018. Top 3 Interview Mistakes to Avoid When Breaking into Director-Level Roles

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome. You are listening to the Latinas in Leadership podcast, where I empower Latinas with the guidance and knowledge they need in order to get promoted to the director level position and increase their salary beyond six figures. I'm your host, Alejandra Thompson, leadership coach and first gen Latina on a mission to see more Latinas in leadership. Inside of my one on one coaching intensive program, director week, I help Latinas go from manager to director and increase their salaries anywhere between 10 to 30, 000. In this podcast, you can count on me to share strategies, tools, and knowledge to help you break into the next level of your career. Let's go. Hey friends. Welcome back to the podcast. It's good to be back here. I'm recording this on Friday, July 12th. And that means this upcoming Sunday, July 14th. Columbia is playing in the finals of Copa America, 2024. And your girl is so excited. I can't lie this, um, happening kind of really made me a bit homesick, um, with Miami and just feeling kind of sad that I was in that I am, and that I am in Michigan when the final is being played in Miami. And I know that there's just the, city's just going to be lit and I was just feeling so bummed out. But it's all good. I found a place that I'm going to go watch it at. And I'm really excited. I saw that they played the, this. Sports bar played the semifinals and they had Colombians there. And so I'm really looking forward to going there and meeting other Colombians and just watching the game together, because if you are. You know, whether you're south American or, I mean, even the Euro cup is going around and going on at the same time. And they're pretty intense about it too, but this is a fricking big deal. You know, to be able to make it to the finals. And this is our first time since 2001. And it's just such a moment of like pride and excitement. It's so intense. And so I'm really looking forward to that. So I'm excited. I'm excited about that. I hope y'all are doing well. And yeah. So today we're talking about top three interview mistakes to avoid when breaking into director level roles. Because when you are going from manager to director, you need to realize that there is not only the tactical shift of things that I'm going to talk about today, but also mindset shifts. Of what it's going to take for you to land that first director level positions. And I see so many Latinas make the same mistakes over and over again. And so I want to go over those mistakes so that you can avoid them and you can be able to land that first director level position. You can increase your salary. By 20 K 30 K, because of your ability to interview well and land these positions, because so many of you are already qualified. You already have the ability to succeed in the role. But if you cannot exemplify that, if you can't communicate that in an interview, Then it's going to make it so hard to land the position. So we're going to break that down today. And we're going to start here with mistake. Number one is you undervalue your leadership experience. A lot of my clients focus so much on their technical day-to-day skills. And they're not thinking enough about their leadership ability. This is such a crucial mistake because as a director, your ability to lead to influence to drive at strategic initiatives is essential. That's a huge part of what you do. And that's what makes it different. When you begin to climb that ladder and go in from manager. To director, especially that leadership ability, the emotional intelligence, the ability to communicate well. To influence. And to communicate strategies in a way that don't make people get lost, but that people, whether they are on the team or not on the team, understand what that plan is. And so I see a lot of Latinas do this, where they focus so much on that. Day-to-day because they're so accustomed to that. They're so accustomed to. Putting their head down and working and getting the job done that they focus so much on that in their interviews that they're not talking more about that. Strategic type of mindset, talking about their leadership experience. And so when you are preparing for an interview, you can fall into this trap of emphasizing those day-to-day tasks. And while these are important, I'm not saying don't ever mention them. They are important. They just don't fully capture your ability to lead and make strategic decisions. And hiring managers for direct roles are looking for that evidence. They're looking for the. They're looking for you to be able to, for them to be able to confidently say, yes, you can guide a team. You can influence company direction. You can contribute to high level meetings with VPs and, you know, C suite people and things like that. And so when you want to do, instead of only focusing on those day-to-day tasks, that is, you want to start thinking about those tasks and then zooming out and going, okay, what was the leadership experience that I exemplified in these day-to-day tasks, in these things that I, in these results that I created. Right? And so even if they were informal or they weren't a part of your job title, you want to start thinking about that because obviously you've never been a director. This whole, the whole point of director week of me supporting my clients, going from manager to director is you've never done it before. And so there's going to be gaps in your experience in certain areas. And that's totally normal. Everyone