical.
We don't have clarity in ourorganization.
It's affecting our businessoutcomes this is an organization
of more than 10,000 employeesand an alignment We've got
challenges with alignment.
So they they thought, okay, weneed, we need to put, put people
, put people through this.
So, long story short, we builtrelate.
(15:37):
They reached out to us.
They went through acertification process.
We do that every three weeksonline.
We offer it free.
All those details are on ourwebsite if you're interested in
it.
And so these HR folks came.
They're like we want tointroduce you to some folks.
Long story short, we're in thecorporate offices on their
campus yesterday first time, andwe, we, uh, they, they gave us
a full day with the senior uhexecutive team for north america
(15:57):
.
So we're in there and I'mfacilitating the meeting.
The, the, the senior executive,and, and and his direct reports
are all in there, as well as acouple of the L&D folks, and we
take our first break.
So we're an hour and a halfinto this in-person meeting.
The conversation's amazing.
It's so impactful.
Everybody's relieved becausethey didn't really know us, our
firm, that well, and so you knowthey had a little bit of
(16:19):
concern about that and we putall that to bed in the first
hour, hopefully in the firstfive minutes.
Anyway, we take the first breakand the senior executive and I
huddle for a minute.
So I'm asking him, cause I have, like hardly any relationship
with him.
I asked him hey, how do you?
How do you feel the meeting'sgoing?
What do you?
What adjustments should youwant me to make to the way I'm
facilitating this, thediscussion?
And he said I haven't heardfrom and he mentioned a couple
(16:43):
of names.
I haven't heard from these twomembers of the team enough.
So can you call on them or callthem out, russ, like I really
want everyone in the roomcontributing?
Those two executives were notvisible.
No, they were not visible.
I've done a lot of podcastepisodes about visibility,
accessibility and transparencyhow critical those are important
(17:05):
.
Especially they're important inan onsite, in-person company.
But a hybrid holy cow.
In fact, I was talking to myson who just started his career,
coming out of college in thelast two weeks and I was talking
to him about he's got a coupleof days a week where he is
remote.
That's just the way that theircompany works.
So three days on site theydictate what days those are.
(17:25):
So he commutes into the, intothe, to the this company it's a
healthcare company and then theother two days he's he's a
remote.
So I'm talking to him, we're ona phone call and I'm catching
up with him on it as I'm headedto the airport the other day and
I said to him.
I said, tyler, I would have youthink about how you're visible
on the days that you're not inthe office.
What's your strategy for beingvisible on those days?
(17:48):
So we talked about what thatlooks like and the dynamics of
his team, his bosses anddifferent things, and visibility
is so critically important.
When I was early in mymanagement career, I went to
leadership meetings and I neverspoke up.
Now I'm not advocating that youtake over the meeting.
Don't be that guy or gal Like.
(18:08):
We don't need to hear from youon everything.
Your radar needs to be in placeand it needs to be efficient
and effective, but you need toweigh in on the topic.
Be visible.
And I'm not just talking aboutmeetings too.
I'm talking about how are youoffering ideas?
How are you challenging thestatus quo?
Where are you helping usinnovate?
(18:28):
Where are you raising your hand?
What projects are you taking on?
How are you expanding your realestate in this company?
And, and and you know it's somessed up with so many people is
they think that compensationshould expand before
contribution, and they've got itall backwards.
So, in other words, give methat title, give me that role,
(18:51):
give me that additionalresponsibility and and and
increase my compensation andthen watch the impact I'm gonna
to have Backwards, backwards.
That's why you're stuck.
You're doing it backwards.
What I'm suggesting to you isthat you go contribute in ways
that are outsized for your role.
(19:11):
This goes back to, kind of, thefirst point about the narrative
.
It goes back to how are youdifferent than every other
director, vp, supervisor,executive, whatever it is that
we've got in our company?
What's unique to you?
What do you bring to the tablethat we would not get with
somebody else?
So you're offering ideas,you're challenging the status
quo, you're taking on additionalprojects, you're reducing the
(19:35):
noise in the organization,you're focusing us on what
matters most, you're buildingthis.
