54 Good leaders do these 3 things. Do you?

What do good leaders actually do at the senior level?

If you’re a director, VP, executive, or seasoned woman leader, the skills that helped you rise through the ranks may not be the same skills that drive success at the strategic level.

In this episode of the Joyfully Unstoppable podcast, Becky Hamm explores three core responsibilities that define good leaders in senior leadership roles: leading up, leading out, and leading down the road. You’ll learn why strong executive leadership requires more than operational excellence, and how to shift your time, attention, and energy toward the work that positions your team and organization for long-term success. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why good leaders master the art of leading up and managing stakeholder expectations
•  How senior leaders stay connected to trends, clients, competitors, and change beyond their organization
•  Why strategic leadership requires looking years into the future, not just managing today’s priorities
•  How to stop becoming the bottleneck in your organization
•  Practical ways to create more time for executive-level leadership work 

If you’ve been feeling buried in operational details, pulled into constant problem-solving, or struggling to find space for strategic thinking, this episode is for you.

#GoodLeaders #WomenLeaders #ExecutiveLeadership #SeniorLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #WomenInLeadership #StrategicLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #JoyfullyUnstoppable #WomenLeadWell #LeadershipSkills #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipGrowth #WomenExecutives #LeadershipStrategy #PodcastForWomen

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Transcript

0:05

Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable, the podcast for women who are ready to succeed without the stress. Whether you're leading a team, a classroom, a boardroom, or your own big, beautiful life, I am so glad you found us. I'm your host, Becky Hamm, leadership coach, speaker, and founder of Women Lead Well. Join me each week for straight talk, practical tips, and a dash of encouragement. Hello, friend. I hope that you are having a great day. Today, we're gonna talk about what I consider to be the fundamental responsibility of a leader. And when I define leader here, I do mean someone who is more mature in their leadership roles. And so if you are in your first role as a manager, or this is your first time leading a team, maybe you're leading one or two people, fantastic. Listen, y- this will still serve you. But really today, I'm speaking to the directors, the VPs, the C-suite level individuals. You've got larger teams, maybe multifaceted teams, teams of teams, and you really are leading an organization. And I'm highlighting that at the outset because I have found with the women that I work with, either in my one-to-one executive coaching practice or inside the Women's Executive Leadership Lab, this seems to be a defining characteristic of women who have, how I would define, as more significant leadership experience, 10 plus years in leadership roles, and that is this- That you tend to get to that place to be a director, a VP in the C-suite because you know how to get stuff done. You are the person who delivers results, people turn to you. There was an episode, um, back in March, I will link it in the show notes, on becoming the bottleneck, right? Are you the linchpin? Are you the bottleneck? Everybody turns to you because they know that you gonna make it happen. And so that energy and that persistence and that just lock on the details that move the needle, move you into a more senior leadership role. However, what got you here ain't gonna get you there, right? The key to success at the more junior leadership levels is not the same as the key to leadership success at the strategic level. And so that's really what I wanna focus on today is, what is your fundamental job as a leader at the more senior levels? And I'm gonna say you've got three, and absolutely none of them have to do with being stuck in the weeds. So let's talk about it. Fundamental responsibility number one is you look up. What do I mean by that? I mean that even in the C-suite, you got a boss. Everybody reports to somebody. And so maybe that is if you're the director, you report to a VP. If you're a VP, you report to the CEO or a, a C-suite level. If you're in the C-suite, you probably report to a board, right? You have got somebody who you answer to. In any one of those roles, given different regulatory requirements, statutory requirements, like you are reporting to folks who regulate you, to your state legislature, to Congress, to somewhere in the executive branch, what have you. Everybody's reporting to somebody. And so fundamental task number one for a leader is to lead up. Well, what... Okay, great, Becky. Well, what does that mean? That means mastering two, I'm gonna say two as we're talking about it now, very important skills. Skill number one is understanding your boss's priorities and needs so that if you are in the C-suite and you're reporting to a board or if you have regulators, um, I come out of the higher education space, and so I had statutory requirements or our organization had statutory requirements that we were held to. We had accreditation requirements, so we had an accrediting body that we were responsible to. We had our board that we answered to. And then we just had the, the senior leadership, um- Outside of our organization that we were responsible to, our professional body that we served. And so understanding the needs and the expectations and the priorities of each of those constituencies, I'm gonna call them that, but each of the different bosses that you have, fundamental responsibility number one, right? What matters to them. And then fundamental responsibility number two, communicating how you are responding to their priorities, meeting their priorities, meeting their needs, complying with their requirements, particularly if you're talking about a regulatory or statutory requirement, how you are in compliance. Being clear to get that all documented and, if necessary, audit-ready, depending on what you're talking about. But one, you gotta understand what it is that they care about and what those requirements actually are, and then two, you have to communicate to them in the language that is meaningful to them. