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How To Explain Wanting To Step Down From A Leadership Role

So you want to step down from a leadership role to become an individual contributor. A lot of people see leadership at the top and individual contributors at the bottom. And so the natural question is, "Why the step back?" And, unfortunately, over many years recruiters and hiring managers get cynical, so they assume something is going on unless you can successfully explain why you want to step down from your leadership position.

Focus On The Opportunity To Build Your Skill Sets & Hone Your Craft

The key to explaining why you want to step down from a leadership position and be an individual contributor again is to follow the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model that I teach at Work It DAILY. You need to keep your explanation as factual and objective as possible.

When you're an individual contributor, one of the bonuses or upsides is that you get to build your skill sets. You get to hone your craft. You get to get to the next level in the kind of value that you can create.

When you become a leader or a manager, you step away from the majority of that. Now you're coaching or mentoring others. It's a different thing. It's servant leadership.

As a leader, what can happen over time is your ability to stay on the cutting edge of your industry and keep up to date with your skills and abilities can dull a bit because you're not doing it every single day.

Here's a great example of how to explain why you're stepping down from a leadership position:

"I was an individual contributor, and in that time I was learning a lot of skills and it positioned me to become a leader. And as a leader, I was able to coach and develop X number of people. But what I miss is my ability to continue learning, growing, and becoming cutting-edge in that skill set. That's why I want to go back to being an individual contributor. I think there's a lot for me to learn and benefit from, and I think there are other people out there that right now it's their turn to lead. But for me, it's about being able to do that workâthe thing that I love and growing my skill set."

That's an honest and valid answer.

It's important to share an explanation like the one above, especially if you're a seasoned professional because age discrimination exists. I can't change your age, but a large part of that discrimination is actually experience discrimination and how you explain your experience. One of the techniques that I teach at Work It DAILY talks about this from a more balanced perspective. You pay a wisdom tax, and so you need to be able to articulate these kinds of career moves or transitions in a way that makes sense.

By following the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model and focusing on skill development opportunities, you'll successfully explain why you want to step down from a leadership position and be an individual contributor again. Find your voice, tell them your story, and let them see the complete you.

Good luck, and go get 'em!

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How To Explain Wanting To Step Down …

You've certainly heard that using a powerful personal brand message will make your executive resume a compelling readâand help you gain traction in your job search. But how do you go about defining and capturing your brand?

Intensive processes, such as the 360 Reach Personal Branding exercise, can often help pinpoint your brand elements and strengths. However, you can conduct your own research and analysis to create a compelling message suitable for your executive resume.

While pinpointing your own personal brand (and writing a compelling executive resume from it) may seem daunting, you can break the process into these manageable steps:

1. Reflect On Your Leadership Value-Add

One of the easiest ways to encapsulate your message of ROI is by taking stock of how you solve problems and deal with obstacles at an executive level. If you're having difficulty expressing your value proposition, try creating a list of your top 10 career achievementsâthe ones that have become your signature accomplishments over the years. (Think of it as your top 10 hitsâthe ones you've always thought of as defining your career and its trajectory.)

Any of the following can make your top 10 hits:

Turnarounds (at a team, division, or company level)
New sources of revenue
Cost-cutting methods
Additional sales and distribution channels
New products or markets
Speed and agility in delivering results

Next, write STAR (Situation or Task, Action, Result) stories for each top achievement, remembering to set the stage for each story by looking at the situation first, then your actions, and lastly, the outcome. J.T. O'Donnell, founder and CEO of Work It DAILY, also recommends the "Experience + Learn + Grow" model to formulate stories for employers. While tedious work, you'll benefit from having this collection of powerful anecdotes in your job search.

2. Analyze And Leverage Feedback From Throughout Your Executive Career

Consider your reputation at work, influence on others, and leadership style (all critical components of an effective executive resume). Are you known as the go-to leader who builds consensus when negotiations are at a standstill? Have you become a turnaround leader capable of righting the ship? Chances are that you've carved out a unique nicheâand prospective employers need to know this about you!