That's what's happening.
And then, after you've done thatfor a while now, we can talk
about expanding your role.
Go, expand your influence, yourcontribution, go I'm going to
say it again, slow, listen to mehere.
I promise you this isincredibly important.
(19:55):
If you really want to getpromoted, if you want to grow,
if you want to be invited intothe other conversations, expand
your contribution before youseek to have a conversation
about expanding your role, yourtitle, your position, your
compensation, you with me?
That, that, that I don't knowhow I figured that out.
(20:19):
Maybe everyone knows that andit's just common sense.
I sure don't know how I figuredthat out.
Maybe everyone knows that andit's just common sense.
I sure don't see it out there.
But for some dumb reason, Idon't know who to give credit to
, because it has to be somebody,a book, a mentor, a parent, I
don't know who it is.
But I understood that principleearly in my career that every
you know, I saw these people goin and seek promotions.
They were rejected, theyweren't noticed.
(20:40):
I saw people want more money,complain, be bitter, um, and and
just talk negatively about howmy salary is the same as what?
This stupid cost of living?
Two percent really?
They think that's it.
Well, yeah, but hello, twopercent.
You don't even just like, like,why do you even get paid more?
Like?
That's such an insensitiveentitlement you're you should
(21:01):
not make more.
Think if you own the business,would you pay somebody more just
for showing up or doing therole?
No, you're expanding the role,the title, the salary, the
income of people who areoutsizing their role, who are
expanding their contribution.
(21:21):
Be visible in our organization.
You're going to get invited tothe conversation.
Part of being visible, too, isI would tell you that where
would I focus in that area?
As close to the customer aspossible.
As close to the customer andimpacting the customer as
possible.
Enabling the sales team, helpthem sell, help them close deals
(21:49):
, help them renew the contract.
I'm going to be visible in thatspace.
Those of you in support rolesor other areas of the
organization that complain aboutthe sales team or view this,
that or the other yeah, they'vegot these problems.
And yes, whatever, I get it,but that we wouldn't have
(22:09):
revenue without them.
And yeah, I know you mightdevelop the products.
And yes, I know they wouldn'thave as many leads if you
weren't doing the marketing.
Yes, I know that you're keepingthem out of trouble and
compliance and all these others,I I get it, but at the end of
the day, if your department issuccessful and sales isn't,
we're not going to exist.
(22:30):
So, be visible and enable, helpthe sales team.
Those that are nearest to thecustomers, those that are coming
up with solutions, innovatingfor the customer Three things in
this episode I want youthinking about.
Which one of these, by the way,do you need to focus on most
right now?
Maybe it's all three.
Like hello, I just need to getnumber one.
(22:50):
Own the narrative.
Have you defined it?
Do you know what it is?
Own the narrative of yourcareer.
What's the story you arebuilding?
What's lacking from that movieright now that would get you
invited to into the conversation.
Make this about what you own,what you can do, not the
executive.
Who?
Who will determine whether ornot you're promoted?
It's not about them right now.
(23:11):
It's about uh, it's about you,it's about me.
What do we own?
So own the narrative.
Number two think like the owner.
You own this business.
Be that concerned about waste,be that concerned about
expanding the top line, be thatconcerned about high leverage
activities, reducing surprises,being prepared, high leverage
(23:31):
work.
Three be visible.
If you're not visible, ifyou're not seen, if you're not
being seen by how you'recontributing, then forget about
being promoted.
It's a pipe dream that.
Those are three areas I wouldsuggest to you, based on my own
experience and what I see inexecutives.
Connect your work to a biggerstory.
(23:51):
Bring leverage, clarity andforesight.
Step into the spaces whereleadership is seen and felt.
Those are critical in scalingyour career.
Put those into practice.
You can thank me later.
That's what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Share this episode with acolleague, your team or a friend
(24:12):
.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
Do you want to get promoted, trusted with more,
pulled into bigger conversations?
It all starts with doing threethings that will help you scale
your career.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastwith Russ Hill.
