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Coaching Real Leaders

How Do I Move from a Specialist to a General Leadership Role?

Coaching Real Leaders

Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Executive, Business/careers, Leadership, Careers, Business/management, Sessions, Hbr, Coaching, Review, Society & Culture, C-suite, Leaders, Harvard, Business, Management

4.8660 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

He’s developed a stellar reputation at his organization as the go-to person to solve some very specific, complicated problems. But he worries that the organization has pigeon-holed him as a subject matter expert, limiting his ability to lead more broadly. He speaks with host Muriel Wilkins about how he can break out of the specialist role to reach his goal of becoming a more general business leader.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Imagine a state where you can get from big cities to big nature in less than half an hour,

0:06.0

with some of the best quality of life in the nation.

0:09.1

Welcome to Minnesota, America's least stressed state.

0:12.7

Learn more at exploreminnesota.com slash live.

0:20.6

HBR Presents.

0:21.9

I'm Yario Wilkins and this is coaching real leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network. I'm a long-time executive

0:39.3

coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them

0:44.7

get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully

0:50.1

they can lead with a little more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have

0:57.6

a one-time coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

1:07.9

Today's guest, who will call Chris, to protect his confidentiality, is part of the finance team at a large global company.

1:14.6

He recently got promoted to vice president, and he's proven to be pretty valuable at this company,

1:19.6

running a team with dozens of people spread around the globe.

1:23.6

Within the company that I'm working for, I support a very specific function of finance that

1:30.7

supports the business on a day-to-day basis.

1:33.3

It's one of the critical thesis of the engagement with business because it does define the performance

1:41.5

of the business ultimately.

1:43.0

It's a high visibility role. I kind of lead

1:45.9

the transformation of the organization along with the day-to-day execution of the function as well.

1:52.2

But Krish is also struggling because he thinks he's only being viewed as a subject matter expert,

1:57.4

even though he feels he has a lot of other ways he can add value. In fact, a few years ago,

2:02.6

he left the company looking for new opportunities that would allow him to spread his wings.

...

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