Take the time to gather information from those affected by your work:

Analyze your impact on subordinates. Do you often mentor your teams into company or industry leaders?
Look at those you've influenced, such as vendors or colleagues. Have they adopted your methods or commended you on your effectiveness?
Assess your impact on the executive team and board. Do you build the business case and buy-in that lead your CEO to issue changes in strategy?

Now, assemble testimonials and feedback from credible sources, such as performance reviews, LinkedIn recommendations, letters of reference, or other kudos (even informal email messages). Create STAR stories from this data, and consider including a snippet or quote in your executive resume for additional reinforcement.

3. Include Tactical Details And Scope

Executive resumes aren't just high-level lists of achievements. To be truly compelling, the scope and reference points from your work need to be included as supporting details.

Consider pulling in specifics from among the following components of each job:

Size of budgets managedâboth department and project-level
Cost-saving figures that show the result of new processes or negotiations
Numbers of employees managed, both directly and in matrixed organizations
Comparisons that show progression (such as year-over-year increases in market share)

What these details will do for your executive resume is help round out your story, showing how your authority and impact have increased at each progressive step of your career. It's all about the numbers!

4. Look To Others For Comparison

You may have started to look at the data for your executive resume with a critical eye. What if it isn't good enough to vault you to the next level in your career? How will employers know you've led significant change if there are minimal cost or profit results to report?

One of the best ways to distinguish yourself from the competition is to look precisely at them and gauge the difference based on context.

Here's how to weigh your competitive differentiators:

Analyze what would have happened at previous employers if you hadn't worked there. Would the company or division have floundered? Is it possible employees stayed only because of your influence?
Look at what took place against the backdrop of the economy or industry challenges. For example, did your efforts keep the company afloatâeven if they didn't realize the same level of profitsâbecause of actions that counteracted the downturn?
Take note of what occurred at competing companies. Were you maintaining operations while your competitors went out of business?

These sure signs of effectiveness will help add a twist to your STAR storiesâemphasizing your ability to take on and overcome challenges that others failed to achieve.

5. Build Brand And Achievement Statements To Use Throughout Your Resume

Now that you've collected all this data, what's the next step? Pulling it together into a cohesive story, of course.

Here's where the stories you've built will serve as key components of your brand message and can be used in various places within your executive resume:

Ensure your STAR stories are in manageable form, using bullet points that take up two lines or less for use on your executive resume.
Distill your most prominent STAR stories into a simple message. As an example, an EVP of marketing who launched new products could note "carving a profitable new industry niche" as a statement of brand value.
Look at executive resume examples for inspiration.

Undertaking these steps is, of course, a time-consuming exercise in exploring your achievements and examining your brand. However, it will pay off in a cohesive message of value to employersâand help them see the value in bringing you in for a choice executive role.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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5 Steps To A Powerful Personal Brand …

Interview Tips: Why You Shouldn’t Say You Were “Terminated” From A Job

If your position gets terminated, should you mention that in your next interview? Many job seekers face this dilemma in their job search when they're newly unemployed. First, you need to determine what type of termination occurred.

There are two types of termination: voluntary and involuntary. If you quit, that's called voluntary termination. If it's involuntary termination, there are two types of that: you got fired or you got laid off. And those are also very different. Fired means you did something wrong and they couldn't keep you. Laid off means you did nothing wrong. They were in financial trouble and they couldn't keep you. So as you go down that decision tree, you'll have to clarify what type of termination happenedâwhat "terminated" means in your case.

Don't Say You Were "Terminated." Say This Instead...

My personal advice as a 20-year career coaching veteran is if you quit a job, make sure you tell the employer that information and explain why you quit. If you got fired from a job, you want to try to explain that as objectively as you can without making any excusesâowning your mistakes. And if you got laid off, tell them you got laid off. It was beyond your control.

I wouldn't use the word "terminated" at all. Instead, I'd get very clear on what happened and I would use the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model to answer the "Why did you leave your job?" question in a way that's very factual and succinct, that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and is structured.

That kind of structured response is the most important thing to do in this situation because it shows that you've really thought about what happened and want to make sure they properly understand.

