I rose from admin to VP , how do I make next jump
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Anonymous
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Hi all,
I am looking for some advice. I’ve worked my way up over 15 years, from an admin role to VP. But I’ve been at this level for a while, and I can feel that if I don’t change how I show up, I might stay “the dependable executor” forever. I want to grow into someone who’s viewed as strategic — not just hardworking. Even though title is VP , I am still "doer". While I delegate, I still often just do it myself because it is faster/easier/more accurate. While I sit at senior management meetings, I see that I take "support posture", provide updates but do not engage in discussion. Senior management relies on my expertise in my field, but from doer perspective. For those of you who’ve walked this path: How did you shift your identity from “the doer” to “the strategist”? What habits or behaviors helped people start seeing you differently? Books, reading recommendations would help. |
Anonymous
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I'll be interested to hear what others say - but on the doing things yourself b/c its faster / easier / more accurate- this reveals a gap in your team development abilities and a key dependency - yourself. You need to create a systemitzed appraoch where you are not a key person dependency - hard to say if it relates to a skills gap for your successors, or its your inability to delegate effectively - but must fix this. Hard to be effective at do-ing AND advising.
For your perspective and how you show-up at meetings - put yourself in senior leaders position - come to the meeting with the goal of sharing not just what the information / deck etc says, but more what it means to them and their role and what action they should or shoudl not take from it. You're probably coming more from a "what the deck says" and not what it means to them. |
Anonymous
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You might have to change companies.
Otherwise, strongly consider hiring an executive coach. |
Anonymous
| Troll. |
Anonymous
Either that or a very small company. |
Anonymous
| Your current company will always see you as the admin regardless of your promotion. |
Anonymous
This. I’d strongly suggest a coach and would also consider it a move makes sense. |
Anonymous
At my former employer, which is a Fortune 1000, there was a VP who started as a receptionist, moved to admin, attended college at nights, then keep progressing. It’s rare but possible. |
Anonymous
Executive coaches are usually useless |
Anonymous
Not necessarily a small company. A woman in my division in my Fortune 100 started off as an intern and rose to SVP over the years. |
Anonymous
You’re not managing correctly or allowing your reports to grow if you’re still doing their work. This is the issue. This is not fair to them either. |
Anonymous
| keep on doing what you are doing and believe in yourself. |
Anonymous
| This was the path before the age of job hopping. Change your focus from HOW to WHY? |
Anonymous
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You have to delegate to build managerial skills, develop your subordinates, be a manager not a doer.
That will be hard because in your current company they will keep looping back and have to be "yes, Larla will be handling that" and " Larla, Marlo asked me about Form 46. I said you were handling that. What's the status? Please touch base with Marlo." Over and over. Then you have to have something to develop a strategy from. Conferences, courses. Something. |
Anonymous
An intern implies college degree, I’m guess g she didn’t transition to admin but came in as an analyst or something after graduation |