05 Sep 2019 The Power Of Your Executive Advocate
OK, said the Country Managing Partner, Let’s get going. We have three candidates: John, Mike, and Uri. We have to nominate one of them to be admitted to the global partnership.
It was late March, and the Managing Partner was chairing the New Partner Nominations Committee, which met once a year to recommend new partner candidates to the Global Partner Admissions Committee. In some prior years, the Global Committee approved two or even three new partners for our country. But this year the verdict came down that only one candidate was to be nominated. The business was not going well and everyone feared we are going into a recession.
Everyone in the office knew the names of the three candidates, and someone even leaked that there was going to be only one nominee this year. Naturally, every member of our country firm was curious to learn who it will be. The three of us were very nervous, spending many sleepless nights contemplating what we would do if we were the lucky ones, or god forbid if we were not to be nominated this year.
The recommendation of the Country Nominations Committee were to remain confidential for several months to come, which caused our stress level to become chronic.
We were equally qualified. We were all leading successful and profitable practices, we all received glowing recommendations from our clients, we were all good team leaders, and we were all active in our professional communities, promoting the name and reputation of the firm.
Five months later, on a Friday afternoon at the beginning of August, our Country Managing Partner was taking his usual office stroll stopping by to chat with whoever was in the office. When he got to my door he leaned in and asked: Do you have a minute for a quick chat? Sure, I said, trembling with the expectation of what’s to come.
He closed the door behind him, approached me, extended his hand and said: Congratulations Partner. It took me several seconds to understand what I just heard.
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The Role of Your Executive Advocate and Mentor
Years later, as I was transitioning into my second career as an Executive Coach, I realized the significance of my relationship with our Country Managing Partner, who hired me when I was a young professional and became my mentor and later, my advocate. I understood clearly how competitive the partnership admission process was, and that if it were not for my Executive Advocate, I would have not been admitted to the partnership that year.
There is one career advancement strategy that has been resonating with my coaching clients more than all others – and that is the strategy of engaging a senior and influential advocate and mentor from within your company.
Engaging Your Executive Advocate and Mentor
1. Deliberate Planning and Execution
Just as we are duty-bound to plan and execute our regular job responsibilities, we have to deliberately plan and execute our career advancement activities.
Some of us are fortunate in that our career advancement occurs naturally, without our deliberate investment of time and energy. But most of us have to make a deliberate investment to make it happen.
In order to maximize your career potential, we recommend that you invest at least 30 minutes per day on your professional development and career advancement.
Specifically, we recommend that you develop a deliberate strategy and plan for engaging your mentor(s) and advocate(s) and that you execute your plan in the same rigorous way you execute your regular job responsibilities.
2. Mentor Versus Advocate – Where To Start
Asking your senior executive: “Madam/Sir, will you advocate for me and support my promotion?” will most probably not go down well.
Our recommendation is that you start by engaging one or more senior people in your company who are prepared to be your mentors. If you select your mentors wisely, and build a relationship of trust and respect with them, one of them may grow to become your Executive Advocate.
First, create a shortlist of potential mentors:
- Choose people who are senior, influential, and well respected;
- Choose people who have leadership qualities and functional/technical expertise in the areas you wish to be mentored; and
- Choose people with whom you are likely to develop positive professional chemistry.
At the right opportunity, approach them and ask if they are willing to be your mentor. People like to be asked for their advice and mentorship.
3. Engaging Your Mentor Effectively
Once your mentor has agreed to work with you, meet with her/him to discuss the “terms of the mentorship”. They will respect you for being clear about what you expect from the relationship.
Think about:
- What specific topics you want to be mentors on, job-related functional topics, career topics, leadership topics, etc.
- How often you would meet and for how long.
- Email the topics for each meeting in advance, so your mentor has the time to prepare.
- Ask what do they expect from you as their mentoree.
- Ask in what professional ways can you give back to the mentoring relationship.
- Ask, what, if anything, should remain out of bounds in your mentoring relationship.
4. Transitioning into Advocate Relationship
Transitioning from a mentoring relationship to an advocate relationship should be done very tactfully and at the right time.
We do not recommend that you explicitly ask your mentor to become your advocate.
Rather, as your relationship with your mentor develops you should look for clues and ask for input from which you would glean whether your mentor is ready to advocate for you.
Examples of clues and questions are:
- What should I be doing to be ready for the next level in my career?
- How long do you think it will take me to be ready for the next level?
- How do you think I am viewed by other senior leaders in the company?
- A clue could be: is your mentor publicly praising you for your achievements in front of other senior leaders.
- Another clue could be: is your mentor recommending or even assigning you for responsibilities that are typically reserved for the next level in the organization.
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If you wish to explore how we can help you to maximize your career potential,
Please contact us at Uri@thewilltochange.com
