116: How My Client Got Invited To Her First Executive Role (Without Applying)

Want to know why you keep going on interviews but you're not getting any job offers ? In this episode, we walk through Kim’s journey from dependable senior manager to sought-after Senior Director, unpacking the exact steps we took to get her first executive position without submitting any applications.

Inside From Invisible To In-Demand on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, I’ll teach you the exclusive strategy that gets Black introverted women promoted to the executive level in as little as 5 months. Save your seat here.

Transcript

New Year Welcome & Webinar Sponsor

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Hi Lady Leader and welcome to another episode of the Leading Her Introvert Way podcast. If you're new here, a very, very sincere welcome to you. I'm so glad that you're here and that you found us. And if you are a returning listener, a returning OG, welcome back. So before we get started, I do want to share that today's episode is going to be sponsored by my upcoming webinar. And that upcoming webinar is happening in actually just a week from today, on January 14th, 2026. Happy New Year, by the way. January 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And it's a webinar that if you are someone who is going to make 2026 your year, meaning your year to focus on your career, your year to get promoted, your year to finally land the more senior leader or executive role that your heart desires, then you do not want to miss this webinar. The webinar is called From Invisible to In Demand, which I love that title. Don't you love that title? From Invisible to in Demand, and it is for Black introverted women who are ready to claim their executive seats. So if that is you and if you haven't already signed up for the webinar, go to the show notes, click the link, and reserve your seats. You do not want to miss it. So today's podcast is sponsored by that webinar. And today's topic is one that I think you're going to find interesting. So in the past, what I've done is I've either invited my clients on to share their stories firsthand, or I've tried to interweave the stories of my clients in many of the episodes that you may have listened to previously. Today I want to tell you and share with you the story of one of my clients, Kim. And I think you'll see yourself in Kim's story because a lot of what she experienced is similar to what I hear from many of you when we have the opportunity to talk. So today I'm telling you about Kim. Kim tried for years to go the traditional route to land the senior leader role that she was interested in, and it didn't really work for her. And so she eventually changed her strategy. She got promoted in a very short period of time. And this is the proof that a different approach works, and why I want to share Kim's story with you. Now, Kim was a senior manager and she had worked at an educational company for about eight years. The company that she worked for was a global company that created educational curriculum, educational courses, they had online courses, as well as they worked and sold courses and curriculum to educational institutions. And she worked for them for about eight years. Now she was a high performer, and she knew this because she got kudos from everyone. She got great reviews. She got regular feedback from those that she worked most closely with. And she kept getting more and more project assignments. So she knew she was delivering good results. She knew she was deemed a high performer. The company used those words and those terminologies with her, and she got great bonuses every year as well as a senior manager. So she knew that her work or she felt like her work was valued. What Kim did for the eight years that she was at the company was that she actually took a number of lateral moves. So it wasn't just eight years in the same role. She actually worked for three different departments, three different teams in those eight years. And she took that path because she wanted to continue to learn and she wanted to continue to grow. Although she didn't move up in those eight years, meaning she never got a more senior-level position or senior level role, she did expand her skill set, expand her knowledge by taking on lateral roles. Sidebar, if anyone ever talks to you and says the term lateral promotion, I want you to think about that. I want you to truly investigate it. I want you to call a spade a spade. Because many of us dress up, we know the word promotion is used in so many different ways. But the true definition of a promotion is in fact that you are moving a grade or more up. You are moving up the, if you think about it in terms of a ladder, or you think about it in terms of an org chart, you're moving up in terms of title, you're moving up in terms of salary, you're moving up in terms of expanded responsibility. That is the true definition of a promotion. When someone talks about a lateral promotion, what they're really meaning is you're changing jobs or responsibilities, but you're still making about the same money and you're still making and have the same level of title. Your job title might actually change, but in terms of comparison to where you're leaving, it's equitable. Okay, let me get off my high horse there and come back to the conversation. So for Kim, her lateral moves truly were lateral moves. No one tried to dress them up as promotions, but she was excited about them because she got to learn something different and got exposed to different parts of the business, which was great for her. After being there and taking a number of lateral moves, Kim was finally ready to move up. She thought that, hey, I have done my time, I have learned a lot from different parts of the business. I want to take what I know now, and I want to move up in the company and move from senior manager to maybe director or to vice president. So what she did was she started looking at a lot of internal roles and she was putting her hat in the ring, formally applying to these roles internally, and she was getting interviews, but she wasn't getting any offers. So the company and the hiring managers inside the organization were interested in having conversations with Kim, but she was not getting any offers. Then she got so frustrated with that that she