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that oftentimes if we are stuck in the weeds, if we are the one who locks it on and we're so good in the details and we know how to make it happen and we know the backstory and the history and we've been doing this for however long, we show up, we walk into the room, or we get on the phone, or we start typing the email, and we wanna explain the process. We wanna tell the story of how we got to where we are. Well, no. When you're focused, like when, when you're talking up, they don't care about that. They might ask if they're interested, but no, they want the bottom line, right? They wanna know not just what is the problem, they wanna know this is how I have solved this problem, or these are the steps that I am taking to demonstrate compliance or to resolve this issue. This is the opportunity that I have identified or we have identified, and here's what we're doing to take advantage of that opportunity. Here's what's coming, and here's how I have or we have positioned the organization to be prepared for that. It is bottom line, bottom line, bottom line. You come with all of the data, all of the stories, all of the detail in your back pocket in case there's an individual who wants to drill down, you are ready and prepared, but you don't lead with the drill down. If you think about it in terms of a pitch deck, you h- you have a more developed pitch deck, but when I'm talking about leading up, I mean you show up with the information that that senior leader, that individual, whoever it is, that they care about communicated in a way that they're gonna receive it, and that you anticipate the questions that they are gonna have on the issue because you know their needs and their priorities well enough that you know what sorts of questions they're gonna ask you. Okay, now I thought of a third responsibility for leading up, and that is this, and that is you do have an obligation, particularly at the more senior levels, to shape the expectations up. This is part of managing up or leading up, is that you do that as well. And there what I'm talking about is sometimes because people, governing boards or advisory boards, they don't see the day-to-day, they don't understand all of the context. Those individuals are on your board for a reason, and they are phenomenal, but they are not gonna know the ins and outs of the organization as well as you working in that organization for however long you've been there. And there are times individuals on the board come with experience, but there are times when that experience might be a little bit dated, and so they might not be up to speed on current immediate best practices or trends in the industry. That's your role. Really, that's your team's role, is to stay up on that, and then they inform you, and, and you have that collaboration back and forth, and then you bring the board up to speed on whatever that would be. Or you bring, if you're in the VP level, you bring the COO or the CEO up to speed. And so that leading up is also shaping expectations, helping them one, two, three levels above you, if that exists, to know what questions to be asking. You prepare them for how they can then best lead you. We do group coaching inside the Women's Executive Leadership Lab twice a month, and this was a f- couple of weeks ago. Um, we were on a coaching call, and, an individual was talking about a challenge that she had with her senior leader that, and she is at the director level, that that individual was attending meetings that, were important meetings, but didn't come with the fidelity or the insight into the topic because again, they're just at a level probably potentially too senior it was a challenge. And so we workshopped that as a group and talked about how the individual could p- prepare the principal for the meeting, and doing that through talking points, a little one-pager before every meeting that just gives them These are our equities in this meeting, this is what we need coming out of the meeting, and then here are the points that we wanna make sure that you raise. And then anyone coming with that individual to the meeting could be the back bench and serve as the, the depth of expertise, but then also be there to draft the notes and just make sure that everything was captured so that it wasn't up on the principal to report back out of the meeting or whoever was taking notes or minutes from the meeting to then report back to the group that there was someone in the room who could capture that, um, with fidelity. And so this is all part of leading up. You make sure that you are giving your leader, your boss, whoever that person or entity is, what they need in order to be able to give you good guidance back And then you as the leader, as the director, the VP or the principal, this is something that you train your team to do as well, that is they filter information up to you, that they're giving it to you in a way that allows you to provide them better guidance back. Something else that we cover in the Women's Executive Leadership Lab. So leading up, fundamental responsibility of a leader. Second fundamental responsibility of a leader is to lead out. What do I mean by that? Well, there I mean you run your organization, you run your team, and you are responsible for what goes on inside the organization and inside the team. Well, we can be so laser-focused on the workings of the team, the team, this, we are so good with our task managers, we are so good with our project management, we are so good at running what is happening inside that we can often lose sight of what is happening outside of the organization. 2025, 2026, there has been so much change and if you are just focused on improving performance inside your organization, on your team or in your organization and making your processes more efficient and improving the quality of your product, whatever that product might be, and you are not looking out at what your competitors are doing or what the market is doing or what your clients are doing, then you are really missing out because something is gonna come and smack you in the face Or smack your organization in the face, and you are at the level to be responsible to see it coming and to deal with it. And I'm talking about today in 2026, and so when I mean you are responsible for leading up, leading out, you are responsible for going out, being involved in the professional organizations, for doing the, um, relationship building with your clients, whoever they might be, within your market, seeing how your market is changing, whatever that market might be, private sector, public sector, doesn't matter, you, you have a market if you're leading an organization. And seeing how those changes and opportunities speak to the work that you're doing now. When I was the provost, um, at Marine Corps University, we did this. We looked at... We served the Marine Corps and the broader Department of Defense at the time, now Department of War, at their needs, and we said, "There is clearly a need for more experiential learning." Absolutely case studies, history, the political science, the leadership theory is important depending on the level of seniority of the student, but everybody learns better. The data tells us that people learn better when they get their hands dirty and they get in and they start doing the do. And so we advocated strongly for additional funding to lead in to