who has held a manager position for the first time had that be their first time. So there was a time where you were not a manager and you had to land that first manager position, and there were gaps there and you filled in those gaps. Same thing will happen with director level. And so if you need to speak into things that are more informal or not in that official job title, make sure you talk about that. And this is so common with my clients where. This is an area of insecurity because a lot of times we can, or I wouldn't say a lot, but there are clients that have had. That gets stuck in this manager position for so many years. And you even have been working at a director level just without the title for many years. And this happens in so many different types of ways. And sometimes that causes insecurities for my clients where they go. Maybe I just don't have what it takes. There's a reason why they haven't promoted me. They don't see my value. It makes them lose confidence. And so in this it's important to reframe and go and really begin to. Highlight the things that you have been doing, even if you haven't gotten that official job title for that. Task for the strategic initiatives that you led for your leadership experiences. And so I want you to think about where you've led projects, where you've mentor team members. A lot of my clients have mentored team members. Colleagues and things like that. And you want to think about that where you've crossed, collaborated at a high level where you've influenced company strategy. And so don't just think, okay. I did this thing. Okay. Who did I need to communicate to sell them on the idea of this project? That's what you need to start reframing your mindset of not, I just checked this box, but how did I go about making sure that this was done successfully? Did I need to cross collaborate with several teams? Was there a lot of tension between two teams that I had to. Uh, alleviate, you want to start thinking more in that type of space so that you can add that into your interview answers. And so I wanted to, um, just drive this with an example that came up recently with a client of mine. Where this is someone who has been in a manager position for many, many years. And this is a classic example, someone who has been reporting to a vice president for many years, who has been incredibly. Strategic, who has led many great results and who works very well with high level people. And so she's been in this position and she's trying to break into her first director level position. And we're currently working on that. And when we're doing interview prep, We went through this whole. Situation of how to tell stories. And before when I just let her tell the story on her own, she went into the day to day. So this was going back into a project that she was leading and it, this project that she was leading also coincided during the height of the pandemic in March of 2020, it was spring. It was summer. Probably like April or may somewhere around there. So this is the height. Y'all remember that time. It was crazy. A lot of people were afraid because we didn't know what was going on. And so there was a lot of fear going on around that time. And she was leading a project around that time that actually also required travel. And so remember that was also insane where we weren't. We were on lockdown. People weren't supposed to be traveling. It was just very fearful. Did you have to then quarantine when you got back, like all that stuff. And as she's telling me the story and we're doing a mock interview, she's going through her day to day life and the things that she executed. So she was like, I created an action plan and I led these daily meetings and I created a shared document for people to be able to input their status and things like that. And it's not that these things are bad. Again, it's important for you to talk about the things you did in order to create the results. But when she finished her answer at no point, did she talk about how she had to alleviate all these fears, how she had to have one-on-one meetings with each of her team members to address their concerns about traveling and how did she then alleviate those? How did she address those concerns? How did she accommodate for people who. We would not travel because they were living with their grandmother. They were living with someone who they weren't willing to risk traveling for. How did she maneuver all of that? That takes a lot of strategic thinking of emotional intelligence of influence to be able to handle such a sensitive situation. And she didn't go into any of those things. And so it's just a practical example that I want to share with you on how this can happen. And I want you to really start thinking. About how this shows up for you. How often are you just going into that day to day and you're not valuing your leadership experience. And so when you look even at your resume, or when you are thinking about ways that you want to answer questions and interviews, Look at your answers and go. Can I see a leader in this answer or do I just see a Dewar? Do I just see a check the box? Do I just see I'm good at what I do in the day to day? And if the answer to that is, yes, it's not that that's bad. Just add now it's not about removing it. It's about adding and making sure you emphasize the leadership experience. So that is the tip. Number one for you in terms of just mistakes you want to avoid mistake number one. Is your undervaluing, your leadership experience. Mistake number two is you fail to demonstrate strategic vision and