Climb the Mountain

FountainBlue’s September 17 Front Line Managers Online meeting was on the topic of ‘Climb the Mountain’, featuring Sanchita Gupta, Amber Barber and Krista Pavlakos.

We were fortunate to have such courageous, bold, authentic and dynamic panelists who represented a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. Below is a composite of their thoughts and recommendations about climbing the corporate ladder.

Some thoughts on relationships:

• Build relationships and networks of trust.
• Remember that you are not alone. Reach out and build connections and community around you. Keep speaking your truth and see who else has similar experiences.

Some thoughts on stretching yourself:

• Leverage the feedback you receive even when it confuses and puzzles you and makes you uncomfortable. This may be your ticket to the next level. 
• Adopt a growth mindset, and help others to do the same.
• Be open to new experiences and thoughts.
• Step in to leadership vacuums and collaborate with others to achieve results once you step in.
• Be passionate about what you do and work hard to do it well. 
• Be fully yourself and grow and advance on YOUR terms, rather than trying to follow someone’s footsteps, fit someone’s mold.

Some thoughts on how to solve problems:

• Focus on solving problems for others on your team and helping them to succeed.
• Be curious about the problems, motivations and needs of others and work collaboratively to address their needs.
• Ask ‘what happened’ when something succeeds or fails, but more importantly ask ‘WHY did it happen’.

Some thoughts on communication:

• Communicate transparently, authentically, regularly.
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – so stay on top of your coordination and communication to help keep everyone on the same page, focused on the same objectives.

Some thoughts on resiliency:

• Sometimes the people closest to you discourage you from doing what you know you can do. Choose to persevere anyway.
• Push beyond your own comfort zones. Never settle for mediocrity and become complacent.
• Confidently and courageously choose to persevere one step at a time, no matter who or what gets in the way.

Some thoughts on planning:

• Plan for the unknown as best you can, and be agile and other about the problems you’ll face, and the actions required to solve the problem. 
• Don’t plan to get it right every time all the time, but do plan to learn from both successes and failures.
• Go broad, go deep with your impact, and proactively plan for your next steps.
• Sometimes the path forward is not a straight line. That’s still a good thing.
• Sometimes the path forward wasn’t even planned. That’s still a good thing.

Some thoughts about the growth process:

• Growth is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride.
• Sprinkle your lessons with humor and grace.

The bottom line is that if you’re confident, passionate, humble, curious, open-minded and collaborative, you can start climbing that corporate ladder too. And if you do, reach out to trusted others to support you in this worthwhile and challenging journey.

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