Welcome to Manager Tools. Today's topic, Executive Career Management.

If not you, who? Here we go. An executive career management that sounds like a pretty weighty topic.

Yeah and it's like it's like a black box to most people right?

People just oh well how does that happen I don't know they

never talk about it but it's not a secret it's not a secret and executives do it and

if they're gonna do it and there's some techniques folks use, you better be prepared when you get it.

That's right.

One of the ways of senior leadership positions are determined is by some other senior

leader, maybe a board member, maybe just a very senior person looking at people a couple levels down,

one person asks many senior leaders who they think would be good in the role.

And sometimes this takes the form of asking the very people

being considered for the position.

And the right answer probably isn't what you think it is and the response is

definitely not what 90% of the managers we know do when they get the question.

Right. Even if they know the right answer. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

So the question that comes down, it doesn't come in this exact form, but the essence of the question

is, if not you, who?

In other words, if we're not going to make you the new president or GM or whatever or the new CEO or the new

CFO or whatever who would be the person if you're qualified that you would most

want to work with of those people whom you might think of is qualified.

Now look our second point is this is not a trick to sell yourself guys.

This is what kills so many people.

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