the executive executive
TRANSCRIPT
THE EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE
Building an executive
Courtney, an old friend and fellow executive coach, was exploring an interesting topic with one of her clients.
Divya was a senior director in a global tech giant. Sheâd been working towards becoming a vice-president even
before her coaching with Courtney. Divya knew that getting promoted from director level to VP level was a tough
leap. VPs were officers of the company, so the hurdle was intentionally high.
During their coaching conversations, Divya had wondered what it actually meant to be executive. She wondered,
if you took away her companyâs culture and quirks, what traits do great executives share, across corporations
and industries?
Courtney shared the question with me and asked if Iâd be interested in thinking about it together. Indeed I would, I
told her. We scheduled a Zoom call to share our thoughts.
I began by asking, âDo you know Divyaâs idea about it? What does she think âexecutiveâ looks like?â
âSheâs not sure,â said Courtney. âSheâs seen a lot of different kinds of executives. Sheâs seen leaders she thought
TOM HENSCHELJANUARY 2021
ESSENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS
This monthâs coaching conversation is between two coaches who consider whether effective
executives share common traits. If so, they wonder, can rising leaders reverse engineer their
executive presence?
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were a hot mess that got promoted anyway. And sheâs seen co-workers who are top-notch who canât get
noticed. It doesnât look consistent to her â which is what prompted the whole conversation in the first place!â
I asked, âAnd what about you? Whereâs your thinking on this?â
âIâve been asking myself a question.â
âWhich is?â
âWhich is, if we could deconstruct what it means to be executive, how would I reverse engineer it? What
elements, what qualities, would I want to be sure went in the mix?â
âOh, thatâs great,â I said. âAnd howâre you answering that?â
âIâve come up with two that Iâm sure about. They feel like the tip of the iceberg,â she said.
I sat up in my chair and rubbed my palms. âOkay! Canât wait!â
Resilience
Courtney held up one finger, then another. âResilience and influence.â
âOkay! Resilience and influence.â I made a note. âTell me about each.â
âHereâs an idea related to resilience that Divya and I talked about. I said one way leaders impress me as being
executive is their ability to get over things. Things at her level that might feel like a big speed bump, at the
executive level are barely gravel peas.â
âWhat kind of thing?â I asked.
âOh, letâs say, taking flak during a meeting. For someone at Divyaâs level, that can be devastating. With some of
my clients, oh, gosh, we process things like that over two or three sessions! To me, thatâs not very executive. At
the executive level, incidents like that come and go pretty quickly. There are much bigger fish to fry.â
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âSo is it a kind of maturity?â I asked.
âThatâs part of it, yes. If youâre going to âget overâ something â â
âSuck it up!â I interjected.
âRight, that takes some maturity, for sure. But I call it âresilienceâ because I think good
leaders just get back up and keep going. You fight a lot of battles at the executive
level. Budget battles. Vision battles. Measurement battles. You get knocked down a
lot. If every battle flattens you, youâre not terribly executive!â
âI hear âdonât take it personallyâ embedded in there,â I observed.
âSure! If you take things personally, youâre going to feel flattened a lot of the time.â
âAmen to that!â I agreed. Then, âAfter resilience was influence, right? Whatâs your thinking about influence?â
Influence
She looked away, gathering her thoughts, then said, âAt the executive level, I think influence becomes the
lubricant for the work. At lower levels, like with Divya, measurement is the lubricant. Everyone at her level needs
to put points up on the scoreboard that can get measured. You get measured by the work you turn out. But at
the executive level, the work is too complex. You canât put points up by yourself anymore. You have to have
relationships. You have to be able to influence.â
I nodded, agreeing, saying, âI talk all the time with leaders who want to build better
relationships just so they can keep the gears turning. It strikes me funny that, at their
level, theyâre so surprised to find out how important relationships are. But they didnât
need them in the same way before.â
Courtney smiled, saying, âItâs why I love talking with someone at Divyaâs level about
this. If she can build these skills now, sheâll knock it out of the park later.â
ââGood leadersget back upand keep going
ââLeaders are often surprisehow importantrelationships are
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âWonât she?â I laughed knowingly. Then, I asked, âHave you two talked about influence skills?â
âA little. Not deep yet. Weâve got lots to talk about!â
âWhat do you think might help her develop influence?â I asked.
Taking stock, she said, âSheâs already pretty friendly and easy to be with. Thatâs a plus. But if sheâs going to
influence without authority, I think sheâll probably need to loosen up her right-and-wrong thinking. Sheâs very
concrete, very black-and-white.â
I nodded in understanding. âThatâd be great to work on.â
âDo you have tools to help people soften their right/wrong thinking?â
âUsually I refer people to Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, by Marilee Adams. That book gets right to
the core of it. For a couple of clients, it really did change their lives!â
Organization
Making a note, she said, âOkay! Those are my two ideas about being executive: resilience and influence. What
about you? Whatâve you got?â
I took in a breath as I shifted out of listening mode. I said, âOkay! I have three things I would want to put in the
mix if we were reverse engineering an executive.â
She glanced down. I assumed she was picking up her pen.
