The Mindset Shift That Gets Managers Promoted

Key Takeaways

So, you're doing the work, you're delivering the results, but you're stuck not getting promoted, or maybe not feeling like the respected leader that you want to be. In this video, I'm showing you the one thing that separates the managers who get stuck from those that break through. And after 20 years in corporate leadership and coaching hundreds of managers, I've seen this pattern absolutely everywhere. But one thing actually surprised me. It's not about working harder and it's not about learning more skills. The managers who get promoted do something many people don't even think about. Now, if you're like most the clients that I work with on a daily basis and indeed I think most of my YouTube audience, you are a mid to senior level manager and you're hardworking and you've been consistently delivering the results for your organization and you really care about your team, but you may well fall into one of two camps. Now, the first group really wants to get that promotion. You know, you need to be more strategic or develop your team better or build your network with the senior leaders, but you're so busy doing the daily work, firefighting all those issues, attending all those meetings, you end up wondering, how on earth am I ever going to find the time to do all that on top of all of this? The second group, you might not be chasing that promotion necessarily. What you really want is to feel more respected, more confident, and a greater sense of calm in how you lead. But again, you're stuck in the day-to-day knowing you probably should be doing all those things, but struggling to find the time. Here's what both those groups have in common. And it all starts with mindset. You see, I've run loads of leadership programs over the years, and to be honest, mindset is rarely talked about apart from in a very general sense. You know, we jump straight into skills. How do you give feedback? How do you delegate? How do you run better meetings? But unless your mindset as a leader is right, it's incredibly difficult to change behaviors and to get out of your comfort zone to actually experiment and try new ways of doing things. Getting your mindset right sets you up to be a far more successful leader because it kind of acts like your north star. For many, it's just as simple as they never get clear on the kind of leader that they want to become. And because that vision isn't clear, there's nothing pulling you towards it. And the result is you tend to fall back to doing what you've always done. Success as a doer looks totally different from success as a leader. But if you haven't defined what leadership success means for you in your management role, what it looks like, what it feels like, and what you would be doing in your day-to-day as a result, you'll just keep getting pulled back into execution mode. Today, I'm showing you the four mindset elements that bring that clarity. Think of it like a quadrant. There's four interconnected pieces that work together to help you be that confident leader. Get these right and I promise you everything else in leadership becomes both easier and possible. Let's start in the top left. And this is all about your vision as a leader. First, you need to be clear on the leader you want to become. Not statements like I want to be a good leader. That's just way too vague. I mean being really specific. So let me give you a couple of examples of what a leadership vision could sound like. I want to be a leader who develops people where team members come to me knowing they're going to grow their capabilities. Or I want to be known as a strategic thinker who can translate complexity into clear action. The person senior leaders trust in bringing their vision to life. Or I want to be a leader where my team feels confident to speak up, try new things, and learn from mistakes. Do you see the difference? They're very specific. You can picture what this leader actually does differently. And this guides how they spend their time, what their team would say about them. And it also helps you work out where to focus on your personal development to build the skills, the knowledge, and the experiences that allows you to deliver that leadership vision consistently. Now the quickest way to achieve this vision is literally to stop and give yourself a bit of time just to think about it to describe the future you. What will you be able to do perhaps that you can't do right now? What will it feel like to lead the team in this way? And what are the consequences of if you were to behave that way and be that person? what would happen when anybody comes to work with me and we spend time thinking about and helping them get clear on that vision. But once it's clear, it's like a magnet pulling you forward. Next, your values and how you show up. The second thing you need to know are your values. Because values are like an energy source. When you're clear on how you want to show up as a leader, when your actions align with what matters most to you, it's like this energy flowing through you. It builds confidence and momentum. There are just dozens of values. Here's a few. I'm putting them up behind me, but integrity, innovation, collaboration, excellence, courage, growth. But here's the art. You need to pick just a handful that truly speak to you. ones that guide you, not what you think you should value, but what is genuinely important to you and gives you energy. I'm going to share mine just as an example. So, the first is achievements. And I get a real kick from making things happen, moving things forward. And crucially for me, this isn't just about me. It's actually about achieving things as a team, not just for myself. The second one is learning. I absolutely love learning new ways of doing things. I'm willing to try things out, to experiment. That's why I'm just loving uh working with AI right now and learning what it does and what it doesn't do. And one of the benefits of learning as a value is it gives me a really resilient mindset