By Charlotte Otter
It’s an outdated belief that jobs are given. Owning your career – and making it happen on your own terms – is an act of leadership, especially now. What is real today might not be real in five years’ time, so it’s best to be in charge. You can design your dream job, whether it’s in corporate, a small company or in a business of your own making, through strategic visibility, reputation and taking action.
There are a number of things to bear in mind, and the first is building your reputation equity.
Reputation equity
Individuals who are not of the leadership status quo (white and/or male) need to be seen and heard as the leaders they are. This means not only doing an excellent job but talking about it, or what Wavemakers CEO Katja Kolmetz calls ‘externalising your value.’ Her company helps emerging leaders quit imposter syndrome and step up as the leaders they are, and the business has over 15,000 members (some of whom I interviewed for my recent book We Need New Leaders.) Another way to think about externalising your value is as effective telling.
Porter Braswell is the CEO and founder of several start-ups that have inclusivity as their throughline. His book Let Them See You is a great collection of real-world strategies for overcoming obstacles to building a dream leadership role.
Porter says, ‘a critical mistake that many young professionals make, especially those new to an organisation, is waiting until their annual review to highlight their achievements.’ He recommends that you track everything (training, information you sought from people outside your department, extra hours worked, collaborations and anything you initiated), update this list weekly and inform your manager at every check-in. It’s also important to articulate how these helped you support and drive company strategy. By linking your behaviour to strategy, you give your manager the words to use about you.
You own your reputation, and you need to build it. While you can’t control how others see you, you can act consistently, and according to your values, in a way that builds reputation over time. Don’t neglect external channels – the person who is hiring for your next dream role or who will invest in your company is watching.
Diversity as a differentiator
One of the things that became very clear to me during my research for We Need New Leaders is that being from an under-represented minority or having a diverse identity gives individuals the self-understanding and empathy for others that is the foundation for great leadership. The lived experience of difference creates an adaptive fluency that is a leadership advantage.
Psychologist Esther Perel says we used to go to work to make a living, but now we go to work to make meaning. By creating meaningful conversations around diversity and identity, you build a picture of yourself for others as a leader in the making. Don’t try to fit in or become smaller to fit a workplace norm – your story, your struggles and your identity are your differentiators!
Leading without permission
Leadership is not an artefact, handed down from one generation to another, but a living thing that needs to be tended and nurtured. You can decide to lead from where you are – right now. And you do this by leading with your actions, creating value before you’re asked and speaking up.
Leading with your actions means taking initiative (spotting a gap and acting on it), spotting and solving cross-functional or cross-department problems, and creating clarity when you sense chaos. One way to do this is to create checklists for processes that you notice are chaotic or undocumented in your company.
You create value by volunteering for under-resourced projects (especially ones in which you can learn new skills or widen your network) or building a pitch deck or a prototype for something that you see as missing.
Speaking up courageously is another way of showing leadership. It’s not necessary to speak up about everything you see (you might develop a reputation as a complainer) but become known for either sharing ideas that improve the business, calling out bias or challenging outdated practices. Become an advocate for the thing that matters most to you.
It’s the quiet confidence to believe that your voice matters, that you don’t need an official title to drive change and that you focus on creating impact for the business.
Grow your network
Networks shape perceptions of who you are. Aspiring leaders are often told to find mentors and sponsors, but another method of growing your web of advocates is through networks. These can be digital (channels like LinkedIn) or industry associations and alumni groups. The networks you choose to engage in send signals to people about how to think about your reputation.
One of my interviewees is board member and software company president, Meg Bear. She talks about getting comfortable with power and says don’t just focus on delivering outcomes for your manager; focus on being seen and known to many layers of power to create opportunity. She says, ‘You are building relationships to offer value and not take something from them.’ Meg also reminded emerging leaders building a dream leadership job to not neglect their peers. She says people manage up and they manage down, but they often forget to manage sideways.
Define success on your own terms
It is your right to be a whole person at work, whether it’s in a corporate, a small business or your own company. Don’t wait for permission; instead, integrate who and how you are into how you lead and grow. Having a dream job is about purpose (a job that makes you feel the work is worth it), influence (the courage to make an impact) and ownership (the character to take charge and make change).
Creating a dream job is an act of strategy, not luck. By taking the first steps – building your reputation, leading without permission, and growing your network – you are setting yourself up to design the role that is meaningful to you.
About the author
Charlotte Otter is an executive communications expert, speaker, advisor and author of We Need New Leaders: Mastering reputation management to reshape the C-Suite, out now, published by Practical Inspiration Publishing.