You cannot be seriousStrengthen your ability to lead
in less than 30 minutes.
(00:25):
The vast majority of my career,I have not owned the business.
So right now it's awesome.
I'm at the stage in life whereI'm one of the co-founders, one
of the owners of our firm.
But for the vast majority of mycareer, my life, I've been an
employee.
I've been a part of somecompany and I've wanted to grow.
Boy, I've been a part of somecompany and I've wanted to grow.
(00:47):
I've had this desire to move upthe org chart, to have expanded
opportunity, to make more money, to learn, to stretch myself,
to be viewed as a critical partof the team.
But you can't get there like onday two, right?
Hello, nice to meet you.
I'm Russ.
Thanks for hiring me for thecompany.
Now please promote me.
You know what I mean.
Hello, I'm here on the lowestlevel of the org chart.
(01:08):
I want to be on the seniorexecutive team.
Are you good with that?
Okay, good, no, it takes time.
It takes effort, the proathlete you watch in the various
sports leagues how many hours,how much effort, how much
attention, how many sacrificeshave they put in to get to that
stage.
(01:29):
And so, as you're on thatjourney whether you're listening
, and you're 20 years old or 23,and you're just coming out of
college and into that first job,that first career, or you're 43
and you've got you.
You you've been doing this fora while and you've been part of
this company, or you've been inthis industry, or you've and
you've got you.
You you've been doing this fora while and you've been part of
this company, or you've been inthis industry, or you've.
You've built kind of this trackrecord and you're wondering why
(01:52):
am I not getting promoted?
Why am I being overlooked?
Why is my influence not beingexpanded?
Why did I not get invited to bepart of that project?
Or why am I not being asked tobe part of that meeting, or
whatever it might be?
If you've got this desire, thisdrive to expand, grow your
career and to make more money,have a better lifestyle, all of
(02:14):
those sorts of things, then thisepisode's for you.
I'm going to share with youthree things that are absolutely
critical.
I found it to be true.
These three things in my ownexperience of moving up the org
chart.
But more than my own experience, more valuable than that is
seeing this in leader afterleader after leader who's
(02:34):
getting promoted inorganizations across all
industries.
Welcome in to the Lead in 30podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you an idea, a framework, a
story, a best practice,something for you to consider
implementing in the way that youlead others.
Nothing impacts your life morethan strengthening, improving,
(02:56):
upgrading your ability to leadothers.
That is one of the things thatwe focus on and what we do as an
organization.
You can find out more about ourcompany, our firm, lone Rock
Leadership, lone Rock Leadershipat LoneRockio.
Lonerockio.
We're adding new pages, newsections, new videos, new
(03:16):
content to that website all thetime.
It's nowhere near where we wantit to be, because we don't do
the vast majority of our salesor our growth through a website,
but it is a good resource forpeople.
Okay, and, by the way, I'm RussSilla.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest companies.
Flew back in to Phoenix, thePhoenix area, which is my home,
(03:37):
arizona.
It's about this time of year,about two to three weeks from
now, I'm going to be wonderingwhy I live here, because it'll
be 115 degrees again.
But for the last few monthsI've been very clear on why
because the back door, thewindows, have been open.
It's been beautiful while youall have been suffering through
spring showers and spring snowstorms.
(04:00):
But anyway, it's not the pointof this episode.
I'm so glad to have you here.
Okay, three things that reallyhelp you get noticed, help you
scale your career, and we'll getinto some caveats related to it
at the end.
But if I had to boil it down,it's three things.
Here's the first one, let'sjust get right into it.
Okay, number one leaders whoscale.
(04:21):
Leaders who expand their impact, leaders who are going
someplace in their career.
They own the narrative.
They own the narrative.
What do I mean by that?
They build a consistent or theybuild a story of consistent
impact, consistent performance,and they're able to articulate,
(04:46):
frame up their work over anextended period of time in term.
In the terms of that impact,they're impacting strategic
priorities, not just tacticalwins.
You got it.
So they're connecting the dot.
They're connecting the dotsbetween their team's outputs and
the broader company outcomes.
