Executive Coaching

Going from director to VP?

• You are good at your job. You’ve been promoted. You manage headcount
• You are motivated and reliable. A firefighter. A strong track record, and you’re exhausted
• What got you here (good) will not get you there (elite)

SWitching industries or roles?

• A lot has changed; new industry, new role, new geography
• How to parlay your existing skills, relationships, ambitions into the new role?
• How to study-up quickly – like an external consultant – so you’re productive immediately?

Building your 3rd career?

• What will you do after your current corporate job? 
• How of your IP (thinking, point of view) have you put on paper? How’s your portfolio? 
• If you had a 3 year head-start to build your own business or consultancy, what would it be?  

Career strategy, not just planning

We already plan a lot. Analyzing the data. Breaking down your goals in action plans, budgets, tactics. Now it’s time to be a career strategist:

• Build on your unfair advantages, what you are uniquely good at
• Redefine what “winning” looks like for you; more than just hitting your targets
• Articulate what trade-offs you need to make (“heck yes” or “no”)
• Figure out how to harness GenAI with your work (automation, workflow, agents, self-training)
• Run experiments – professionally, personally – not waiting for permission

What does success look like?

• Manage up, doing great work; earn the right to say “no” without losing political capital
• Get pulled into critical conversations earlier – not after the fact
• Become mini-famous for your decisions and judgment, not just your hard work
• Get over the imposter syndrome; stop sounding like a manager
• Streamline your system so that excellence becomes a habit, not an action item 

Who is John?

Associate professor in the practice at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. A management consultant by training and passion: 5 years at Deloitte, 6 years in healthcare consulting. Love all things consulting and learning: 80,000+ learners on Coursera, 600+ blog posts like this: 

• Essentialism: doing less better Imposter syndrome, a little bit is healthy
• Present: persuade without misleading
• GenAI, it’s a terrible time to be average
• Why clients don’t implement
• Trust is fast
• Coursera: Management Consulting (5 courses)
• Coursera: Mastering Business Essentials (6 courses)

Next steps: 

• Read a few articles above
• Do you have the time, budget to commit to your own strategy reboot?
• Email me jkstrategy@consultantsmind.com
• Let’s have a 20 min working session, see if there’s a fit