This time last year I was at a crossroads in my career. I felt ready to move into a more senior leadership role, however I could not see a path to it from my existing position.

My (limiting) belief was that to be worthy of being a senior leader, you had to be the strongest in your profession or risk tremendous imposter syndrome. This was incredibly daunting and stressful for someone who suffers with perfectionist tendencies. 

I had therefore already limited myself to being a leader in my specialisation of marketing, which would not fulfil my ambition to continue to broaden my skills while moving into senior leadership. I know I love to learn and try new things, and felt I could add so much more value to a team beyond my specialised marketing skills - I just didn’t know how to articulate it or if it was valuable to a senior leadership role.

So, what changed?

I recognised that I didn’t have the answer and that I needed support to help me work it out. I reached out to a Senior Leader who recommended I apply for the Marketing Academy program which I was fortunately selected for. I did not know what to expect, but over the following months through leadership training, coaching and mentorship, I experienced a few key lightbulb moments that changed my career forever. 

1. What got me here will not get me there

The marketing skill set that helped advance my career to this point was not going to get me into more senior leadership roles. This is because I had to fundamentally shift how I think about my career moving forward. Instead of focusing inwards to increase my knowledge about this or another industry, I needed to turn the focus outwards on how I could bring the best out in a team.

Realising this was a relief for me. It was also clearer to me that the skills I needed to start focusing on were in areas outside of my profession such as bringing my whole self to work, understanding motivations, and developing trust in relationships.

2. Find your superpowers

As I learnt more about great leaders, I started to review the skills I brought to the table outside of my discipline. To do this, I wrote down some of my thoughts, reflected on feedback I had received from past leaders, and asked people around me who I knew could provide me with honest feedback.

I determined my strengths (or superpowers as I have come to know them) are my customer-centric mindset, building strong relationships, being a strategic thinker and bringing positivity and fun to a team.

If you can find a role that you can use your powers in, you will bring your best self to work. Share your powers and talk about them in interviews.  They make you one of a kind and more than just your professional skills.

3. Leaders do not need all the answers

As a leader it is not your job to know all the answers. Boy did it feel good to hear that. It is about recognising that many voices are more valuable than one and it is my job as a leader to let discussions surface and navigate them. I should be spending more time thinking about how to motivate the team to be open, honest and raise their points of view. This will in turn produce greater ideas and generate a higher performing environment where people feel empowered.

Once I had this new perspective on my role in leadership and the skills I brought, as well as the encouragement of my existing leaders, when the opportunity came up to apply for a senior position in Product (a field I had never worked in), I completely surprised myself by approaching the interview with a level of calm. I was able to articulate clearly and confidently what I could bring to a team. I was able to take back power by level setting. If they were not after or did not value what I could bring to the leadership role and team, then it just wasn’t the right opportunity for me or the team.

Thankfully it was, and I have had the pleasure of leading a highly skilled, high performing product team over the past eight months.

I would be lying if I said that transitioning to a new discipline is easy. For the first few months, I was really trying to find my feet. The positive aspect of this was that when I didn’t know, I asked. By asking, I learnt so much about the field and the immense knowledge the team had. They helped me understand the challenges, the highs and what drives them. This became the basis from which we moved forward. Eight months in and I still do not know what each of the team do intimately, and that is okay, that is not my job.

For anyone who is in a similar situation or looking for the next challenge and are not lucky enough to be part of the Marketing Academy program, I implore you to invest the time in yourself to attend great leadership training, like the Living Leader Program, or reach out to people you admire as great leaders for support. Or you could simply start with thinking about what it is that you contribute to a team beyond your profession – your superpowers – and recognise that they can take you forward on your next career step.