(05:07):
This narrative, they're able toarticulate it.
They've put it onto a sheet ofpaper, into an Apple note, into
a Google doc, whatever.
What impact am I having here?
Why am I interested in thesedifferent opportunities?
Where have I contributed?
What do I bring that's unique?
We have 25 sales directors.
(05:29):
We have 450 nursing managers,we have 1200 whatevers.
How are you different?
What's unique about you?
If I ask you that question andyou can't answer it immediately,
you don't have a narrative, youhave no idea what it is, what's
(05:50):
unique about you, and you needto be able to find it, to define
it with clarity.
So, if you're starting out atour organization, what's unique
to you?
Why should we put you into thisrole?
A resume is this?
You know, so interesting, howoutdated it is.
It gives me as a hiring manager, as an executive, as somebody
(06:11):
looking at you, it gives me thenuggets of kind of different
positions that you've held.
If that is kind of the endstate of how you summarize
yourself, that is so misguidedbecause there could have been
again a thousand people withthat title at that company or in
that industry.
Your resume, your LinkedInprofile, your whatever you
(06:34):
you've got to be able.
It doesn't give me what youlearned, why you did that?
What you gained from it?
What wisdom did you walk awayfrom?
Why was that important?
So you define the narrative ofyour career.
I'll give you a for instance.
So in my career, when I was inthe media business for the first
15 years of my professionalcareer, I was very interested in
(06:58):
just being very well-rounded.
So my one of my firstmanagement assignments was at a
very successful media brand.
It was number two in its marketratings and revenue wise at the
time that I became a part ofthe management or leadership
team and we worked really hardto get it to number one, from
(07:18):
number two to number one.
That's really hard to overcome.
That final hurdle, right, and,but it was a it a legend of a
brand, very storied history.
I took what was already builtand then and then just helped
keep improving it, stretching it.
Well, okay, that's great, I canhelp take a brand from and, but
(07:39):
I wasn't at the front of theforefront of it.
I was one of the, the, the, theleaders in it let's call it
like director level, and mostorganizations kind of at that
level.
So I wasn't steering the wholeeffort.
What I, what I was lacking thenarrative, the narrative I was
building was lacking being nearthe top, either either a senior
(07:59):
executive, or being up near thetop of a brand that was
hemorrhaging a turnaroundproject.
I'd never led one, so mynarrative needed to include that
chapter, that paragraph.
That's why we moved our familyto Arizona, because I was moved
to help transform anunderperforming, hemorrhaging
(08:20):
brand to the top of theperformance measures in revenue
ratings, all those key metrics,and so that took five years.
I had to build that narrative,that story, that chapter took
five years for me and my team,for me to assemble the team to
diagnose the problem, to executeon it, for the market to
(08:40):
respond to it, build thestrategy, execute on that,
update it.
That narrative I was building.
And so, over time, this is sofrustrating, especially when
you're really driven because youwant it to happen tomorrow and
yet you don't have enough workexperience, life experience for
us to your, your vision's notnot broad enough, and so we
appreciate your work ethic, weappreciate your drive, we
(09:02):
appreciate your commitment, weappreciate your successes.
You just need to compound them,you need to build multiple.
So what's the narrative for youright now?
What does it need to be?
You're owning that.
Own the narrative.
That's what successful leadersdo.
They've got it on the tip oftheir tongue, they've written it
down, they've journaled on it,got it.
(09:24):
If I was in an elevator withyou this weekend or next week
when traveling I see you, orwe're walking out to the rental
car shuttle or whatever it mightbe, and I ask you about it,
could you articulate yeah, thisis it In a few sentences.
Number two leaders who scale,who we want to promote in this
company, whatever company thatis, they think like owners.
(09:46):
Number one own the narrative.
Number two think like owners.
High scaling, fast scalingleaders Don't just execute, they
think they're on the hook forthe entire business.
They're not narrow in theirthinking.
They don't just consider thesuccess of their vertical, of
(10:11):
their department, of theirfunction.
They think broader than that.
