Don’t Tell Your Story, Lead With Impact
Here is a conversation I have almost every week.
A Director or AVP — smart, driven, clearly someone who has earned their seat — tells me they want to better influence the Executive Leadership Team.
When I ask what that means, I often hear something like this:
“I want the ELT to understand how hard my team works and how many obstacles we’ve overcome. If they saw that, they would support my proposals and give us more opportunities.”
If this sounds familiar, you’re in very good company. Many strong leaders naturally think this way earlier in their executive journey.
And to be clear: the effort, resilience, and dedication it takes to lead teams through difficult work absolutely matters. Senior leaders know that and respect it.
But as leaders move closer to enterprise decision-making, an important shift happens.
At the ELT level, the conversation focuses primarily on enterprise outcomes.
Executive teams are accountable for a small set of critical measures — things like:
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Revenue growth
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Margin
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Customer satisfaction
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Market share
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Operational risk
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Strategic advantage
These are the numbers the board, investors, customers, and employees ultimately judge the organization by.
So when you are advocating for an idea or initiative, the most powerful place to start is not the journey your team took to get there. It is the impact.
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What objective will this accomplish?
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What is the financial or strategic outcome?
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How does it improve performance on the measures that matter most?
That is the decision the executive team is actually making: Is this the best place to invest the organization’s time, money, and attention?
Once that is clear, the effort and capability of the team becomes valuable context. But the primary question remains: What will this produce for the enterprise?
I started to learn this lesson early in my career.
When I was a young systems engineer and team leader at EDS (back in the General Motors, Ross Perot days), long hours were common. When things got difficult, we pushed even harder. Like many young leaders, I wore those hours like a badge of honor.
One day a very successful manager pulled me aside and said something I never forgot:
“Michael, I don’t need the person who is exhausted at the end of the day. I want the leader who looks as composed at 8pm as they did at 8am. What I really value is the person who can go play golf at 4pm because everything is already handled.”
His point was simple. The leaders who advance are not just the ones who work the hardest. They are the ones who create consistent results in a sustainable way.
Most Directors already have a strong reputation for being capable, dedicated, and reliable. That’s what helped them earn their role.
The next step is expanding that reputation into something broader:
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A leader who understands the enterprise.
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A leader who connects ideas to outcomes.
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A leader who can see the whole system.
Less the person always on the dance floor. More the person who can step onto the balcony and see the whole room.
