Have any of you know anyone or have any personal experience of how to grow from a mid level manager to a Sr Director/VP ? How important it is to window dress your work to look more important? I've personally seen this helps a lot of people and often times the one who really works very hard without craving any limelight never makes it but some with modest work to show and effective self advertise grow quickly. How much an MBA from a top school counts in this case?
At Walmart, Sr Director/VP is a mid-level manager.
This is also one of the tricks to become a real executive. Go to place with inflated titles and then hop to a real one after a few years. Note not to try banking as your inflated title starting point as most people know about their practices where everyone is a VP.
Disagree
I haven’t done it, but I think it takes some luck, skill, the right timing, and sometimes the right circumstances.
Self advertising helps. I personally can’t do it well but i have seen people who do it really well.
Great question - wish someone had a real answer 🙂
The big thing people lose sight of is in making the jump it's no longer about your individual technical abilities. It's about your leadership skills and leading people. At the VP level you spend 80% of your time managing people and maybe 20% managing tasks and the technical end of the business. Read "What got you here won't get you there" if you have some time, was one of the best books I read in making the jump. The executive team needs to see you as one of them in terms being able to get the job done and grow a team under you, which can be a tough sell if you aren't already a thought leader in your org.
Read the book - while interesting I didn't get any big takeaways. Frustrated in current role as I'm on the outside of issues discussed. First time felt like that in my career.
In my experience, about 1 in 100 employees will make it to the VP level. It's not a natural progression for everyone. If you didn't get any big takeaways from that book then go invest in a management coach and have them give you an independent evaluation. There are a lot of factors involved in being promoted up that high, and most will be around how well you fit with your current company.
Because the ultimate decision is the holistic, subjective determination of people above, you will need to have someone above who actively supports your growth (both in terms of mentorship directly and support for building your reportaron indirectly). Someone who believes you have the potential to succeed at that next level, and is certain enough about this to risk their reputation and success in that opinion. Ideally you develop relationships with several people above you in adjacent orgs
Join Albertsons as a low-level and hop back
Only real way is to either start your own company or be related to one of the VPs.
truth