results. I kind of started to touch on this a little bit with mistake. Number one, however. Because you're undervaluing your leadership experience. You're also not now demonstrating your strategic vision and results. Strategic thinking is a director level skill. This is the type of thinking that allows you to see the small picture, allows you to zoom in to what needs to get done in the day to day without losing the bigger picture without sacrificing the five-year goal. The two year goal. The one-year goal, whatever that is, strategic thinking is what allows you to do that? Before we really begin, and this is something that needs to be developed. This is a skill. And so by our own nature, we tend to think in the day-to-day in the very short term. So this is a skill that is required at the director level. And another common mistake is you're not clearly articulating how your vision led to great results in the past and how your strategic thinking. Drove those results. So these really tie in together. You need to talk about your streets, your strategic vision. The way that you think and how those created results, your vision. You also want to think about, okay. Not only how you have exemplified that in the past, but also what do you see for yourself in this new company? How can you see your vision? How can you already begin to think about how your type of thinking what the vision is that you have for the company that you're interviewing for? Because directors are expected to think beyond the day-to-day operations. And they are expected to think about. Long-term strategy. And so you want to not only think about how have I done this in the past, but also what's this company about that I'm about to interview with and how do I see. They're company succeeding. What is the vision that I already can begin to develop for them? So that's what you want to really begin to think about there. And a director level role, you are expected to have clear strategic vision. And so this means understanding the broader goals of the organization and aligning your team's objectives to those goals. So your team doesn't live in a standalone, it collaborates with other teams and it contributes to the company's success. And so many of my clients really struggled to articulate what that vision is. They struggle, even though they have contributed to their team leading in such ways that. Align with the company's goals and contribute to the company's goals. They, they have a hard time connecting those dots. And so they don't communicate those dots being connected. And then they don't show up as at director level, this is a skill and it requires your thinking. It requires effort on your end to connect those dots and you need to do that. So in order to be able to do that, you want to prepare to discuss your strategic vision for the department or the team that you'll be leading when it comes to this interview. This is where research comes in. Understanding what is this team? What is this company? What does this company do? If they are public? What is the information that you can get on? Their profitability on their success so far, what struggles are they having do as much research as you can, to really understand what are the things that they're struggling with. And you can always go back to the job description by the way. To really understand what's going on there too, because a job description will oftentimes tell you what that job is designed to do. That's the whole point. It will tell you what you are going to help with, what your, what initiatives you're going to drive. And so you want to learn more about those things. So you can already start thinking about how you can see your strategy, how you can see, and you B you can begin to develop what the vision is for the way that you can contribute to that team. So have examples of how you've implemented strategies. In the past and the results that those strategies produced. And explain how you plan to align your vision with the company's goals and drive long-term success. You can find company goals on their website. You can find company goals sometimes on the job description. So it does require your effort, but also we're talking about a huge breakthrough in your career. Going from that manager to director level that's is that this is a huge. Deal for you that will set you up. For so much more coming after that in your career. Not only in salary, but again, going then from director to VP. And if that's your desire, if you don't want to go to VP, then that's fine. And staying at that director level, but being able to make that break is such a great deal. And so, and it's a hundred percent possible, but it takes you being able to avoid these mistakes and knowing where, where you need to shift tactically and mindset wise. Okay. And so, um, one of the things that I just adding on for failing to demonstrate strategic vision and results is I want you to think about, again, going out of the, the, just the, to do the day to day. So if you say something like, oh, I manage the marketing team in our campaigns, for example, that's manager level. Okay. That's fine. But when you think about director level, you want to start to think about, okay, what was my vision behind it? Where was I being proactive? Where did I produce results? And so you could switch it up by saying something like when I manage the marketing team, I noticed our brand awareness was stagnating. I developed a strategy that included doing X, Y, and Z. And this is where you can do the. More of the tasks that you initiated by doing something like this. And