Developing Executive Thinking

If you are a subject matter expert or have spent most of your life in a particular vertical say marketing or finance, one thing that you will need to move to the C-suite is the skill to think like executives.

What does that mean?

Executive coach Tom Henschel, breaks down executive thinking into two practical interlinked capabilities:

  • Altitude of thought – Are you thinking from a high enough place?
  • Ownership – Run your own business. Don’t wait to be told. Make decisions. Make recommendations. Manage objections. Take a stand and move forward. 

Now the challenge is that both, high level thinking and ownership of business, need, not just a change in attitude, but also some very polished hard and soft skills – like strategy, problem solving, financial acumen, business judgement, influence, communication, executive presence etc.

Inability to develop and apply these skills cause even the most talented professionals to plateau.

“Stepping up to leadership is more like becoming a great chef than following a recipe. The process changes who you are in ways that you might not anticipate….Success in this case depends on your becoming a different person from who you were at the start.”

Herminia Ibarra in her book, “Act like a leader, think like a leader.”

How do you go about developing these skills? 

Executive MBAs and other certified courses are one way. But I ran into a couple of issues with them:

  • Most of them are siloed. One course for strategy, another for leadership, yet another for communication and so on. Even if you do an Exec MBA including all these modules, they are still separate modules. Application of all these disciplines in tandem is an art. It’s like so far you were an expert cook following a chef’s recipe but now you have to come up with a recipe on your own.
  • A certification course is the beginning. You are on your own to find out what are the new developments and thinking in that area, figure out where you need to upgrade yourself and so on. You will still need some hand holding if you are to become effective in applying the concepts you learnt.
  • Finally, let’s be honest, as important as theoretical foundations are, nothing makes us more effective than learning by doing. And for that we need a mentor. Shadowing an executive level leader will enhance our learning curve exponentially. But how many of us get that chance?

So what works?

Here are some resources that have worked for me (and I am not done with this journey, I have a long way to go!). These sources complement the certificate courses I have done:

  • Strategytraining.com : Watch former Mckinsey et al senior partners with distinguished careers in consulting CEOs of fortune 500 companies, mentor senior professionals from various industries in strategy, leadership and career development. These professionals face politics, unsupportive managers and peers, their own short comings, while transforming from subject matter experts to true businessmen. I learnt hard skills like mergers and acquisition strategy, value chain analysis etc. and soft skills like communication, executive presence, influence etc. all in a holistic manner. I have been a subscriber to strategytraining.com for 4 years now. The content is regularly updated and keeps me on top of the latest skills leaders are being trained in.
(PS : If you are a Bridge to Leadership Member, then you can avail a discount on subscribing to strategytraining.com. Use the code "NEHA10OFF")

  • “Act like a leader, think like a leader” by Herminia Ibarra – This book will make you think in a different way about how you go about developing your career and charting the journey to the C-Suite. You will still need to develop the hard and soft skills to master the game.

Stay Tuned. I’ll keep sharing resources, coaches and success stories from the community that will support you in your journey to the C-suite. 

Know of a coach, mentor, book or any other resource that helped you in your journey. Share with us!

Cheers!

Resources to explore

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