How to Go from Manager to Director - Land an Executive Level Position

I've been a manager for seven years. When will I be ready to be a director? I'm capable of managing my team successfully.

So why haven't I been promoted to director level? Now, these are the questions I receive all the time from my clients and generally in a corporation, the progression into director-level read something like this. You start out as an individual contributor and then you are promoted to manager.

And within manager, of course, are junior manager, mid-level manager, and senior level manager. And after that, you become a director. And then director beyond you become VP vice president, and then the c-level and that's generally how things occur.

You see most of the things that we do what we think about when it comes to being promoted from manager to director, most of the things that are required to be a great individual contributor are the exact opposite of the things that you need to be successful when it comes to director level. So that's why in this video, I want to share with you some key strategies that I share with my clients as well when it comes to being competitive and positioning yourself for director level even before you have the official title. Now, it's important to begin to position yourself that way.

Even if you're not sure if at the next review, that you might get that promotion because marketing yourself is a key component of the promotion. It is a process. It's not that you start marketing the minute you are asked with the promotion, or you start marketing during the performance review, where you're being assessed.

Marketing is an entire process you can't leave until the very end. So that's what I want to share with you today and some of the key strategies that you can implement right away. And just a hint, a lot of them require a mindset shift.

So, that's why you can get, you can get kind of you can get away for it for a while, when it comes to being an individual contributor and being used to that rule, you can get away with that for a while when you are at the manager level. But as soon as you are at the director level, it's a whole different game. If you can think of it as kind of like a game board, you have a game board, which is at the individual contributer and that could breed into manager level and you can still be successful and feel like you're making progress.

But at the director level, it is a completely different game board. Think of it as board games, right? What happens when you play a different board game?

Different rules, different strategies for success, and that's exactly how you want to think about it when it comes to manager versus director, different rules and different strategies for success. So the director level you got to start to operate cross-functionally and manage to be used to, and have the vernacular on how to manage a larger team with a much broader set of responsibilities. So, what I want to share with you in this video are the ABCs of how to go from manager to a director.

And I want to hear from you as well. Comment below, if what I'm saying with you resonates with you and this is an interesting topic for you. Give me a thumbs up as well.

Let me know you're here and remember to subscribe to my channel. Ring that bell below the video as well so that you could be notified every time I release a new video, right? So ABCs of how to become manager and being promoted to director.

ABC's. A is for articulate. Articulate what?

Articulate new standards of excellence. And this is as a director, one of your key roles on the director level is to lead a team and you're leading them to adopt new processes. These new processes are key in the corporation to lead to improvements and the improvements that a company is aiming for at a director level, the improvements you are able to provide them are orders of magnitude higher than what you have been able to achieve as a manager.

So this is orders of magnitude higher. Think about the way that the improvement of processes that you had as an individual contributor and as a manager, and think bigger than that and that is the director level. Right?

Managers lead a team to execute based on established processes. And as a manager, you’re used to meeting benchmarks and as individual contributor as well. And it might be that when you were an individual contributor, you might have excelled in those same processes that now that you're a manager, you're teaching your teams how to excel those processes and implement those processes as well.

And so you're essentially as a manager, you're leading your teams to do what you did successfully when you were an individual contributor. Now that I understand that process, but that structure is completely different when you are at director level. At a director level, you're not showing the managers what you did when you were a manager, it requires a completely different way of thinking.

The director now needs to lead people and teams that they don't directly manage. And that's the key. When you are manager, you know, junior, senior, mid-level, doesn't matter when you're a manager you directly you directly have reports and your direct reports are reporting to you.

So therefore you tell them what to do, you tell them what the vision is and you course correct when necessary. But as a director, you are leading cross-functional teams and a lot of the teams that you're leading are not directly reporting to you. Yet you need to influence them, that you need to articulate down towards them so they don't directly report to you.

So there's this degree of separation, if you will for lack of a better term, so the question then becomes, how do you lead them? Because this requires an entirely different set of leadership and influence skills. Because here's the thing.

It's one thing to be able to influence people who report to you. And because they report to you by your position as manager, they're willing to do it and they will, they will they will do as they're told, but it's a completely different ballgame. And I always mention this completely different board game.

It's completely different much different thing to be able to influence people, that you don't have direct power over. How could you empower them? How do you influence them?

And how do you get them to execute on your vision? That's a completely different set of leadership skills all together. So here's what I would suggest.

That's why it's important that right now, even before you see a promotion on horizon, if that's what you're serious about achieving, that type of promotion, then right now get involved, find ways to get involved in some more cross-functional responsibilities. Projects that demand cross-functional leadership so that now you can begin to learn what it takes to be successful in that type of directorship environment. By the way, if what I'm saying is resonating with you and you understand the importance of coaching, executive coaching, a lot of directors do, if you look at executives in companies, most of them are currently working with a coach to help them to develop these skills.

Leadership skills, influence skills, communication skills, and also skills on how to navigate through ambiguity. So, if you're serious about investing in that coaching for yourself and you want to work with someone who has helped other executives to become successful and continue that growth trajectory. Then I invite you to book a call with me because below this video, there's a description below the video and on the first link of the description that is the link for you to book a call with me, fill out an application for coaching, executive level coaching.

And this is where either myself or someone from my team will get on a call with you just to explore if whether or not this is the right fit. No commitment. There's nothing to sell.