This is how you score points in a job interview. I see people every single day who have been fired or laid off from jobs using the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model to answer difficult interview questions. And then the recruiter and hiring manager say, "Great answer," and move on because these things happen. They're out of our control sometimes, or they're in our control and we learn from them.

You need a better response. So don't use the word "terminated." Get really clear and remember the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model. You can do this.

Good luck, and go get 'em!

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Interview Tips: Why You Shouldn’t Say You …

The #1 Career Skill Every Professional Needs

As a career coach, I get asked all the time what the number one skill or trait is that people need most to be insanely successfulâyou know, what it takes to become the next Oprah or Richard Branson.

I've spent years working with thousands of people who have been deeply dissatisfied and unhappy with their career success level.

When I've compared them to people I've worked with who've become extremely successful, along with people like Oprah and Richard Branson, I've noticed that these people possess one very specific skill/trait.

It's something they've developed within themselves. It's not something they were born with.

This is good news for you because anyone can adopt this skill and learn how to execute on it. When you get really good at it, you'll be able to catapultâto quantum leapâyour success.

So, what is this big thing?

#1 Career Skill: "Dropping The Rocks"

Professional man on computer finds career success after developing a key skill

If you want to be successful in your career, you need to learn a skill called "dropping the rocks."

What do I mean by that? Well, there is a process you go through in your career called "Experience + Learn = Grow." It's something I teach to all our Work It DAILY members. Every time you have an experience in your career, you process it, look at it, and learn from it.

When most people who stay dissatisfied and unsuccessful in their careers have an experience, they typically process it, attach emotion to it, and put this emotion into what we call their "career narrative." This is the story that runs in your head.

People take these experiences and put them into their career narrative like rocks. The problem I have with this is that while you've experienced something, and you've learned something from it, you actually haven't grown.

So, here's this "rock"âthat failure that you hadâthat you haven't processed. Then you have another thing happen to you, and you don't really process it either. And then another.

And you keep going, going, and going. What I've found is that people who aren't successful, who are deeply dissatisfied in their career, have a pile of these rocks.

Imagine walking around with a bucket of rocks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That's what you're doing in your head. You've got nothing but a bunch of rocks dragging your career down. It crushes your confidence and holds you back from achieving things.

If you had all that extra weight to carry around, how fast (and far!) could you really go in your career?

Why "Dropping The Rocks" Brings Career Success

Successful people, on the other hand, process these "rocks" and actually grow. The sign that you've grown, and have thrown the rock away, is when you no longer attach any heavy emotion to a career experience.

Really successful people who you look at and say, "Gee, they've caught every break. They're so lucky," have had just as many challenges in their career as youâprobably moreâbecause they've been so much more aggressive in their career than you have.

But what they've really done is develop this incredible skill to process things and drop the rocks.

They experience it, they learn from it, but most importantly, they grow from it. They look at everything that's happened to them in a positive light because if it didn't ruin their career and it didn't kill them, they can do something with it.

When you get really good at this, you will be amazed at how much lighter you will feel. And when you're lighter and free of all that negativity, all those rocks that are in your head holding you back, you'll think differently about what you can do.

You stay curious, you stay creative, you take risks, and you move forward. And that's the very definition of those peopleâthe Oprahs and Richard Bransonsâthat you aspire to be.

So, if you want to know the one skill that you should be developing in yourself right now so that you can take your career to new heights, it's learning to "drop the rocks." Because if you can do that, you can do anything.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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The #1 Career Skill Every Professional Needs

One of the hardest and most important job interview questions is, "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond." Here's the perfect technique to ace the answer every time.

Step 1: Think About A Time You Exceeded Expectations

The first step is for you to sit down and think about a time when you exceeded expectations on the job.

Imagine the times when you were given a lot of praise or maybe you got a promotion or even a raise. Think about what made you earn these things and ask yourself how exactly did you go above and beyond in order to get that appreciation and that recognition.

This is going to help you flesh out the stories that you're going to want to tell in order to validate your experience and your ability to go above and beyond.

