Work harder = bad advice Work smarter = misguided advice What gets you promoted to Director #careeradvice #careertok #corporatelife #executivepresence #careers

Don't work smarter, don't work harder. The problem with those two approaches is that they center work. And if you want to move to the director level and above, you need to center something else entirely. So I run a leadership firm and I work with directors, VPs, and sea level executives. And I notice that the most successful ones do something differently. They center themselves. When you get to the director level and above, your ability to do the work is table stakes. But your differentiator is you. Your perspectives, your judgment, your leadership, your expertise, you. So when my clients come to me and we're trying to unpack what makes them unique, I ask them three questions. One, what do your co-workers come to you for? What are the problems that your co-workers lead on you to solve? That's your judgment. So the second one is, what do you consistently push the team towards that wouldn't happen if you weren't there? So this is your perspective on how the work should get done, your POV. And the third one is, what are you actually optimizing for right now? So is it money? Is it title? Is it impact? Is it freedom and flexibility? Those things are going to shape what roles and what opportunities you go after. After you answer those questions, that clarity is going to force you to show up differently. You're going to ask for what you want because you actually know what you want. And you may even notice that you're going to start getting invited to meetings that you were previously not invited to because you're not just the person who gets the work done. You're the person with the trusted opinion on how the work should get done. That's a leader. So I'm Ashley. I run a leadership firm and I help smart people get to where they want to be in their careers. And honestly, that's the director level and above. I also write a weekly career newsletter called Reframed and you can sign up for free at the link in my bio.