wargaming, and we have built, or Marine Corps University now has built, I started it, um, a significant wargaming program that has a phenomenal reputation across the Department of War. Why? Because we looked out beyond what we happened to be doing at the time to say, "What else is out there beyond what we're currently doing? What are we seeing across the defense space, not just in the United States, but internationally as well, and how do we take advantage of that to the benefit of our client, our students, and then again, the Marine Corps and the broader Department of War?" So that is your fundamental obligation number two is to pull your nose out of your organization and survey what's around you to figure out what are the best practices, what are the trip lines, what are the fault lines, and, and how do I use that information with my team to make this organization better and perform more strongly to provide a better result for our clients, whoever the clients are. Okay, so one, you lead up. Two, you lead out. Three, you gotta lead down the road, and so this is a continuation of two. When I say lead out, I am talking today, right now in 2026, what's going on? What's changing? What are the new ideas that you can- jump on? What are the old ideas that you need to set down because of some of the changes? Well, now, my friend, you need to be looking five, 10, maybe 20, 25 years out, depending on your industry, to say, "Where are we going? Where is my industry going? Where are my clients going? Where are the demographic trends of my clients going? What's the world gonna look like five, 10, 15, 20, 25 years down the road? And what decisions does my organization need to be making today in order to position ourselves for that future?" And I would say, because you know that I am a glass-half-full kind of a girl, not in a what do we need to do today to position ourselves to avoid pain or harm in the future. I'm gonna say, what do we need to be doing today to take advantage of what's coming, to capitalize on it, to find the good that is in it that we can then use to better serve our clients, whoever they might be? Because in every challenge, in every downturn, in every difficulty, there is opportunity. So what is that opportunity, and what can we start doing today to lean in into it? And that takes you blocking time on your calendar for the professional development, for the reading, and, like, actual reading about your industry and the demographic trends of your clients and your clients and how they are changing and the projected changes, and figuring out who the good sources of data are for that, 'cause they're probably gonna come outside of your organization. You're gonna find them somewhere else. And so who do you see that you can rely on? And you wanna study that, and you wanna bring those people in and have conversations with them. And you wanna invite them to talk to your board, so your board can ask them all the questions that they've got. And you wanna be disciplined about this. And it could be that you need to look outside of your industry to see what's going on in maybe, um, comparable industries or maybe wildly different industries. And then you gotta study there and build the connections and make those contacts. That takes time. And so if you're stuck just focused inside of your organization, and, you know, you go to a conference every once in a while or a networking event 'cause that's you looking out, no, it's not. It is not you doing what you need to do to be laser focused down the road to position your organization for the future. And you see that loop then. You lead up to your board, your regulatory agency, whatever kind of organizations that you report to or individuals, depending on where you are in the organization- You look out, so pull your nose out of your organization to look to see what is going on around you. You look down the road to say, "What is happening five, 10, 15, 25 years in the future?" And I would say, depending on your industry, if you have real R&D requirements or real capital requirements, you might be looking 25 years down the road. And as you do that, you then filter that information back up to your board, to the regulatory agency, to whoever it is that you're working with to say, "This is what the future looks like. Here's how we should be beginning to prepare for that. These are the steps we should be taking now to capitalize on it." And then you get the feedback from the board or the regulatory body or whomever, and then that feeds down into the organization and your goals and your priorities and your objectives. And that's the cycle. That is the job of a leader at the director, VP, or C-suite level. That takes real time. It takes real energy. And so if you are spending your time in the weeds, in the functioning of your team, in the functioning of your organization, you are losing time and energy to put towards your core responsibility. You'll still be leading your team. You'll be giving them feedback. You'll be investing in their growth. You will be monitoring their performance and their tasks and their projects. You still will do that. But you will create systems that allow them to operate more effectively at their own level, so you are not the bottleneck or the linchpin, and that energy and time that you save is what you're gonna be spending looking up, looking out, and looking down the road. And if that feels overwhelming or impossible or confusing, well, then I would invite you to check out the Women's Executive Leadership Lab because that is exactly what we do inside that program. It is a 12-month membership program. We've got group coaching twice a month, one-to-one office hours where you can come with your specific challenges every week, and then a content library of short little videos, 10, 15 minutes long, tailored at specific challenges that you experience at your level. If you're interested, just reach out on social media. I'm at @womenleadwell across all platforms. Shoot me a DM, and I will show you how to get started, and there's also a link in the show notes below. Now, I hope this episode was helpful for you, and I would love to hear your thoughts. Again, I'm at @womenleadwell on across all the socials, even the TikTok, so go ahead and shoot me a DM and let me know what you think. And I hope you'll join me next week when we talk about leading through change. If your organization is facing uncertainty and challenge but you need to keep your team productive and motivated, this episode is for you Okay now, if today's episode spoke to you, I would love for you to share it with a friend. We need more women leading from alignment, not adrenaline. And if you haven't already, make sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss next week's drop. Remember, joyful, sustainable, and authentic leadership is possible, and you deserve to enjoy every minute of it. Until next time, I'm Becky Hamm, and this is Joyfully Unstoppable.