You are a senior IT delivery professional and have hit the glass ceiling. A 3 step approach can help you break the glass ceiling. This approach will help you bridge the gap in your competencies vis-à-vis what’s required to break the glass ceiling.
As a senior delivery personnel, there are 4 possible options for you:
- Option 1: Grow within Delivery
- Option 2: Move from Delivery to BD/Sales
- Option 3: Move from Delivery to Corporate functions
- Option 4: Move to CXO roles
The option you choose should create a win-win for both sides – you and your organization ( current or new). A balance needs to be struck between your aspiration on one hand and your current gaps, on the other. A dose of pragmatism at this stage, brought into play by your coach/mentor, is critical to success. You have to choose only those battles that you can win!
Once, the decision is made on the option, a detailed roadmap will be created for you by your coach/mentor. While, it will be specially tailored for you, here are the broad contours.
First, we need to take stock of where you stand today. In our experience, here is how the current competencies stack up for most senior professional
Why tech can be a solution
Let’s look at how the pathway will map out for one of the scenarios – Grow within Delivery
- Step 1: Understand the strategic drivers for your company and compare it with the current and emerging trends in your industry
- Step 2: Identify the gaps, if any or areas where your company is lagging behind or can do better. Look for white spots
- Step 3: Demonstrate thought leadership and come up with ideas that can address the gaps
- Step 4: Create a business plan ( like an entrepreneur) for the idea chosen. For this to happen, you’ll have to demonstrate – Content Leadership, Financial Acumen and Sales Leadership
- Be resourceful and run a pilot/POC within your current authority, if possible and then present it to the leadership to roll out the same. If it’s not possible to run a pilot/POC, table your plan with the leadership and ask for approval to execute
- If successful, then you’ll be picked up for growth. If the company still doesn’t provide you a growth opportunity, then there are greener pastures outside. Your coach/mentor will be able to help
Now, to be able to execute the steps above, you’ll have to work with your coach/mentor and develop the competencies in the first place. This will require some amount of training (designed keeping the principles of deep practise in mind) and application via action/real projects under the aegis of your coach/mentor. Post, acquisition of the competencies to an acceptable level, you’ll have to apply the same in the sequence shown above.
All this will require tremendous perseverance and grit and hours of deep practise. If you can sustain the grind, then success will be yours!
For the other scenarios, the principle followed will be the same. However, the emphasis on the competencies will be different and the action project will/may be different. Again, what has been spelt here is a generic approach – remember, a specially tailored one will be created for you.