was like, you know what, bump this. If they don't want me, then I'm gonna take my skill set externally. And she started applying to roles externally. But guess what happened? Same thing. She was getting interviews, but she wasn't getting any offers. So when that happened, she started to think, huh, why am I not good enough? Because you know when you start questioning yourself, you're taking the actions that you think you need to be taking, you're doing all the things that you deem are the right things to do, but is still not delivering the results. I know you know what I'm talking about because we've all been there. For Kim, she got really, really frustrated. And she started, frankly, to get a little depressed. That is when she reached out to me because she had spent about a year doing all the things that she thought she needed to do, and she expected that she would have landed something within three, four, maybe five months, but she didn't. And she recognized that something was wrong. Something was not working, and she reached out for help. That is when she and I started working together. Now, once she and I started talking, I was able to quickly see what was actually happening. So it was the classic situation where Kim was doing great work, great work, but the right people in the organization didn't see her as executive material. She was a fabulous, fabulous executor in her organization, which is obvious because many different teams were able to utilize her skill set, right? So we know that she had already proven that she could deliver results for the organization. She was executing. But what she wasn't doing was she wasn't showing and demonstrating that she could operate at a higher level because the director roles and the vice president roles that she was applying for internally, all of them were less about executing and more about strategy development, more about strategic planning. But she didn't have evidence of that, or she wasn't showing evidence of that. Now, her work was clearly visible to her boss, with whom she had a decent relationship. They were very cordial, they weren't BFFs or anything, but they were very cordial. And her boss and she got along, but she didn't quite trust her boss. And one of the reasons she didn't quite trust her boss was because she didn't know that whether or not he was actually supporting her outside of their team. She wasn't confident that he was talking her up. She wasn't confident that he was advocating for her outside of their conversations. And she was 100% sure that her work was not visible to the C-suite and senior executives in the organization. Another thing that was happening for Kim was she had decent relationships around the organization, but they were all mentors, not sponsors. So she was fairly confident that her boss wasn't showcasing her efforts outside of the team. But also Kim knew that she didn't have anybody else that she could rely on to do that. And then, you know, she was not truly positioning herself. She, Kim was that person who would get up every day, go to work, execute, deliver results, go home. She had good working relationships with those people who she came in contact with on a day-to-day basis, but she was not working on her career inside of her organization. She was not working to figure out her career path inside her organization. She was doing her job responsibilities and doing them well on a day-to-day basis. But outside of that, when it came to growing her career, she was not focused on that. So that was Kim's situation. And it was pretty clear after one conversation with her that those things were her struggle. So let me just say, for her, she had a lot of good things going for her. The very first thing that she and I worked on was helping her to define her value proposition. And when I say define her value proposition, the reason why that was really important to do is because when you are looking for and wanting to move into a senior leader or an executive role, it is imperative that you are able to show your company, show the people who are going to be making decisions about that senior leader or executive position what it is that you bring to the table that is different. Now I know everybody's like, well, everybody always has a list. Well, I do this, this, this, this, this, this. Yes. And as Black women, we have our list of things that we are doing and contributing on a regular basis. There is no doubt. But if you can't tie that to something that is unique and you can't tie that to a specific issue that the business needs to solve, then your list of activities ultimately don't hold as much value. So when Kim and I started working together, the very first thing that we did was to define her value proposition. We identified the specific business problem that she could solve at the executive level that hardly anyone else or no one else could solve. And it wasn't, I'm good at my job. It had to be here is the strategic gap that I fill. And for her, one of the benefits that working all those lateral positions gave to her is that she got to see the business and how it operated from various different angles, which meant that her lens at solving problems were a lot more intricate and a lot more nuanced than most of her peers. And so that became the value proposition that she got to offer. She knew how to solve issues and how the business worked so that she could literally lean in and say, hey, I know how these four teams work and they could work together to do X and solve these problems for us. That was her unique contribution or her unique value proposition, I should say. Now, when once we were able to articulate that, that became part of her leadership brand. And that became tied to business outcomes. So I would ask you as you're thinking about moving into the executive level and to senior leadership, what is your value proposition? What is it that you uniquely do and uniquely can contribute? Too many of us will look at what we've already done and start talking about that in terms of why the company should promote us. But that is the wrong approach. It is really, every company wants to know what you can do for them in the future. We as individuals think about promotions as rewards for the work we've already done. But let me just tell you, as a person who has worked in these industries for 30 plus years, companies do not