Yes, they have to achieve, theyhave to deliver in their
vertical, in their part of thecompany, in the areas that
they're responsible for.
But they think broader.
A couple of other things that Imean by think like owners.
They make their boss's jobeasier.
(10:32):
I remember in my very firstmanagement role thinking you
know what my job really is?
It's to make my boss look good.
Now you might roll your eyes atthat or think really, I don't
know about that.
Right, that was what I focusedon.
It worked darn well for me.
I knew that he was going to ownmost of the successes that I
(10:53):
and my team delivered.
I knew how.
I knew how it was going to playout.
I knew the politics of it.
I knew how, the human behavior.
I knew that I couldn'tarticulate that super well, but
I knew that, okay, he's going tothis is going to make him look
really good, but behind thescenes I know it's really me and
my team we're the onesdelivering on it.
(11:13):
But he's going to get thecredit, he's going to walk the
stage, he's going to go on thetrip, he's going to do all that.
I was okay with it because ofwhere I sat on the org chart.
I wasn't bitter about it, itwas okay.
I made sure he knew.
And then, oh, actually, like ayear or two into it, I thought,
oh my gosh, russ, it's not justwhether he knows it, you need to
(11:33):
make sure your boss's bossknows that how you're
contributing, because he'sprobably not telling that part
of the story.
And so I had to do it in anappropriate way where my boss
didn't feel like I was workingaround him or going around him.
But one of the parts of thinkinglike an owner is making your
boss's job easier.
Anticipate problems.
Remove the friction in thesystem.
(11:54):
The second element of thinkinglike owners is you reduce
surprises.
The biggest challenge for abusiness owner, for senior
executives, are the surprises.
They're constant.
There's nothing you can do tocompletely remove them, but you
can remove as as many aspossible.
There's no executive in yourorganization who wants to be
blindsided.
Do not come into that meetingand make a comment where I go
(12:15):
holy crap, where did that comefrom?
Or I had no idea we were losingthat amount of money.
I had no idea that project wasoff the rails.
It was red and not greenanymore.
You got it.
So reduce surprises.
You're looking at the horizon,you're watching the radar and
you're updating people so thatthey aren't surprised.
(12:35):
You make your boss look reallybad.
You, you create all kinds ofproblems.
You put the company into areactionary mode when you aren't
ahead of it.
You think, oh no, maybe I canturn this around, maybe we can
fix it.
Let the, let your team know, letpeople know you show up with
owners.
Show up prepared.
They're prepared forone-on-ones, they're prepared
(12:56):
for meetings with agendas, theytake positions, they're very
concerned about efficiency.
They have insight, clarity,suggestions, right, and so they
don't just come.
They never come to theone-on-one with just the problem
.
They never come to the meetingwith just the problem.
They've thought through somepotential solutions so they're
(13:20):
ready to go with that part of it.
They focus on thinking likeowners, the leaders who scale in
this area.
They focus on high leveragework, task activities, things
that move the needle, that don'tjust make noise.
High leverage work that's whatan owner cares about.
(13:45):
They don't care about keepingeverybody busy or whether
everybody shows up.
Are we actually moving theneedle today?
That's what think like owners,all those things.
What I mean by the third areayou want to scale, you want to
get promoted, you want to bevisible, you want to be invited
into the conversation.
You own the narrative.
You think like an owner.
And third, you're visible.
Be visible.
(14:06):
What do I mean by that?
Visible is all about makingsure that you're offering ideas,
that you are contributing toinnovative solutions.
You're challenging the statusquo quo.
(14:29):
You're doing all of that in arespectful way.
I'll give you an.
I'll give you a.
For instance, yesterday.
Yesterday I was in a meetingwith a new client of ours.
They're going to put uh severalhundred of their uh managers in
north america through lead in30 uh, starting in two weeks
from now.
They're a brand neworganization to us.
(14:50):
They had somebody that went toour website that signed up for
certification, meaning theywanted to become certified.
They're in the HR space, theyhappen to work in L and D,
learning and development and andthey wanted to get certified or
at least find out about lead in30.
