The Q&A Issue: Taking On Less Work, What “VP Material” Actually Is, and Figuring Out What's Next
4 real questions from clients and readers. My honest answers, frameworks, and recommendations.
Welcome to Reframed by Ashley Rudolph. One idea, every week, that changes how you see your career.
Happy Monday, friends! Here’s what I did over the weekend.
Last week, I wrote about how important it is to use language that reflects how high-level your work actually is. I can’t tell you how many times I talk to high achievers who think the key to getting promoted is taking on additional work, when the real solution is improving how they talk about their current work. Mind blowing. If you’re angling for a promotion, you’ll want to read it.
Taking ownership of your career requires you to decide who you want to be before other people do.
I’m doing a Q&A this week. You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers.
One of my favorite things to do is help people find the right solutions to their career challenges. Every week, I hear from ambitious, talented professionals who are stuck. Not because they aren’t good enough (they almost always are) but because they’re playing a waiting game without realizing it. Waiting to be recognized. Waiting for the right moment to go after a new opportunity. Waiting for someone to hand them the title they’ve already earned.
This week’s Q&A is about what happens when you stop waiting.
I selected four common challenges that were shared with me (through this newsletter) or that I’ve helped clients work through. One mindset shift is powering every single one of my responses → taking ownership of your career requires you to decide who you want to be before other people do.
CHALLENGE #1
Q: I want to stop taking on tasks that should be done by others on my team. What are the actual phrases I need to use in meetings to stop me from volunteering to take on more work?
When you’re in a conversation with an executive and they share a problem with you, you should respond with:
Here’s what we should do…
The best way to solve this problem is…
Let me check my team’s capacity and get back to you…
Say these instead of “I’ll handle it” or “I’ll do it”. When you’re Director level and above, it can be very tempting to take on things that come up in conversations with your manager (or other execs). You do this because you want to be helpful, you’re a natural problem solver. But that’s not what they want from you. When colleagues or executives surface a problem, they’re looking to you for direction on what to do about it.
So, instead of defaulting to “doer mode” I want you to imagine them prefacing their statements with “tell me what to do about…[insert problem here]”. Once you see it this way, you can’t unsee it. You will hear some version of “tell me what to do” constantly.
The three phrases above only take 5-seconds to say but they position you as a strategic problem solver instead of a task taker. The best part? You can walk out of the room and hand the work to someone on your team who is better suited to do it.
WORK WITH ME
If you're still defaulting to "I'll handle it" more than you'd like, Elevate is my 1:1 coaching program for directors and executives who are ready to start leading differently. Click the button to learn more →
CHALLENGE #2
Q: How do I get my leadership to see me as VP material?
Here’s a quick way to find out if you’re already operating at the VP level. Answer honestly (you don’t even need your manager’s input for this!).
VP CHECKLIST:
Do you go into meetings with a clear point of view? Y / N
When your boss brings you a problem, do you respond with your recommendation instead of questions intended to get direction from them? Y / N
Can you articulate how your work connects to the company’s business goals, not just your team’s goals? Y / N
Are you spending more time evaluating and directing work than doing it yourself? Y / N
When your calendar fills up, are you protecting time for strategic work instead of saying yes to everything and stretching yourself too thin? Y / N
If you answered “No” to 3 or more of these, those are the exact areas you need to improve on. Don’t be discouraged, use this as a helpful guideline for being able to pinpoint exactly what you need to change.
Executives don’t create a VP layer to reward performance. They create it because they need leaders who: hold a clear point of view, make sound data-backed decisions without being hand-held, think enterprise wide, and get other people to do great work. Doing all of this requires a change in approach.
Most people are asking the wrong question. It isn’t “have I earned it?” The question is: “Am I already operating like a VP?”
Simple.
If you want a deeper dive, I wrote about a topic that is equally as important for getting to VP. It’s about leveraging political capital to fuel your advancement.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT →
CHALLENGE #3
Q: I’ve done a variety of roles over the past few years. How do I decide what I want to do next?
Not knowing what you want next is extremely common among high achievers. You've spent your career problem solving, saying yes to stretch opportunities, and delivering. Problem solving translates across departments, functions, and titles. That’s exactly why there’s so much variety on your resume.
Since most high achievers are capable of pursuing multiple paths, I created a career filter that helps you uncover which path is worth pursuing next.
Here’s how it works:
Look back before looking forward. You aren’t the same person that you were three roles ago. Start by identifying areas that you’ve outgrown (the skills that used to excite you but now feel like drudgery, etc). Then write down the work you’ve enjoyed that led to real impact. Think types of projects, your favorite stakeholders, your best deals, etc. Make an exhaustive list.
Find your Zone of Genius. Most high achievers are stuck in their Zone of Excellence: things you’re highly skilled at, that people reward you for, but that quietly drain you. Your Zone of Genius is different. It’s where your natural strengths meet your deepest motivations. It’s the work that feels like play to you but is hard work to everyone else. Make a list of what work/tasks are in your Zone of Excellence and after that, describe what types of work fit in your Zone of Genius is. Do you see any similarities with Step 1?
Connect with your network. Connect with people in roles and/or industries that are interesting to you. You’ll want to ask them for insights about their work, their companies, or their path. These conversations will give you more data about where you might want to go next. Review your notes from these conversations and take note of what areas interest you, what info confirmed what you no longer want to do, and who could potentially refer you to future opportunities.
Once you work through the above, the right move tends to get obvious pretty quickly. This is what architecting your career looks like, instead of just reacting to it.
CHALLENGE #4
Q: I left corporate leadership to start my own freelance business, it’s been rewarding but I want to go back to corporate. How do I reinvent myself to get back into industry?
I would start by reflecting on what you’ve accomplished over the last 5-10 years in your career (not just your titles/projects). Make an exhaustive list. Once you’re done, analyze the list and see if you can identify any patterns. Those patterns are the problem(s) you love helping companies solve the most.
Here are some examples of some common threads that my clients have identified: scaling marketing or sales teams from scrappy to structured, building creative operations that actually run on time, bringing clarity to the roadmap, improving delivery timelines for technical projects/initiatives, developing talent and culture in orgs that never prioritized it, or translating complex data into decisions that are impactful to the bottom line.
These themes exist whether you’re full-time or freelance. They’re why people want to hire you, even if your titles look disparate on paper. Also, notice how none of them are title or role specific. That’s important.
Once you get clear, two things will happen: you’ll know exactly how to position yourself to hiring managers and you’ll confidently connect with people in your network who can open doors for you. The freelance vs. full-time dichotomy in your story stops being something to explain away. Instead, it becomes proof that you’re great.
That’s how you own your narrative.
If you want more detailed advice about job searching, here’s two newsletters that go deep:
This one gets into storytelling and positioning your experience
This one is about overcoming the job search process
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Every answer in this Q&A comes back to the same thing. You have to decide who you are before someone else does it for you. So, who are you this week?
If you feel stuck, let me know how I can help.
Good luck. See you next week!
Ashley
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