Step 2: Break The Story Down

Job candidate tells the hiring manager about a time he went above and beyond at work during an interview

Now, step two is for you to break that story down into what we call the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model for answering behavioral interview questions like, "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond."

You want to think about the experience objectively and factually. Explain to the hiring manager everything that happened leading up to you earning that praise or that promotion or that raise.

Then, you want to talk about what you learned. As a good employee, you always want to be thinking about those experiences and what they taught you.

Lastly and most importantly, you're going to talk about how you grew as a professionalâhow you're going to take what you've learned and apply it going forward. This is going to demonstrate how employers like them could benefit from this added expertise that you've developed.

Step 3: Practice Your Delivery

Professional woman practices her answer to the interview question, "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond?" during a job interview

The third and final step is for you to practice your delivery. You do not want to walk in and wing it. It's super important that, in addition to writing out your answers, you play them back to yourself.

What do I mean by that? Well, I suggest grabbing a mirror and talking out the answers, looking at yourself straight in the eye with a smile, or asking friends or family members to do a mock interview with you. Even recording yourself and playing it back on a video will do the trick.

Doing these things repeatedly is vitally important in job interview preparation, especially when it comes to answering a question like this. "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond," can seem like a daunting interview question, but all you have to do is follow the three steps above to answer it effectively.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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How To Answer “Tell Me About A …

How To Explain Why You “Rage Quit” Your Last Job

If you or somebody you know has rage quit, this is probably the most powerful advice you'll receive.

When you get asked the question, "Why did you leave your last job?" you need to have a solid answer. And by that I mean you need to be very objective. You need to talk the hiring manager through what you've learned and how you've grown, and you need to have some accountability.

That's right.

You need to take ownership of your part in what happened.

How Job Seekers Can Explain Why They Rage Quit Their Last Job

@j.t.odonnell Replying to @gingermcbride How to explain rage quitting your last job in an interview... #ragequit #edutok #careertiktok #careeradvice #learnontiktok #interviewtips â¬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell

So let me give you a scenario of what taking ownership might look like. If I asked you, "Why did you leave your last job?" you might say...

"I'm glad you asked me that question. It was a really powerful learning experience for me."

By saying, "I'm glad you asked that question. It was a really powerful learning experience," you're framing the story without the negativity so the hiring manager can listen to it in a positive light. Then you're going to say...

"I spent X years working there. I worked really hard, but the last year, particularly in the pandemic, was really difficult."

You're not oversharing. You're not getting into specifics. You're just stating where in the journey of working for them it started to go off the tracks. At which point, you can say...

"I made a decision to leave and I left in a little bit of an emotional state. I needed time to really process and get back to a better place where I could be the best possible employee."

That's an accurate statement. Right?

"As a result, I think that if you were to call them, they would probably tell you that they weren't happy with me leaving. But I want to be really transparent about that with you. And I want to tell you what I learned from that experience."

Now you stay positive, tell the truth, and take accountability.

"Once I collected myself, I figured out what I wanted to do next and realized I had to go out there and explain this situation. I never want to go through this again. So how I've grown as a professional is that I'm going to find a job that's a good fit for me, and if it starts to not feel like a good fit, I'm going to talk with my employer. I'm going to try to figure out things so that I can stay on track because the mistake I made in the last job is I kept my head down. I didn't process it, and I let it build up and that's on me. And I own that."

That's that ownership piece I'm talking about. Are you trash-talking, your former employer? You don't have to.

There are three sides to every story: your side, their side, and, somewhere in there, the truth. The hiring manager knows that you and your previous employer weren't perfect. But what they love is the way you framed this story using the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model which helps you talk about any experience in an objective way.

When you use this model to explain why you rage quit your last job, they'll thank you for sharing and move on. Plus you set the expectation that if they call in and do a reference check, they know that they're not going to get a glowing recommendation.

So please learn this, internalize it, work out what you want to say, and rehearse it a few times. You don't want to sound canned, but you definitely want to make sure you have all of those aspects in there...and then go out there and get yourself a new job!

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