238: Thinking Like an Executive: From Firefighter to Strategist
Feb 18, 2025
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Discover how to elevate your leadership from reactive firefighting to strategic thinking. Uncover the story of a Director of Engineering who transformed her approach, gaining a promotion in just eight months. Learn the power of authentic confidence to delegate tasks and tackle imposter syndrome. Explore methods for making high-impact decisions with long-term benefits. Shift your mindset from identifying problems to embracing solutions, as you develop a vision-driven leadership style.
Embracing a strategic mindset allows leaders to shift from reactive firefighting to proactivity, enhancing long-term impact and decision-making.
Cultivating authentic confidence empowers leaders to delegate effectively, enabling them to focus on high-impact decisions and strategic planning.
Deep dives
Developing Executive Mindset
Having an executive presence entails developing a strategic mindset rather than remaining in a reactive state. It is crucial to shift from being consumed by operational tasks to proactively addressing challenges by implementing prevention strategies. For example, a client recognized as a problem solver was burning out from her 70-hour work weeks but, after adopting an executive framework, she learned to focus on strategic planning and delegation, which ultimately led to her promotion. This approach emphasizes the need to be less reactive and more proactive, empowering teams to achieve goals effectively.
The Importance of Authentic Confidence
Authentic confidence is essential for demonstrating executive presence, allowing leaders to communicate effectively without the need to constantly prove themselves. A confident leader makes quick but thoughtful decisions and recognizes the importance of delegating responsibilities to their teams, thus freeing themselves to engage in strategic initiatives. For instance, one CEO learned to prioritize revenue-generating tasks over non-essential items, resulting in significant improvements in her business operations. Cultivating authentic confidence involves acknowledging skills and capabilities, ultimately leading to better decision-making and trust in others.
Transitioning from Problem Solver to Solution Provider
Transitioning from being a problem-focused leader to a solution-oriented one is vital for anyone aspiring to executive roles. This means addressing challenges directly and presenting well-thought-out solutions that align with the company’s vision and strategy. A client struggling with securing resources found success by articulating the ROI of her proposals, leading to a significant budget increase for her initiatives. Higher-level leaders must learn to delegate effectively and drive ideas to fruition, transforming themselves into influential decision-makers within their organizations.
Thinking like an executive means moving from reactive to strategic leadership, making confident decisions, and focusing on long-term impact. In part two of my series on executive mindset, I’m shifting from how executive presence feels to what you do when you embody it.
I explore the story of Sarah, a Director of Engineering who went from constant firefighting to executive thinking—and earned a promotion in just eight months. You'll learn how to embrace strategic pauses, delegate effectively, and develop the confidence to make high-impact decisions. Plus, I break down the shift from being a problems person to a solutions-driven leader.
If you're ready to stop putting out fires and start leading with vision, this episode is for you!
I dive into:
Shifting from reactive to strategic leadership: stop firefighting and start thinking long term
Building authentic confidence to delegate and tackle imposter syndrome
Thinking bigger: making high impact decisions with long term ROI in mind
Ideas vs. problems vs. solutions: becoming a solutions-driven leader
And more
**Useful links**
If you are ready to uplevel your career, get unstuck or you are simply ready to unlock those leadership time-management techniques then join us in my monthly career & leadership coaching program exclusively for women in tech: https://www.tonicollis.com/academy
Join the Leading Women in Tech community in Slack where we discuss all-the-things for women’s tech leadership, covering everything from early-career leadership to C-level executives.
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