It's just a conversation to explore whether or not I can truly help you with what you're looking for. And if this is going to be the right fit and it's really an exploration, a discovery call. And this is only for you if you are serious about receiving that type of coaching to take your skills, your understanding, and your competencies to that next level.

So if that's you I look forward to working with you on the inside and making this year and every year your best year ever. So that is the A, ABCs of how to be promoted to director. A was to articulate, B is to become.

Become what? Become a student of your discipline. The difference between manager versus director is exactly this, managers prescribe versus directors who mentor.

Directors mentor. Mentorship is a form of teaching. You're teaching you're passing your knowledge.

Alright so what do I mean by that? Managers prescribe, in other words, managers tell their direct reports, here's the direction we need to go. Here's the challenges we're facing, and here's what we're going to do about it.

So it's a prescription for lack of a better term. Here's here's what we need to do to carry out to come, come across these challenges to get to where we want to be. Okay team, let's implement.

Whereas directors are teaching a completely different skill set and modality of communication. Right? Teaching is not the same thing as prescribing.

It requires a completely different mindset and modality of communication. Teaching means that you yourself as a director, or a candidate as a director, you yourself must understand the mental models behind your profession. Because you've worked so hard to develop your skill sets right now, through education, and learning on the job.

But you got to understand what are my mental models? First principle of thinking. So that therefore, you can teach people how to think about the thing, instead of telling them because as a director instead of telling them what action to take, you kind of deeply understand.

Okay, here's what we're going to do. But here's why this works. Here's why this is going to be successful.

Here's why I do what I do. Here's why my approach is this way. And here's why the vision is the vision that it is.

So why do your models work? Why does your strategic thinking work, the way that you implement your critical procedures? Why do those things work?

You got to understand that at the deepest level for yourself, so that you can articulate it. Have you ever noticed that sometimes somebody is could be really good at what they do, but they don't know how to teach somebody to be good at what they do. Have you ever noticed that?

Some of the greatest sports sports, some of the greatest athletes out there or the greatest individuals in their industry. They don't know how to pass on their knowledge. So that's why it's a completely different level of knowledge and communication, to be able to teach it is a much higher level.

And that is what will be expected of you as a director. So I would suggest here's what I would suggest, start learning your exact mental models. The mental models that made you successful both as a manager, and will continue to make you successful as a director.

Start to understand them and understand them to the point that you can articulate it. Communicate it clearly and coherently. And when you understand it, look for the key functional processes and the competencies in your discipline, and that will equip you with the modality of communication that will position you for success.

Okay. So we have A for articulate, B is to become, and C is to Charter. Charter.

Charter what? Charter the course for the company. This is a key, another key strategy for having positioning yourself, into a director position.

Charter the course of your company, you need to be able to demonstrate that you have the competency to do that. How do you charter the course? Right.

Because the difference again, in this modality, the difference between a manager and a director is this, well, a manager is more involved in overseeing employees and supervising the implementation of the team. The director on the other hand is focused not just on this some this sort of day-to-day implementations. It’s completely different.

Directors, what they do instead is they are fundamental at formulating, what's going to be next? What's going to be next on the company's agenda? What's going to be next on their growth plan?

What's going to be next on their innovation trajectory? What's going to be next in their productivity? So you got to understand, how am I going to chart the course to come?

And you got to do that, chart the course, before delivering instructions to the managers below, you to carry them out, right? So that is the key importance and understand every point that I've shared with you today, shared with you the key difference between manager versus director. It's time to think differently.

It’s time to play a different game. And as a director, you got to be able to consistently not you're not involved in the day-to-day implementation so much anymore, but your day-to-day, what you are dedicated towards is formulating, what is success going to look like? What is it going to look like for us?

And then after that examining and evaluating the company's process, what are the short call? What are the shortfalls for example? Examining, what are the bottlenecks that we’re having?

And what's this system that we're going to put in place? And how is it working? And where is that system failing?

Focusing on the goals of the company is one of the key, the key implementers of the directors, the director level as well, right? So that's ABC. A is articulate, B is to become, C is to charter the course, and D is to develop.

Develop what? Develop great future managers. Think about building a legacy.

We all want to have a legacy which means we want to make our most meaningful contribution using our knowledge and expertise. So, this is really much personified in the director. A director is there to coach and mentor individuals.

And when under their mentorship, those mentees become great managers, they could become great managers. And they lead teams. They are fantastic at being able to instill processes, right?

Compared with managers who just develop certain competencies within an individual contributor. Because if you remember this, when you're in, when you're an individual contributor during that phase of your career, you had a manager mentoring you to help you develop certain areas, key areas of gaps, or maybe competencies that you need to improve and that's what managers do. But at the director level, it's much broader than that, you're developing great managers which then become the future directors.

So this is a complete mindset shift that I encourage you to adopt right now, rather than focus on what you’ve been comfortable with which is helping individuals coach to develop one particular competency. You got to excel at teaching, what are the unique qualifications? What are the unique competencies and abilities that are required to be a great manager, right?

So I want to hear from you, comment below. What are what's your key takeaway that you took from this? What is something that that I spoke to that really resonated with you, that you just really realize, this is it!

I never thought of it this way. This is what I'm going to work on. Comment below and commit to that.

This is the investment you're going to make in yourself. All right, so I look forward to hanging out with you again in my next video.