INSIGHTS (on leadership/self-leadership)
What’s blocking your promotion? It’s a question I get a lot, and while it is, of course, specific to individual circumstances, there are general patterns that emerge. I recently read an excellent explanation by executive coach Ariana Ruiz of a very common reason why people don’t advance in their organizations as they’d like.
They’re seen as executors, not orchestrators.
As Ruiz explains: “An executor delivers. They hit their numbers. They solve the problems in front of them. They are reliable, consistent, and indispensable. An orchestrator thinks. They see the system, not just the task. They bring people together across functions. They shape strategy before it becomes execution. The challenge is: organizations need executors to run. But they promote orchestrators.”
So, the question is, how might you change your approach so that you’re perceived more as an orchestrator?
IMPERFECTIONS (a mistake many make)
You’ve heard of professional athletes who go into slumps. They can’t hit the ball, sink the putt, or drain the shot. It’s no different for the rest of us; we’ve all experienced slumps at work when nothing seems to be going our way or improving, and we make the mistake of falling into a rut where we feel like it never will.
The good news is that research shows the way you can break out of your slump is the same as the way pro-athletes break out of theirs: Trust the process and your routine; the work you put in each and every day. That’s what you can control.
IMPLEMENTATION (one research-backed strategy, tip, or tool)
Ever find yourself worrying excessively about a potential problem that’s lurking, like when awaiting results from a skin tag biopsy, or waiting for feedback from a meeting that didn’t go well, or when worrying about a difficult conversation you need to have? Of course, we all have.
The problem is, the anxiety you manufacture as you catastrophize makes it harder to focus on anything else and fosters irrational thinking. And in your mind, it only increases the likelihood that the worst case will actually materialize. Said differently, remember this:
Assume it’s a time bomb, and you’ll only hear the ticking.
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