To those with managerial experience who strive to do more, the climb does not always matter. It’s much about growing your impact.

I work with many seasoned managers who are hungry to do more, learn more, and challenge themselves while finding new ways to contribute to their organizations. In many cases, they’re not interested in taking on the headaches of senior management, so climbing the ladder isn’t a primary driver. And for some, the climb is the goal. Both are fine and demand the development of similar abilities and skill sets.

If you truly want to scale your impact, you’ll invest in yourself and do the heavy lifting essential for growth.

Six areas to develop to scale your impact

1. Managing (and developing managers)

Shifting from a front-line manager to a manager of managers (MOM) is surprisingly challenging. The managers you develop require careful selection, ongoing coaching, and, importantly, a willingness for you to let go. One of the big mistakes too many MOMs make is struggling to let go of their work and effectively micromanaging their new managers.

Developing as a MOM is a challenging growth experience. There is a sea change in responsibilities, and it’s tricky.

2. Learning to lead outside the lines

It’s easy to develop myopia and focus exclusively on your function, group or silo. In reality, your ability to scale your impact will take place mainly outside the lines and boundaries of your formal organizational group. Those motivated to scale their impact must cultivate the skills of diplomats and coalition builders while growing their networks with individuals and groups in power.

3. Developing as strategists with the ability to turn ideas into actions

This area—developing as a strategist—is likely the most abstract of the skills those seeking to scale their impact must cultivate. It’s also the most important.

Gaining a seat at the strategy table in your organization demands that you understand how your organization creates value for customers and generates profits. To do this, you must master the tools of strategy and cultivate your strategic foresight. Effectively, you need to learn to think critically and differently about the world and how it impacts your world.

Critical thinking is essential, as is the ability to turn ideas into actions and insights and guide adaptation to those insights. Strategy initiatives are experiments manifested in agile projects. The ideas mostly never work as planned, yet the insights gained and the adjustments made to improve outcomes are critical. You scale your impact by cultivating the skills to help your organization align, execute, and renew.

4. Reframing your view on and approach to power and politics in your organization

If you want to scale your impact, you don’t get to say, “I don’t want to play those games.” Of course, I don’t want you to play games, but learning and engaging in your organization’s political environment is essential to scale your impact.

Heavy lifting required

Reality says that wherever a group organizes, a political environment emerges. Some groups and individuals decide what gets done and who does what. So, what does a person who wants to do more or climb higher without compromising their values do?

  • First, reframe your definition of organizational politics as one of organizational relationships and let go of the fear that you will need to engage in smoke-filled backroom discussions. That’s not how it works.
    The reframe is essential for finding ways to climb or contribute.
  • Strive to build relationships with those in your sphere who influence what gets done and who does what.
  • Connect with people in your network, particularly those who assert the influence I described above, and learn what initiatives, goals, and programs are important to them. Knowledge is indeed power.
  • Recognize the power of reciprocity in our organizations and grow your Reciprocity Account. Effectively, if you do something for someone for an initiative vital to them, they’ll owe you one.
  • Become great at Leading outside the lines, as I mentioned above. Importantly, make sure you make heroes out of the people helping you.

5. Strengthen your decision-making muscles

As a child, my mother reminded me, “You are what you eat,” which pushed me to eat more vegetables. The corporate equivalent is “You are only as good as their perception of your decision-making skills.”

It’s a fact of life that someone must choose you to take on that big initiative or lead the special project team. Their choice is a function of their trust in your ability to make good decisions, particularly in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty. It’s imperative to learn to frame/reframe problems on the way to making decisions. You need to understand the biases and traps that too many fall into. And, importantly, it’s essential to revisit your decisions and identify what worked and where your assumptions or thinking might have led you astray.

Remember, they choose you to do more based on their trust in you to make the right decisions.

6. Cultivate your leadership courage

For every individual striving to contribute at a higher level, there are moments of truth when you either lay it on the line or shrink in the face of a meaningful challenge. I count a few key moments in my career where my decisions placed me in (career) harm’s way but were essential to the organization and our team. From derailing a bad merger to betting the firm on a new strategy to crying b.s. on a CEO not upholding the firm’s values, these were all situations where I might have been fired. Fortunately, I had earned the trust of the people in power to make significant, effective decisions and gained their support.

Your decision dilemmas will differ from mine and their scale relative to your level and role. However, you will be tested if you strive to scale your impact. Find the courage to do the right thing or go home.

The bottom line for now:

There’s more to scaling your impact, but that’s a good list for starters. Whether you are developing as a manager of managers or serving as a senior leader navigating your firm’s existential issues, all of the above apply, just to different degrees. Leading formally and informally at scale, developing your strategic thinking skills, learning to operationalize ideas, strengthening as a coalition builder, and facing the realities of your organization’s political environment are all table stakes for success. It’s heavy lifting.

Are you willing to do the heavy lifting essential to scale your impact?

Art's Signature

 

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Art Petty’s Senior Manager Program is the go-to source for developing the skills and tools for scaling your impact. It’s a cohort + coaching + expert instruction program that turbocharges your learning and development. Check here for an upcoming cohort.