They'd heard about it, so theygot certified in the content to
be able to deliver it internallyand see whether or not you know
it would fit.
(15:10):
They went in clarity, alignment.
They were like holy crap, theseare two areas that are so
critical.
We don't have clarity in ourorganization.
It's affecting our businessoutcomes this is an organization
of more than 10,000 employeesand an alignment We've got
challenges with alignment.
So they they thought, okay, weneed, we need to put, put people
, put people through this.
So, long story short, we builtrelate.
(15:37):
They reached out to us.
They went through acertification process.
We do that every three weeksonline.
We offer it free.
All those details are on ourwebsite if you're interested in
it.
And so these HR folks came.
They're like we want tointroduce you to some folks.
Long story short, we're in thecorporate offices on their
campus yesterday first time, andwe, we, uh, they, they gave us
a full day with the senior uhexecutive team for north america
(15:57):
.
So we're in there and I'mfacilitating the meeting.
The, the, the senior executive,and, and and his direct reports
are all in there, as well as acouple of the L&D folks, and we
take our first break.
So we're an hour and a halfinto this in-person meeting.
The conversation's amazing.
It's so impactful.
Everybody's relieved becausethey didn't really know us, our
firm, that well, and so you knowthey had a little bit of
(16:19):
concern about that and we putall that to bed in the first
hour, hopefully in the firstfive minutes.
Anyway, we take the first breakand the senior executive and I
huddle for a minute.
So I'm asking him, cause I have, like hardly any relationship
with him.
I asked him hey, how do you?
How do you feel the meeting'sgoing?
What do you?
What adjustments should youwant me to make to the way I'm
facilitating this, thediscussion?
And he said I haven't heardfrom and he mentioned a couple
(16:43):
of names.
I haven't heard from these twomembers of the team enough.
So can you call on them or callthem out, russ, like I really
want everyone in the roomcontributing?
Those two executives were notvisible.
No, they were not visible.
I've done a lot of podcastepisodes about visibility,
accessibility and transparencyhow critical those are important
(17:05):
.
Especially they're important inan onsite, in-person company.
But a hybrid holy cow.
In fact, I was talking to myson who just started his career,
coming out of college in thelast two weeks and I was talking
to him about he's got a coupleof days a week where he is
remote.
That's just the way that theircompany works.
So three days on site theydictate what days those are.
(17:25):
So he commutes into the, intothe, to the this company it's a
healthcare company and then theother two days he's he's a
remote.
So I'm talking to him, we're ona phone call and I'm catching
up with him on it as I'm headedto the airport the other day and
I said to him.
I said, tyler, I would have youthink about how you're visible
on the days that you're not inthe office.
What's your strategy for beingvisible on those days?
(17:48):
So we talked about what thatlooks like and the dynamics of
his team, his bosses anddifferent things, and visibility
is so critically important.
When I was early in mymanagement career, I went to
leadership meetings and I neverspoke up.
Now I'm not advocating that youtake over the meeting.
Don't be that guy or gal Like.
(18:08):
We don't need to hear from youon everything.
Your radar needs to be in placeand it needs to be efficient
and effective, but you need toweigh in on the topic.
Be visible.
And I'm not just talking aboutmeetings too.
I'm talking about how are youoffering ideas?
How are you challenging thestatus quo?
Where are you helping usinnovate?
(18:28):
Where are you raising your hand?
What projects are you taking on?
How are you expanding your realestate in this company?
And, and and you know it's somessed up with so many people is
they think that compensationshould expand before
contribution, and they've got itall backwards.
So, in other words, give methat title, give me that role,
(18:51):
give me that additionalresponsibility and and and
increase my compensation andthen watch the impact I'm gonna
to have Backwards, backwards.
That's why you're stuck.
You're doing it backwards.
What I'm suggesting to you isthat you go contribute in ways
that are outsized for your role.
(19:11):
This goes back to, kind of, thefirst point about the narrative
.
It goes back to how are youdifferent than every other
director, vp, supervisor,executive, whatever it is that
we've got in our company?
What's unique to you?