because I can very easily view setbacks as learning opportunities. Third, boldness. Now, this actually has become a lot more important to me over time. Um, it's what gave me the confidence to just put myself out here on YouTube in my 50s. I really took it as I am redefining myself as a leader because I wanted to lead in a different way because I don't manage and lead big teams anymore. But this way I can lead through sharing what I've learned. And the boldness to step out of my comfort zone and encourage others to do the same is really important to me. And I really respect people who are willing to do the same. Next, fairness. Now, if you ask my parents when I was a child, uh they would tell you that I had an incredible sense of fairness, normally led by the statement, "It's not fair." But I believe in fairness of opportunity and in treating people fairly. Now that doesn't mean always compromising down to the lowest common denominator, but it means putting u myself in other people's shoes and taking that into consideration in my thinking. Now, your values are going to be different to mine, but when you're clear on them, decision-m becomes easier. You'll find you're more comfortable facing into more difficult conversations. You'll recognize if an opportunity aligns with your values and you'll see whether when you're working, does it give you energy or does it take it away? And often when that happens, if you lose it, it's because your values are not aligned with what you're being asked to do. That brings us down to bottom left, which is about your leadership role within your whole life. So this is where lots of leadership advice fall short because we talk about leadership just in work. But you can't look at yourself as a leader without looking at your whole life context. Work is just part of your life. But also is your relationships, your health, your passions. And I've talked about this before in this video here. I was really inspired by a book called The Big Five for Life by Michael Streki. and his theory is that you need five big goals to have a fulfilling life. And I read the book and I developed my big five for life at that point. That was back in 2008 and they still guide me today. So if you want to know more, just check out this video. But I like to think of it like a graphic equalizer where you can turn up the volume or turn down the volume on different areas of your life depending on what is needed. and depending on what is important to you. And the truth is when one area takes up a lot of energy, something else has to go down. I'll give you a real example. So for me, life recently has been so busy. And then to add insult to injury, in the middle of it, I ended up with a DVT, which is a deep vein thrombosis, which has completely thrown me off. But because I'm clear on my big five goals for life, I kind of took that situation and very quickly realized I need to pay more attention to my mind, body, and spirit goals because to be honest, I kind of knew I was ignoring them. And in order for me to do that, I was going to have to turn down the volume on some of the other areas. So I had clarity to make the choice. And the choice is so important because when you make a conscious decision, it helps you to emotionally let go. You know the guilt that goes with I need to be doing all these things. Too many capable managers just let work consume everything, fill the gaps and it will. And that's the fast track to burnout and frustration. So, when you see work as part of your life and not just your entire life, you're going to make better decisions and you're going to be so much more resilient when life just throws you those curve balls that come along. And particularly with relationships and health, these aren't things you can just keep putting off till things calm down at work. They need attention now. So, bottom right is then all about your boundaries. Once you're clear on your vision, your values, and your context, you can set real boundaries. No arbitrary rules, but boundaries that actually serve you well. These boundaries control where you focus your time. They stop you being pulled from pillar to post by every demand. They help you be present, whether that's in a strategic meeting or with your family. They help you be resilient instead of just ending up running on empty. And here's what's powerful. When you get these four elements uh right, they work together. Your vision pulls you forward. Your values give you energy. Your life context gives you perspective and your boundaries allowed you to protect your capacity to lead and indeed live well. Once you have these four elements clear, the next step is to work out how you consistently work in a way that allows you to show up as that leader. Uh that's where your ways of working and the rhythms and routines you create for yourself really help you. This mindset piece is the first rung of what I call the leader ladder. And obviously this is what we've covered today. But next on the ladder is systems. So that's how you consistently work so you lead effectively. Then comes influence. That's how you communicate and how you build relationships and have influence and impact. And finally, coach. That's how you develop your team's capability. But it all starts with mindset. Because without that foundation, everything else ends up being just tactics that don't necessarily stick or anchor off anything important. If you want to know where you are on the leader ladder and get the specific next steps, I've created a leader ladder assessment. It's down here. It just takes 5 minutes and it will give you a clear picture of which areas to focus on first. And if this has helped you see where you may be stuck as a leader, I'd love you to subscribe. Every week I share practical leadership lessons. But if you want to shift from doing to leading. This just starts with the clarity of the leader you want to become. Get that right. Everything else follows. And if you want to know more about it, I'd watch this video here because I explain it in more detail.