look at it that way. They look at it in terms of not what you have already done, but what can you do for me in the future? They're not going to invest in you in terms of more money, more title, more responsibility if they don't think that you can give something new and different at that next level. So, question to you: what is your unique value proposition? That was the first thing that Kim and I did. We figured that out for her. Then the second thing that we did was we literally built her strategic visibility. It is not enough for anyone, including Kim, to do great work if the people who are making decisions about executive promotions don't know about it. So for Kim, she had, like I mentioned before, good working relationships around the organization, but she did not have good relationships, or I should say, the people who were making decisions about promotions, about pay raises, those people were not intimately aware of what Kim was doing and how she was contributing. So what we did next was we created touch points that positioned her expertise. So for the first thing that we did was we actually, this is one of the things that I do in my one-on-one coaching, we mapped out who the key decision makers were for executive promotions. Who are the people inside the organization who are making those decisions? Some companies make exec give promotions on an ongoing basis and rolling basis. Some companies only do make promotions or have promotions once per year. Some do it twice a year, three times a year. For Kim in particular and her organization, we mapped out who those decision makers were, who's on that committee. Once we figured that out, we then started to create touch points where she could position her expertise. Luckily for her, she did have skip level meetings with her boss's boss, who was a key decision maker for executive promotions. She also was working on a project with one of the chiefs, the chief of technology, I believe. She was on one of those steering committees and projects with him, and she had a couple of others. So those touch points were easier for us to make because she was already doing work that touched some of these individuals. What Kim had been doing previously was that she was trying to randomly network. And I was like, that is not, that's not going to give you any benefit. That's going to take too long, number one. And number two, you don't even know whether the people you're trying to network with are people who have decision-making authority. Let's be more focused, more strategic. And that's what we did. She also started speaking up in meetings where other executives were present. And it wasn't something that she necessarily had to force for herself because Kim, unlike me, although an introvert, she didn't really have a lot of anxiety when it comes to talking and when it comes to sharing her ideas. And I think that came from honestly having made those lateral moves where she, each lateral move gave her a little more confidence in her outlook and her viewpoint. So she started speaking up more in meetings, particularly those meetings that she was attending that where other executives were present. And she did that because she wanted them to see and hear how she could contribute at a different level of the organization. And she started connecting her work very much to the company priorities in more visible ways. So these are the things that made her increase her visibility very quickly just in a couple of months. The third thing that she and I worked on, and I know you're gonna know what I'm talking about here, which was cultivating a sponsor. And this became really, really important because I always think of having a sponsor as the big multiplier when you are trying to get promoted inside your organization or move into a more senior role. Because sponsors are the individuals who are going to use their political capital. They've already achieved likely what you're hoping to achieve. They've already held a role at the level that you're trying to get to. And so when a Sponsor who has respect of the organization and who has political capital is willing to and able to speak up on your behalf, it literally helps you expedite your path to where you want to go. And so she didn't have any sponsors. And it became particularly important for her because we weren't sure whether or not her boss was truly an ally, whether her boss was acting in a sponsor role for her. So what did we do? We identify who in the organization had the power to advocate for her. And I really advised her to go two levels up because of the situation with her boss, who was one level up from her. She built a relationship strategically, not transactionally. So what we did was because she already knew the chief technology officer, knew him because of the project that they were already working on. We identified him as the best option to sponsor her. She wouldn't have to start from scratch. So she built that relationship strategically. One day after one of the meetings that they were already in, on their way out of the conference room, and she and I planned this. We strategized this, we talked about what she would say, how she would approach him, etc. She went up to him and told him, hey, I'm thinking about what my career is going to be like in the organization, you know, in a year from now, two years from now. And I'd love to pick your brain and see if you have any advice from me. Could I set up something on your schedule? And he was like, sure, of course. And that was the start of their now beautiful sponsor relationship. But she built that relationship strategically. She literally knew what she wanted to get out of it. She also knew what she could contribute to it. And she was very intentional about her approach and how she nurtured it. This made it easy for her to share her value with her now sponsor, and then for him to be able to share her value with others. And he quickly became a champion of hers. So that was the third thing that we worked on. All the while, now we're probably in month two and a half, three, and Kim is still managing her team, right? She's still leading her team because as a senior manager, she had a small team, a team of four, I believe. And she is also working on her career inside her organization by defining her value proposition, by increasing her visibility, and by identifying a