so how did this then connect to the broader goal? So if you say I noticed our brand awareness was stagnating and we have a business objective to reach a new group of people by 2025 or reach X amount of people by 2025. I wanted to make sure that we set ourselves up in a way that could reach that number. So what I did is I developed a, and then you can go into that. To do that task, the day-to-day task, and then go into numbers. This strategy increased our brand awareness by 20%, 50% in a boosted sales by 10%, whatever that number is over the span of how many years. And then you would go into, if given the opportunity in this director role, I would love the opportunity to see how I could implement a similar. Strategy with this team, because I know that brand awareness is also a part of the goals that you have, and this is something I have experience in and it's something that I think I could implement as well. In order to drive sales growth, for example. So I just kind of. Wong it winged it. What's the past of wing. I just want it, whatever. To kind of share with you. My thought process with that and how I help my clients go through that. And so think about something like that, where you're not just talking about how you managed in that day to day, but how you really begin to think about the business objectives is going to be really important. All right now. Mistake number three. Is you give weak answers for behavioral interview questions and all of this really kind of leads to one another. So when you are undervaluing, undervaluing, your leadership experience, you fail to demonstrate then strategic vision and results, and then you give weak answers for behavioral interview questions. So they all really feed into one another. And when you're thinking about behavior-based questions, these are so important for interviews and you will want a hundred percent get these questions by the way. So not preparing. For them and just being nervous about them is not a good strategy. You want to prepare for them, but do it in a way that's actually going to be effective. Because then I have some clients who will prepare for behavioral questions and they do it in such a stressful way. And they had, I'll never forget. I had one client who had literally like 30 pages of different behavioral questions and how to answer them. And it was so much more stressful. And even then she would then go on to interviews and then get stressed out. And she wouldn't remember when question because she has 30 pages of them and it's like, that's not effective. And so my goal in director week, when I am going through the interview prep and putting together your interview, success kit is coming up with seven stories that are going to help you answer. So many different questions so that you don't have to panic on the call, but you have already a story that you can lead with. And that story is effective. It's strong. It has strategic thinking in it. It has the type of skills that director levels need to exemplify in the interviews. And it's labeled out in a star method so that it's clear and concise. So I really want you to begin to address mistakes one and two so that you can strengthen mistake three in terms of being able to give strong answers. For behavioral interview questions, but understand that just preparing. It also is about the way that you prepare, that's going to make this more effective for you. And so with behavioral interview questions, they are designed to assess your leadership and problem solving skills. They are really designed to allow the hiring manager, the person interviewing to go is this person really who they say they are on paper? You know, because anyone can say I'm a great problem solver. I'm a great. I'm great collaborator. I love managing and developing teams. Like anyone can write whatever the heck they want on a Google doc and then put their name on it and say, it's a resume or put it on a cover of a cover letter and whatever. Interview questions that are behavior based are designed to really be like, are you who you say you are? Let me actually. Like back it up. Let me hear the stories. And so. Always think about that and how to prepare for them. When you think about behavioral questions, they can catch my clients off guard because they require specific examples. And that's why I like to come up with specific stories that my clients can always use for a variety of different questions. When you begin to address this, you want to of course, address mistake number one and two, because that will help you with mistake number three, but then you also want to make sure you're implementing the star method. And you want to prepare, you have to begin to do star method for your interview questions, because you also need to train your brain on how to share stories in this method, because it allows you to be clear and concise. Something that my clients tend to really struggle with is they'll say that they rambled or they'll say that they totally forgot to say the thing that was actually the most important or. Sometimes because they're so nervous, they don't even remember what they said. And so you want to begin to train your brain to know how to use the star method. I just realized I didn't break that down. So if you don't know what the star method is, it's a format in which you answer behavioral interview questions. The S stands for situation. The T stands for task. The, a stands for action and the R stands for result. And so you want to use this type of method because it makes it easier for your brain to format answers. And do it in a way