The higher you climb the corporate ladder, the more influence and impact you have. Or so corporate leaders and professionals believe, according to the Finka Inc. Career Advancement Forecast.
At the end of 2024 when we surveyed 100+ people in the corporate space, we uncovered that most managers are looking up to advance their careers, that they want a title to garner influence and be a key player in driving strategic change within their companies. So, while we know a title and seniority doesn’t entirely make someone a leader, people’s intentions are good. They want to amplify their impact and make a meaningful difference. To me, that’s exactly what we want in the world and workplace: people who are eager to bring meaning and deliver transformations.
So, if you’re a manager who’s seeking to transition into a higher level within your company, apply these seven strategies on how to become a senior leader. They’re what helped me in my own career and leadership journey.
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What is a Senior Leader?
The key differentiator between a manager and senior leader isn’t only the title and level within a company, but the role responsibilities. Suddenly you move from being in the weeds executing and overseeing a smaller team to leading at a company-wide level as a director, executive, VP, etc.
At this level, your leadership presence becomes 10 times more important. Now you’re in charge of making more critical decisions, designing a vision, managing change, and even coaching and mentoring your reports. All of this no longer just impacts your team, but typically all teams within your company.
Reading all these responsibilities may make your palms sweat and heart rate pick up, but you’re more than capable of managing and leading at this level. And I’m going to make it feel easier and more attainable for you by introducing you to leadership-critical skills, and of course, seven strategies on how to become a senior leader.
7 Must-Have Senior Leadership Skills
While these skills are valuable at every step of your leadership journey, they’re even more so if you’re looking to climb the corporate ranks.
In the Finka Inc. Career Advancement Forecast, when corporate professionals and leaders were asked which skills they believe they need to get to the next level in their careers, they answered with:

- Executive presence: Your ability to exude confidence and charisma to guide and lead people.
- Influence: Inspiring people (without authority) into action.
- Transformational leadership: Focusing on developing and growing your team vs. just producing results.
- Relationship building and networking: How well you build new relationships and maintain and nurture current ones.
- Personal branding: What people say about you when you’re not in the room (what you’re known for).
- Pitching and selling ideas: Your ability to pitch initiatives and generate buy-ins from your leaders and colleagues.
- Presenting: How well you present and convey a message during meetings, conferences, etc.
To dive deeper into understanding leadership-critical skills and how they can impact your workplace success, register for The Future of Leadership Forum!
7 Strategies to Help You Move into Senior Leadership
Now that you have a clear idea of how senior leadership differs from your current position and the skills that are necessary to ensure your success, it’s time to share strategies to help you get there. However, these strategies are extra special, as each one will help you build the leadership-critical skills I just uncovered!
Strategy 1: Get Clear on and Own Your Brilliant Difference
- Skill Unlocked: Personal Branding and leadership presence
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Authenticity and integrity
I may sound like a broken record with how many times I talk about Brilliant Differences but it’s a lovely tune that’s helped my clients succeed and transform worldwide.
While my Your Brilliant Difference method helps people build and hone their personal brands, what it really does is help people define and embody their leadership presence.
Everyone has a different style or approach when it comes to leading people. Different styles aren’t bad, but when looking for a senior role, you’ll want to know exactly what your leadership presence brings to the table that others don’t.
Your Brilliant Difference consists of two words that inform how you think, act, and feel at work. Knowing yours can:
- Boost your confidence because you know how you uniquely help in every situation.
- Increase your self-awareness surrounding your strengths and weaknesses.
- Help you get clear on who you serve, the problems you solve, and the outcomes you deliver.
- Give you directions for where to excel and how you add the most value in your career.
To learn how to identify your Brilliant Difference, scroll down in my recent blog about purposeful work and use the Your Brilliant Difference Value Matrix. It prompts you with questions to help you get clear about your two words that will uplevel your workplace game.
Strategy 2: Come Clean About Your Weaknesses
- Skill Unlocked: Emotional intelligence
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Humility
Strong leadership isn’t only about being aware of your strengths but being honest about your weaknesses too. Imagine transitioning into a senior leader role where you know something doesn’t fall within your talent or niche. You’re not setting yourself up for success.
It’s okay that you’re not good at everything. Not paying attention to what you don’t excel in is like wearing blinders and will actually dim your Brilliant Difference because you’ll spread yourself too thin in areas that aren’t your genius.