sponsor. In the fourth month of Kim and our my work together, she got two, let's say, opportunities that came her way. One was a senior director level role, and a second was a vice president role. Now, when I say they came her way, they didn't just fall in her lap. Because of her sponsor, she wasn't, she didn't have to apply for this job. This wasn't, in fact, they came, these opportunities came her way before they were even posted. And because of her sponsor and because of the visibility that she had been increasing over the past several months, they tapped her on the shoulder and presented her with these opportunities. One she had to interview for, the other was, hey, this is a position that we think you would do well in. Are you interested in it? And the good thing is, at the very beginning of our work together, Kim and I had taken the time to outline, as we were doing her value proposition, we took the time to define her ideal role. And the reason why I did that with Kim, and I do it with all of my private coaching clients, is because you it is very easy to get caught up in a sexy opportunity that might come your way. Whether you apply for it or you it come, you know, someone taps you on the shoulder. It's very easy to see all the bells and whistles of a new opportunity, get excited about it, particularly if you're in a role right now where you just want to get the hell out of it. And when you take the time up front before any opportunities are presented and really think about what you want, it helps you to make a better decision for yourself when the opportunities do come your way. Luckily, Kim and I had done that at the beginning of our work together. So it was really easy for her to decide that even though the vice president opportunity she was presented with was at a higher level, it didn't align with the things that she really valued in a role. So she decided to pursue the senior director role. And the things that I'm talking about was she really wanted broader responsibility. She wanted broader responsibility in an adjacent field to which she was currently in, and that was the senior director role. She also wanted more direct reports. So she went from four direct reports to eight direct reports. And she honestly wanted more executive benefits. And in her organization, luckily, the executive benefits start at the senior director role versus most organizations, it's VP and above. So these were some of the criteria that made it very easy for her to say, I want to go for the senior director role, not the vice president role. Like I said, this opportunity was presented to her before it was even posted. Her sponsor was the one who put her name forward. She still had to interview for the role, but she was the front runner of the role instead of being one of many. Needless to say, Kim got the offer. She interviewed for the job. That was part of our coaching package as well. She got the offer and she was able to increase her salary by$42,000. She became a member of the leadership team and she got the executive title and benefits, all without having to continue looking externally. So she was not still job searching outside of her organization, all without having to leave her company and all without having to start over. Now, when I talked to Kim about this after we had accomplished her goal, what she said was that she thought that she had to work harder. And that was what she was trying to do before she and I actually started our coaching together. She thought she needed more credentials. In fact, before we started working together, she had already applied for a new certification. But what she then said was she realized that she wasn't doing strategy. She was doing more executing. She had a list of things that she thought she needed to do in order to get her promotion. And she really wasn't taking a step back and thinking about it and looking at the evidence and planning. She was just continuing to do it. Same like she was doing on her day-to-day job and day-to-day responsibilities. And when we started working together, she saw the opportunity to work smarter and saw what working smarter meant in terms of growing her career versus working harder. The other thing that she taught, she said as we debriefed, was that she learned from me that being seen as an executive or having executive material isn't about doing more. It is about positioning what you already do, but positioning what you already do in a different way. And I am so excited for her because now her work life, she has a bigger scope, she's got more influence, and she has financial security. And financial security was really important to Kim because she wanted to become a homeowner. And getting that additional$40,000 a year allowed her to finally get her first home. Now, this is what happens when you stop applying randomly and stop over-applying to all these different positions and you start positioning yourself. You stop applying and start positioning yourself. The skills that Kim had, they were already there, but the positioning wasn't. She didn't quite know how to do that. And you don't need to be different. You just need to position yourself differently. Executive promotions do not work like the junior manager role positions. When you're a supervisor and when you're a manager, you literally can use your technical skills to help you get those goals and those positions. But when you're looking to move up in management, what is required of you changes. And many of us are unable to make or see those differences and unable to shift our behaviors immediately to position ourselves to get those types of roles. This is exactly what I am teaching on January 14th, next Wednesday, if you're listening to this episode in real time. The webinar that I am doing is called From Invisible to In Demand, and it is for Black introverted women ready to claim their executive seat in five months or less. You will learn the positioning strategy, you will learn the visibility tactics, you will learn the sponsorship approach. If you, lady leader, want to know how to do this for your own career, for your own goals in your company that you're working in right now, then don't hesitate. Register today and click the link in the show notes. Tuesday, January 14th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is the exact roadmap that you need. See you there.