that is clear and concise. And so for you to address mistake number three, not only address mistake one and two, but begin to put your answers in the star method. Not because you need to memorize this one answer, and that's how you're going to answer it every time, because you never know what people are going to ask you, but so that you can prepare your mind on how to answer questions in a very clear and concise way. You want to reflect on your past experiences and be ready to discuss specific examples that will showcase your ability to challenge, uh, to handle challenges. To lead teams to deliver results, to influence people, to come up with strategies based on business objectives, you want different. Answers that are going to address those types of things. And so. That's the other one that I think is just such a huge one. A big part of what we do in director week is also going through not only the star method, but putting together again, your stories. Figuring out what skills they cover, being able to address what types of questions is, can even cover. Like, we'll go through a story and then I'll be like, okay, give me 10 questions that this can answer. And then they'll begin to think about it. They're like, well, if someone asked me about, tell me about a time where you had to handle something that was really challenging and stakeholders were upset. How did you handle that? Or tell me about a time where you had to adapt in a very short. A very short amount of time. How did you handle that? Tell me about a time where your budget was sliced in half. How did you handle that? So they begin to now brainstorm. And so it helps you to really look at, okay. I have one story, but look, I can use that for so many different questions. And so I want you to really begin to prepare by using the star method, addressing mistake one and two in order to do. That as well for mistake, number three. And so these are the top three mistakes. We went over. Mistake. Number one, you undervalue your leadership experience. Mistake number two, you fail to demonstrate strategic vision and results and mistake. Number three, you give weak answers for behavioral interview questions, top three mistakes that I see and the top three that I want to, I really want to help you avoid. And so. My addressing these areas. You can present yourself as a strong strategic leader and as someone who is ready to take on a director level role, even though you're at the manager level, and it's your first. Director level position. And so if you're finding it challenging to prepare for these director level interviews, or you're not even landing them right now, I invite you to check out my coaching intensive program director week during director week we'll work together to reframe your experience so that it screams out director so that it isn't just perpetuating you at a manager level and keeping you stuck there. I'm going to help you select seven leadership stories from your experience that will showcase strategic vision, business, impact metrics, leadership, and influence. The key things people want to see in a director. Also with the interview, success kit comes mock interviews. You will be able to see what key skills you need to focus on, and that's not it. I will also provide you with a director level resume. So if you haven't been landing director level positions, you're getting crooked, even though you are applying and applying, I will make sure that you have a resume. That's going to land you. Those interviews, a director level LinkedIn profile, so that when you are connecting with people or those hiring managers and recruiters are checking out your LinkedIn profile, they. They actually see something that is reflective of your experience and the brand that you desire to create for yourself in your career. I will also give you a strategic followup plan, a job at informational interview tracker to stay organized templates for messaging, hiring managers, you would get all of that. It is truly designed to give you the tools and the confidence you need to land those director interviews and increase your salary by 10 20 30 K this year. It is one week long. It's a coaching intensive. Think about it like a bootcamp. And so if you are ready to take that leap, if you're ready to go from manager to director, invite you to check out that program. You can book a sales call with me, which is a one hour call. Where we will just chat about your goals. What's been keeping you stuck and you can ask me any questions. So it's not an obligation for you to join. It's just checking out. Is this really going to be good for me? You can book a sales call in the link of the show notes. You will see that on there and you can book it there. And if you go to my LinkedIn, you'll be able to see where you can also book your sales call there. So it, I hope that this was helpful for you, that you implement these, that you really begin to think about how you're making these mistakes and avoiding them for the future. Okay. Best of luck and go Columbia. See you next week. Bye. If you're ready to get promoted into the director level and get the title and salary you deserve, I invite you to book a sales call with me. This is a one hour call where I will assess your career, your obstacles, what's prevented you from breaking into director level and your goals. I will tell you exactly the way that I can help you in director week. And we can talk about whether the director we coaching intensive program is the best fit for you. The link to book your sales call is in the show notes. I'll talk to you soon. Ciao.