Dynamic Meeting Strategies to get VPs & Directors Noticed & Rapidly Promoted

Executive coaches often say, “Find your leadership voice.” I say, “Before you find your voice, you better find yourself, the right strategy, and the proof to back up your words, otherwise you’ll find deaf ears, a stone wall, and a bruised ego.  

Every company on the planet is rife with organizational politics. And while politics is often at work behind the scenes, much of it is generated, perpetuated, and exacerbated in meetings. You either learn how to navigate through and around politics, sit out completely, or you get clobbered!  

But many women leaders don’t speak up in meetings because they fear being talked over, dismissed, criticized, or rebuked! This is a realistic concern, particularly when you consider that the mainstream advice offered by most executive coaches sets them up for exactly that.  

Hypothetically speaking, imagine that you are in a meeting with nine of your peers and two senior leaders. The reality is everyone in the room has their own agenda. Without doing a bit of discovery work, you have no idea whether you can trust any of your peers, collaborate with them, or if they will support you. Until you do, it would be wise to exercise some caution.  

I guarantee all nine of your peers want to stand out, get noticed, and be recognized for their contributions and/or ideas. Given that fact, why would you voice your opinion, offer a suggestion, or submit and idea in the meeting. Would you like your peers to steal your idea, modify it, make it their own, and then take credit for it? Or would you like to be subjected to criticism because you do not have hard data which supports your opinion or suggestion? Furthermore, does it make any sense whatsoever to self-advocate or bloviate by rattling off a list of your accomplishments and past success? Even if you score a few points with the senior leaders, you will not score any with your peers. In fact, your likeability, trust, and respect factors will quickly slide into the tank. Please do not do any of that, ever! 

Contrary to what you have been told, the goal is not to fight or jockey for position with peers in meetings. This is not about mustering the courage to go toe-to-toe with peers, and trade punches over ideas, to determine who will secure approval and win the fight. Even if you are triumphant, and get promoted, you are likely to have a difficult time leading because you will have alienated most of your peers in the process. The goal is to strategize and outmaneuver peers while demonstrating to senior leaders that you can lead them. The next and rather obvious question is how to accomplish that and get promoted? 

Setting the Stage 

So, let’s talk strategy. For starters, executive coaches are right about finding your voice. However, they are way off the mark and completely wrong about how to use it. Instead of finding your voice and using it to speak up, offer opinions or suggestions, and self-advocate, use your voice to ask others for their suggestions, ideas, and opinions, and afford them an opportunity to be recognized. Wait a minute! You want me to do what? I thought the idea was for me to get noticed and be recognized? Yes, it is but the shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line, especially when human behavior is involved. Continue reading, and I will explain.   

Peter Drucker, perhaps the greatest management consultant in history, once said, “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” Now Peter Drucker was by no means ignorant, and neither are you nor I ignorant. There is, however, an enormous difference between acting slightly and positively uninformed or unenlightened and being totally and hopelessly ignorant. I have found the slightly uninformed concept to be not only a strength but also highly effective in both leadership and coaching. For instance, leaders who know everything, have all the ideas, and solve all the problems generally find themselves alone, with no one to talk to, and doing all the work. That does not work in leadership, and it does not work in meetings, either. The most powerful tool you will ever possess is the question. When it comes to human behavior, people love to be asked for their opinions, ideas, and suggestions. There is no faster or better way to build a positive relationship, earn respect, gain trust, and increase likeability. Here is how to apply that strategy.  

Laying the Groundwork

Pretend there is a meeting scheduled in two weeks. First and foremost, preparation is key. Research the issue, compile data, and know the subject matter like the back of your hand. As a result of your analysis, you may arrive at a conclusion and even uncover a solution but keep that close to the vest for now.

In the meeting, seize the right opportunity. Wait for the senior leader to open the meeting, elaborate on the issue, and ask others for their opinions. Then, strategically select the right time and place to inject yourself into the conversation. To begin, try and select a peer that you have a positive relationship with. After they offer their opinion, and before the senior leader can jump back in, speak up and say something like, “Excellent point Jim! I came across that in my research as well. Great work on your part. Any idea what the causes are? If Jim does not know, do not make him feel inadequate by stating the answer. Instead, follow up with, “What are your thoughts about X? Could X be related to the issue?” Then say, “Perhaps we can collaborate on that and conduct some additional research?” Never call anyone out or make them look foolish in a meeting. Next, ask the entire group if anyone else has encountered the same trend. If another peer speaks up, repeat the process. Acknowledge, recognize, praise, add to the conversation, and be supportive. To determine how far to go with this strategy, while the 2nd colleague is speaking glance over at the senior leaders to assess their reaction. Are they smiling? Do they have interested looks on their faces, anticipating what you are going to say or do next. If so, then continue. If they appear to be a bit agitated about you directing the conversation, then pull back.

The goal is not to give everyone the right answers or provide the solution, even if you think you know them. The goal is to demonstrate that you can lead, collaborate, speak confidently and intently, and take up space in the room with executive presence. By doing so, you are indirectly garnering support from peers and building clout with senior leaders.