What do you bring to the tablethat we would not get with
somebody else?
So you're offering ideas,you're challenging the status
quo, you're taking on additionalprojects, you're reducing the
(19:35):
noise in the organization,you're focusing us on what
matters most, you're buildingthis.
That's what's happening.
And then, after you've done thatfor a while now, we can talk
about expanding your role.
Go, expand your influence, yourcontribution, go I'm going to
say it again, slow, listen to mehere.
I promise you this isincredibly important.
(19:55):
If you really want to getpromoted, if you want to grow,
if you want to be invited intothe other conversations, expand
your contribution before youseek to have a conversation
about expanding your role, yourtitle, your position, your
compensation, you with me?
That, that, that I don't knowhow I figured that out.
(20:19):
Maybe everyone knows that andit's just common sense.
I sure don't know how I figuredthat out.
Maybe everyone knows that andit's just common sense.
I sure don't see it out there.
But for some dumb reason, Idon't know who to give credit to
, because it has to be somebody,a book, a mentor, a parent, I
don't know who it is.
But I understood that principleearly in my career that every
you know, I saw these people goin and seek promotions.
They were rejected, theyweren't noticed.
(20:40):
I saw people want more money,complain, be bitter, um, and and
just talk negatively about howmy salary is the same as what?
This stupid cost of living?
Two percent really?
They think that's it.
Well, yeah, but hello, twopercent.
You don't even just like, like,why do you even get paid more?
Like?
That's such an insensitiveentitlement you're you should
(21:01):
not make more.
Think if you own the business,would you pay somebody more just
for showing up or doing therole?
No, you're expanding the role,the title, the salary, the
income of people who areoutsizing their role, who are
expanding their contribution.
(21:21):
Be visible in our organization.
You're going to get invited tothe conversation.
Part of being visible, too, isI would tell you that where
would I focus in that area?
As close to the customer aspossible.
As close to the customer andimpacting the customer as
possible.
Enabling the sales team, helpthem sell, help them close deals
(21:49):
, help them renew the contract.
I'm going to be visible in thatspace.
Those of you in support rolesor other areas of the
organization that complain aboutthe sales team or view this,
that or the other yeah, they'vegot these problems.
And yes, whatever, I get it,but that we wouldn't have
(22:09):
revenue without them.
And yeah, I know you mightdevelop the products.
And yes, I know they wouldn'thave as many leads if you
weren't doing the marketing.
Yes, I know that you're keepingthem out of trouble and
compliance and all these others,I I get it, but at the end of
the day, if your department issuccessful and sales isn't,
we're not going to exist.
(22:30):
So, be visible and enable, helpthe sales team.
Those that are nearest to thecustomers, those that are coming
up with solutions, innovatingfor the customer Three things in
this episode I want youthinking about.
Which one of these, by the way,do you need to focus on most
right now?
Maybe it's all three.
Like hello, I just need to getnumber one.
(22:50):
Own the narrative.
Have you defined it?
Do you know what it is?
Own the narrative of yourcareer.
What's the story you arebuilding?
What's lacking from that movieright now that would get you
invited to into the conversation.
Make this about what you own,what you can do, not the
executive.
Who?
Who will determine whether ornot you're promoted?
It's not about them right now.
(23:11):
It's about uh, it's about you,it's about me.
What do we own?
So own the narrative.
Number two think like the owner.
You own this business.
Be that concerned about waste,be that concerned about
expanding the top line, be thatconcerned about high leverage
activities, reducing surprises,being prepared, high leverage
(23:31):
work.
Three be visible.
If you're not visible, ifyou're not seen, if you're not
being seen by how you'recontributing, then forget about
being promoted.
It's a pipe dream that.
Those are three areas I wouldsuggest to you, based on my own
experience and what I see inexecutives.
Connect your work to a biggerstory.
(23:51):
Bring leverage, clarity andforesight.
Step into the spaces whereleadership is seen and felt.
Those are critical in scalingyour career.
Put those into practice.
You can thank me later.
That's what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Share this episode with acolleague, your team or a friend
(24:12):
.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
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