Stuck in Middle Management? STOP

I have found that the women I coach need to STOP doing a few things to be more successful.

Women are constantly being told what more they should do to advance in their careers beyond middle management. More often than not, I have found that the women I coach need instead to STOP doing a few things.

So, if you find yourself stuck in the middle of your career path, consider instead what you could stop doing:

Stop doing all the work yourself: find ways to delegate to your team. If your team is not strong enough, develop high potential individuals. If there is no one to develop, make the appropriate people changes.
Stop eating lunch at your desk: get out and connect with influential people in your company, community and industry.
Stop thinking about your to do list: think instead more strategically about the business/industry you are in and uncover unrecognized opportunities.
Stop volunteering to take on routine or repetitive assignments: raise your hand for riskier, higher visibility, more challenging assignments.
Stop fitting in with the crowd: find ways to stand out and become noticeable for your ideas, achievements and results.
Stop waiting to be recognized, rewarded or promoted: find the most direct way that you would find comfortable to ask for what you want and deserve.

As the common phrase goes: What got you here, won’t get you there.

In order to get to middle management you relied on and exhibited some key traits like working hard, producing individual results, keeping your head down, helping out the team by taking on any assignment.

But getting above middle management, to senior and executive positions, requires strategic thinking, opportunity development, succeeding in challenging assignments, a network that includes a sponsor and support internally and externally.

So if you find yourself stuck, instead of doing more of what you’ve been doing, STOP. It may be time to realign your approach, in order to advance.