A day or two after the meeting, reach out to the most senior leader and schedule a call or meeting. Ask the leader what he or she thought about the meeting, what their objectives are on the issue at hand, and the goals they would like to achieve. Try and pin them down to specifics and tangible metrics. The following morning, send them an email. Thank the senior leader for his or her time and affirm your commitment to work on the issue or project by listing the objectives and goals. Note: always create a paper trail if you can.

Leading and Producing Results

You have laid the groundwork, now it is time to go to work and lead the people below you to uncover the causes, develop a plan, implement it, and produce some measurable results. I have developed a unique approach for producing extraordinary results called “The Legendary Leadership Blueprint”. If you would like a copy of this free resource, feel free to contact me.  

Once you have tested the plan and proved its effectiveness, share it with two peers that you have vetted, have a positive relationship with, and can trust. Help them implement your strategy and produce results. Finally, document the research, methodologies, nuts and bolts of the plan, data to back up the results, and create a forecast or projection in a highly professional and creative report that you can distribute to peers and senior leaders. 

Getting the Senior Leader on Board  

Reach out to the senior leader to schedule another call or meeting. Elaborate on your work and show the results. Explain that you already shared the plan with two of your peers, and helped them implement it, to validate that the strategy is replicable. Express that you want to get feedback not only from him or her, but you also want to get feedback from the rest of the team. State that your intention is to share the information in the next meeting, but it would be great to have team members review it beforehand so they can share their ideas, add to what you have done, and perhaps combine strategies to take it to the next level.  

In a nutshell, demonstrate that you can lead to senior leaders, collaborate with peers, and bring as many as you can along with you to achieve the objective. That is a stark contrast from fighting it out with peers to determine whose idea is better. Using that methodology, one person wins, and the others lose! 

Delivering the Presentation 

With the approval and support of the senior leader, present your strategy and ask peers for their ideas and suggestions to enhance your plan and take the success you have achieved to the next level. Use the opportunity to recognize and praise those who make positive contributions. Involve and engage as many of your peers as possible. Suggest that each peer put the strategy into play along with their own modifications and enhancements over a specific timeframe and produce a report with their strategies, methodologies, and results to submit to senior leaders. After the meeting, work behind the scenes and visit each one of your peers to ask for feedback, check on their progress, and assist them if possible. If you can, act as a liaison between peers and senior leaders. Encourage senior leaders to incorporate as many diverse ideas as possible when making a final decision. You want to include as many peers as possible. It is best not to make the final call in a meeting because when that occurs publicly, remember, there are always winners and losers. That does not bode well for team building.  

Asking for the Promotion 

You have demonstrated that you can lead on the next level in front of senior leaders. You have gained the support of many of your peers. You have produced some extraordinary results. You have not only found your voice, but you have also used it to take up space in the room, speak confidently, and confirm your executive presence. But, at the end of the day, you still need to ask for the promotion! 

After a final decision has been made on the new strategy and plan, and some time has passed to verify the effectiveness and results, reach out to the senior leader to schedule a meeting. Explain to the senior leader that your goal, moving forward, is to advance to the next level of leadership. Ask him or her if you can get their support on that. This is where you determine exactly where you stand. Do you have support from the right senior leaders? Will you need to seek an alternative track to advance your career? Or are you working for the wrong people and at the wrong company? If the senior leader supports you and will advocate for you when a position is available, that is great. If he or she recognizes your accomplishments but suggests there are other benchmarks that must be met, push them to specifically define what they are. If you feel that you have already met some of them, do not be afraid to challenge him or her in a positive way. After producing the recent results, you now have leverage to back up your request. If the senior leader hands you a bunch of nonsense by claiming that you are not ready, do not have executive presence, and need to take on bigger projects, then you are barking up the wrong tree. You either need to find an alternate track to advance or find a new company. 

In conclusion, there are hundreds of variables to career advancement. Every situation, organizational structure, and political environment are unique. Therefore, some of these strategies may require modification. Or perhaps your situation calls for an entirely different set of strategies. If there is a pearl of wisdom to be captured here, it is that the conventional meeting strategy of presenting an idea as a concrete solution and fighting it out with peers for approval is typically counterproductive to advancement, and it is counterintuitive to great leadership. On the other hand, using the power of questioning and strategic positioning to demonstrate that you can lead your peers, team build, and bring them along with you, in front of senior leaders, is 3X more effective.  

So, the question is what specific strategies do you need to rocket launch your career to the next level of leadership? 

Have you been trying to advance your career from director or vice president to the next level of leadership, but you’ve run into a few political brick walls, stepped into a biased pitfall or two, and you feel stuck?  

Are you tired of being frustrated, stressed out, and nearly burned out from spinning your wheels in meetings and going nowhere fast?  

Employing the right strategies can be the difference between getting noticed and rapidly promoted in 6 months or being trapped where you are for 6 years!

Best regards,  

David Roppo

Coach & Consultant

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