Counting on my fingers, I gave labels to my three. âOrganization. Scope. Speed of thought.â
âOrganization as in the organization itself?â she asked as she wrote.
âNo, the ability to actually be organized.â I smiled, remembering, and said, âThis is going to make me sound
ancient, but I remember coaching leaders whose assistants would hand them a card with that dayâs schedule
printed on it.â
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She laughed. âOld school!â
âRight? But hereâs why it made an impression on me. This happened a lot, in different
companies. The leaders would do the same thing. As they examined each item, a little
checklist would fire in their heads. Theyâd look at an item and say, âIâve made notes
on that report.â Or âI approved the slide deck for that meeting.â Whatever it was, theyâd
done their homework. They were organized. They planned ahead. They didnât allow
fire drills. They treated each item on their schedule with respect.â
âThatâs a nice way to think of it,â said Courtney, nodding.
I continued, âAt the executive level, you go from meeting to meeting to meeting, and, because none of the topics
intersect, youâre covering huge chunks of the business. If youâre going to cover that much territory every day, you
have to be organized.â
âBut wait,â Courtney countered. âDivya covers a lot of territory. Sheâs in six or seven meetings a day and, from my
understanding, none of them relate to each other.â
âGood!â I said, âI hope sheâs organized. Sheâll need it! But at her level, the scope of her work isnât as big as her
bossâs. And thatâs my second item. Scope.â
Scope
I went on. âItâs this idea of covering big chunks of territory. Executives need to be mentally nimble, stay at a high
altitude and compartmentalize their work if theyâre going to cover that much ground. The scope is big.â
Courtney nodded, thinking, âExecutives get exposed to a lot.â
âAnd,â I said, âthey are exposed a lot.â
âYou mean vulnerable?â she asked.
âNo, I was thinking about exposure within the company. If you called an all-hands meeting, how many people
ââLeaders treat each item on their schedule with respect
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would that include? Fourteen? Forty? Four hundred?â
Courtney rolled her eyes. âAt Divyaâs company, I think some all-hands meetings are forty thousand!â
I said, âThink about whoever is speaking at that meeting. Thatâs a lot of exposure. Thatâs big scope. Executives
have to be comfortable playing on a big stage. Iâd be curious to know â if Divyaâs scope was significantly bigger, if
she was up in front of more people than she is today, how do you think would that be for her?â
She squinted a little and nodded. âIâm guessing more fun than anxious. Not sure, though.â
âI often say being an executive carries the burden of celebrity. Youâre never offstage.
Someone is always watching you, always judging you. People you donât even know
have opinions about you! I wonder if Divya would welcome that or not.â
âThat makes me think of resilience again. Youâd better be able to get over the haters.â
I said, âScope connects to influence, too. Having a big scope without relationships to
go along with it can be a tough slog.â
Speed of Thought
âI like that these all intertwine. What about your last one? Speed of thought, right?â
âThis one intertwines, too,â I said. âDâyou remember before, I used the phrase âmentally nimble.â Speed of thought
is a version of that.â
âDo mean being smart?â asked Courtney.
I laughed. âThat helps, but no. Hereâs a perfect example. This happened just last week. Iâm coaching a woman
whoâs second-in-command at a big services company. She is plenty smart. Oh, golly, is she! But at our session
last week, other than the first ten minutes, we spent the entire hour-and-a-half talking about one of her direct
reports. Thatâs typical for our sessions. One topic in ninety minutes. Iâd say sheâs not mentally nimble.â
ââExecutives carry the burdens of celebrity
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âDo you think people can teach themselves speed of thought?â she asked.
âYes, I think so,â and referred her to an episode on that specific topic.
She looked down at her notes and said, âOrganization, scope and speed of thought. Plus resilience and influence.
Those are big building blocks.â
âThey are. Of course, theyâre not the whole picture,â I said.
âOf course!â she agreed. Then, with a knowing twinkle, she said, âBut itâll help Divya get started on The Look &
Sound of Leadership.
Core Concepts:
n Resilience means getting over hurts and setbacks
n Influence means having a natural reserve of strong relationships
n Organization means building in lead-time and eliminating fire drills
n Scope means maintaining the highest altitude possible about the work
n Speed of Thought means being mentally alert and nimble
Related Archive Categories:
Executive PresenceManaging YourselfRelationship Building
Related Episodes: Executive Presence â Three PillarsâDonât Take Anything PersonallyâInfluenceShouldering the Burden of LeadershipSpeed of Thought
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