Behavioral Interview Question

1. Build a network. Reach out across your team first, use one-on-one conversations to learn about your teammates and get suggestions for good people to reach out to beyond that tight circle. Do one-on-ones with those people, repeat. Until you have established some degree of ties up your reporting line and across into other portfolios/orgs. The wider the better. You will need this network later. Build it and cultivate it. Keep regular (monthly at least) connections with the ones who seem most open. Don’t do repeats with those who seem annoyed or closed off. So now you know where and who you can go to when you need it. 2. In addition to having your own network that you can reach out to, you also need to ensure that your own brand is seen and noticed and respected as widely through the organization as possible. You will need to go out of your way to trumpet your team’s achievements as publicly within the org as possible. Don’t take sole credit for those things - give credit to your whole team - to maximize the visibility of it. Your goal is so that others in the organization know your name and know your impact, so that they in turn will look to you as a leader they can leverage in their own networks. 3. With those in place, you can focus on your relationship with your direct manager and your skip. Make sure that you are aligned and make sure that they see you acting decisively on their feedback. And make sure that they see your widening network. In order to support your advancement through the organization, they will need to have support from other managers (especially at higher levels), and if you already have strong ties across the org then you are essentially greasing the wheels to make it easier for your manager to put you up for promotions.