What Your Boss Wants You to Know to Accelerate Career.

I recently sat down with Lee Wilburn, Regional Director for Casey’s. I have known Lee for five years and am a big fan of his leadership approach. When I first met Lee, he was a District Manager with 16 years of experience with two different retail companies. During our conversation, I asked Lee what he felt allowed him to go from being a District Manager, to Category Manager, to Regional Director in the last 5 years.

5 Tips to Accelerate Career

Find good leaders.

Lee's career took off when he started working with leaders who invested in his potential. They helped him develop new skills, see things from new perspectives, and explore new opportunities. Your growth as a leader will accelerate when you work for individuals that invest in your professional development. This can include the leaders you work for, sponsors, mentors, or coaches who push you to be the best version of yourself.

Be clear in your goals.

Lee set a clear goal for wanting to be a regional manager. He habitually communicated this goal to others and asked them what it would take to get there. Using this guidance, he devised a plan to build the skills and gain the experience he would need to qualify for regional manager positions. To accelerate your career growth, define the type of job that you want, and solicit the help of others in working toward your goal.

Build Emotional Intelligence.

Lee feels that improving his emotional intelligence has helped him to be a better leader. Early in his career, Lee says that he was not as versatile as a leader. His approach worked well with some employees but not all. As he has worked on listening better and being more empathic, he has found that he is able to connect with more employees, meet them where they are, and better inspire them to be the best version of themselves. Higher levels of leadership require you to influence a diverse group of stakeholders. Mastering emotional intelligence will level up your leadership ability allowing you to be effective with a broader range of people.

Take a calculated risk.

Relocating two times in the last 5 years has contributed to Lee’s quick advancement in his career. In hindsight, he thinks he might have been able to progress quicker in his career if he had been more willing to take risks earlier in his career. He did not express regret in his decisions because, as a father, he knows that progressing in his career is not his only goal. He also wants to provide the best environment for his family to thrive and grow. In advancing your career, you must balance new opportunities' rewards with the risk of failure and unintended consequences. Only by weighing the risk and rewards can you confidently take actions that align with your values.

Know when to exit.

Lee has worked for 3 different companies over the last 18 years. He feels he learned important lessons from each company. His final advice to emerging leaders is to follow their gut and seek new opportunities when they feel their learning is slowing down. To be the best version of yourself, you need challenging assignments, so continue to seek out career moves that will allow you to stretch yourself and grow.

Summary

Building a successful career requires you to be confident in your abilities, humble enough to learn from others, and open enough to build relationships with people that can make you better. The five tips Lee provided are great suggestions for any leader aspiring to grow their career. By defining career objectives, developing goals, and creating action plans, you can better position yourself to establish the skills, relationships, and experiences you need to achieve your professional goals.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

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Who should have a personal board of directors?

You need a personal board of directors if you are an entrepreneur, a leader, or a professional who wants to grow and succeed in your career. A personal board of directors is a group of people who can offer you guidance, support, and advice on various aspects of your work and life. Talking with friends and family members about your work can be helpful, but depending on their background and experience, they might be unable to give you the perspective and guidance needed to achieve your goals. This is especially true if you come from a blue-collar background where the rules for getting ahead differ from most white-collar jobs. In addition to your current network, it is helpful to identify peers, mentors, coaches, experts, and role models to help you better understand how to succeed in a business environment where business acumen, strategic planning, and networking are necessary for advancing your career.

Like a company board of directors, a personal board of directors aims to provide the guidance and support you need to fulfill your career goals. The knowledge and skills you have developed to this point of your career have gotten you to where you are, but to move to the next level, you will need to develop new skills, habits, and behaviors. Your current mindset might be getting in the way of letting go of tasks others could do, investing in your business, and making time for self-care. Changing your mindset is crucial as you move into senior-level roles within an organization or work on scaling your business. Having a routine of discussing current business challenges with a trusted group of advisors can help you reduce the feeling of being alone. The group can help you to

• Gain new knowledge and skills you may not learn from your formal education or training.

• Get valuable feedback and constructive criticism from people who can challenge and push you out of your comfort zone.

• Be persistent when you face difficulties or failures.

• Identify partnership opportunities and expand your network with potential collaborators, clients, investors, or mentors.

• Receive opportunities for career development or business expansion.

Who's your support?

• Friends
• Family
• Employees
• Peers

See All Options

You can vote for more than one answer.

There are four steps that you should follow when forming your personal board of directors.

Clearly define your professional goals.

Depending on your goals, the people that should be on your board of directors will change. For example, if you want to become a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), having someone on your board who understands marketing at a high level would be beneficial. It would also be helpful to have someone that is a Senior Executive that understands what it takes to reach the highest levels of leadership within an organization.

Define the type of people you want on your board.

Diversity is paramount. Your intent should be to have a wide range of people from different backgrounds, races, genders, and specialties. Model your personal board after companies like Apple. Apple's board of directors includes:

• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

• Arthur Levison, Founder, and CEO of Calico,

• James A. Bell, CFO and Corporate President at Boeing Company,

• Former Vice President Al Gore

• Alex Gorsky, Former Executive Chair of Johnson and Johnson

• Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America

• Monica Lazano, Former President and CEO of the College Futures Foundation

• Ronald Sugar, Former Chair and CEO of Northrop Grumman

• Susan L. Wagner. Co-founder and Director BlackRock

By having people from different industries, genders, and backgrounds, Apple benefits from the diverse knowledge, skills, and perspectives of the people on its board. You might not be able to attract such big names. Still, you can intentionally seek and build meaningful relationships with diverse groups of people that can advise you on growing your career or business.

Define how you will engage with your board.

Determining the frequency and manner of touching base can help you ensure that you are leveraging your board optimally. One of the benefits of having a board is that you are not dependent on one person for everything. By having multiple people whom you consult, you reduce the burden on any one person and limit the chances of burning out a relationship. Initially, meeting with board members one on one may make sense, but over time it can benefit you to introduce your board members to each other and participate in group discussions.

Show gratitude.

The sacrist resource that we have is time. When people take time out of their schedule to support you, show them some love. Communicating gratitude can manifest itself in many ways. One of the best ways is to provide people with updates on the progress that you have made based on their feedback. When you earn a win because of guidance or help from a board member, let them know. They will likely see your wins as their wins. They invest time in you because they believe in your potential and want to see you succeed. Pay them back by letting them know about their positive impact on your career or business.

Humans are a tribal species. We thrive in communities. As you look to progress your career or business, seek out a tribe that can help you grow into the person your potential. We are the summation of our experiences. The more time you can dedicate to learning from people that know things you do not know, the better prepared you will be for the new challenges. You do not have to figure things out alone. Expand your network, seek out mentors, and hire professionals that can help you achieve your goal.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by helping clients tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call where we can discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

LinkedIn

Facebook