Coming clean about your weaknesses means being humble and vulnerable. Here’s what I like to call the Vulnerability Litmus Test to see if you can come clean about your soft spots. As a manager, can you say things like:
- I am afraid.
- I need help.
- I don’t know.
- I made a mistake.
Strategy 3: Make Your Manager, Senior Leaders, and Colleagues the Heroes
- Skill Unlocked: Communication
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Empathy
While this strategy can be used when presenting or pitching an initiative, you can really apply it during any task you’re working on. When executing in your role, it’s time to flip the switch from “what’s in it for me?” to “what’s in it for them?”
When communicating with a leader or teammate, put yourself in their shoes and gear your style and approach to frame the transformation they’ll experience after your proposed idea or presentation.
Even if you’re overseeing a project, focus on what the outcomes will be for everyone in the company, not just you.
Strategy 4: Pitch, Pitch, Pitch
- Skill Unlocked: Influence
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Ambiguity
Speaking of pitching…
To be top of mind for opportunities and senior roles, you need to create your own opportunities and be visible in your Brilliant Difference. One of the ways of doing that is pitching ideas and initiatives to your senior bench and executives.
But when you do, to have the most influence and inspire people to action, you need to tailor your language to their style.
Throughout my 20+ years in financial services and 10 years as the CEO of Finka Inc., I’ve identified these as the top five workplace languages:
- Language of Certainty: your intention is to build trust.
- Language of Connection: your intention is to build a relationship.
- Language of Consequence: your intention is to show opportunity.
- Language of Confidence: your intention is to instill action.
- Language of Change: your intention is to create transformation.
While it’s important to be aware of your own style, it’s equally critical to match your style with the leader you’re speaking to. For instance, you may speak the Language of Confidence, but they may speak the Language of Consequence, so you’d need to prime them and prepare for risks.
To determine which language you and your colleagues speak, download the Speak to Lead mini e-book.
Strategy 5: Master the Art of Being a Storyteller Speaker
- Skill Unlocked: Executive presence
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Confidence
Having a strong executive presence means exuding confidence and having people feel the same way when you’re around, that they’re in trusted hands. You can build this trust, connection, and confidence through storytelling.
It reminds me of this quote from the American Native Proverb: “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”
If you want to leave a lasting impression on people and have people recall the way you make them feel, start injecting more stories into your conversations. Not only does this offer a way for you to be personal and vulnerable, allowing others to follow suit, but it helps people get on the same page as you.
Strategy 6: Always Have a Project on the Side of Your Desk
- Skill Unlocked: Intrapreneurship
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Innovation
Intrapreneurship is similar to entrepreneurship, but in a corporate workplace. You may think that entrepreneurship doesn’t belong in corporate companies, but this way of thinking and working can actually increase outcomes and results. Intrapreneurship means employees are independent and motivated and aren’t afraid to take action and initiative.
Thus, having a project on the side of your desk. This would be something above and beyond your job description and will set you apart from others. It should be connected to your boss’ goals or company’s goals. Your project needs to help them get something more of what they want.
This was a game changer for me and will help you build relationships outside your team. With everything you already do you may be hesitant to add more to your plate but think of it like the 80/20 rule. This is your transformation project among your transactional tasks. While 80% of what you do may be transactional, let this project be the 20% that’s transformational and an opportunity for you to embody your Brilliant Difference.
Strategy 7: Become a Centre of Influence
- Skill Unlocked: Networking
- Leadership Characteristic Unlocked: Relationship building
When you follow the above strategies, you will naturally expand your network and build stronger, better relationships. This was the one skill in the workplace report that showed up as a current skill and a must-have skill.
If you’re going to go anywhere, be something, or make a dent in your company, you can’t do it alone. You need friends, colleagues, mentors, coaches, allies, and advocates.
Being a centre of influence means you’re the person people come to for guidance, advice, or referrals. Be the kind of person people think of when they get stuck on a problem. Be the one they call.
Now, here’s the thing: you can only become this if you do it too. So, reach out to others and ask for advice, get counsel. Be a connecter and connect other people with those who will help them.
Which Strategy Will You Start With?
Remember, to make a successful transition to senior leadership, you need to:
- Be authentic and align to your integrity.
- Be humble and honest about your soft spots.
- Be empathetic and see situations from others’ perspectives.
- Align your language to match your audience’s.
- Leverage storytelling to build confidence and trust in your people.
- Take initiative with a transformational project.
- Become a go-to person people seek for guidance and to ask questions.
I’m wishing you all the best for your leadership and career journey in 2025. You got this!