Successfully Moving
to an Executive Role
Dawna Jones, Insight Out Consulting
Inc. (From Insight to Action), conducts
practical workshops on advanced
decision-making skills and mentors
leaders navigating new territory.
Adept at perceiving the deep
dynamics sourcing results, Dawna’s
insights provide leaders with the
leverage to solve wicked problems.
She is exploring how VR–AR can
restore personal to workplace health.
Podcaster and provocative speaker,
she authored Decision Making
for Dummies , contributed to The
Intelligence of the Cosmos by Ervin
Laszlo, and hosts the Insight to Action
podcast.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-313-4 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Dawna Jones
Abstract: New executives are failing fast as ­companies
transform from one operating system to another. ­Business
conditions require thinking agility and c­ onsiderable com-
fort with ambiguity in the context of complexity and
­exponential speed of innovation. Higher personal mas-
tery and leadership consciousness, backed by a broader
perspective, flexibility, and expanded mindset, is r­ equired
to rise above the crutch of authority; it demands more
­responsible decision making and leadership.
Keywords: Complexity, Consciousness, Decision
making, Executive role, Leadership, Uncertainty,
Success
Introduction: The Call to Higher Levels
of Executive Leadership
The future of workplaces isn’t what you see today.
While you are reading, the future is unfolding at light-
ening speed. The context and conditions you see now
change constantly. You need a growth mindset, love of
learning, and athletic level fitness to know when to stop,
­reflect, self-examine, reinvent yourself, then move up a
level or two in decision-making awareness and leader-
ship consciousness.
Your mission is, and it is voluntary, to accept the
challenge of exponential growth personally and profes-
sionally to match the pace of exponential companies,
­exponential change at quantum speed.
Buckle up. It is a glorious ride where you become more
than a leader, more than an executive. You become your
full potential in alignment with your higher p ­ urpose. By
choosing the challenge, you enter a new level of human
potentiality, where the new consciousness, the ethics,
the mindset, and the compassion bring new hope to the
world of work and life at home.
Expert Insights
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 Successfully Moving to an Executive Role

If your life has involved overcoming Developing Character

difficulty, you enter the journey with
some advantage in that if you have faced
­intense adversity and have become a bet-
ter ­human being as a result, you have
learned to bounce forward; be resilient.
Business must tap into the collective intel-
ligence residing in companies and in the
social network of suppliers, customers, and
communities to use adversity to advantage.
Caring and workplace culture is the strate-
gic advantage.
With that vision in mind, here is an over-
view of what lies ahead.
Surfing Exponential Change
While the business culture struggles to
adapt, unless it is designed for agility, it is
the role of the leader as an executive to pay
attention to how outside conditions impact
pressure on employees. Not paying atten-
tion results in companies creating costs of
stress-related illness, failure to innovate,
and an underlying inability to adapt.
Making the Mindset Shift
Intellectually, psychologically, and s­ ocially
the executive role requires much higher
consciousness, an expanded worldview,
and leadership not relying on being in a
position of authority. Thinking flexibly
and developing conscious perception mark
the distinction between how executives
functioned in the past and what level of
­personal mastery is essential to design the
future.
Leading Yourself through New Territory
Context changes from concrete and more
predictable at the operational levels to
ambiguous and a mix of concept plus
­ Equate consciousness with mindset,
concrete. From big picture down to per-
­ and the package of beliefs, intuitions,
sonal leadership, how do the forces of
today shape your decisions, your moral
­ logical-psychological mash-up, directs your
and ­ethical compass? Or your focus: fear,
or creativity? How can remaining aware
of the emotional-social workplace environ-
ment inform the impact you seek to make
in an executive role?
How do you use what you experience to
­create work and workplaces that hold mean-
ing and respect for diversity of opinion,
and perspective? How do you ­ transcend
the biases that steer many unaware deci-
sion makers and companies into trouble?
Uber’s CEO and internal culture show
the reputation and social cost of operating
as if integrity was not relevant. As such it is
a classic example of what not to do.
Will you choose to alter your relationship
with power as an intrinsic quality instead
of power over others? Will your leadership
steer the company to be a force for good?
Do your mistakes and failures make you
better or bitter? What guides your ethical
and moral compass?
Working with resilience as a beacon
for leadership and learning enables you
to make a real difference in the lives of
­people who have given up for one reason
or another.
Conscious Leaderships Skills
The future of work is not about having
power and control over others but of being
able to work with others on a peer-to-peer
basis. You may wonder what the word con-
sciousness is doing here. Consciousness, as
systems scientist Ervin Laszlo defines it, is
the determining factor of how we see the
world, of who we are, what the world is
and what we can do in the world. It is the
­mindset—the totality of pre-assumptions,
­assumptions, intuitions and information
about the world, each other, the possibilities,
dangers and opportunities.1
­insights, and more, which, in a lovely bio-
­decisions, perceptions, and quality of your
1 
Podcast conversation: http://insighttoaction.
libsyn.com/-toward-a-new-business-leadership-
consciousness

2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-313-4 (2018) Expert Insights

www.businessexpertpress.com
 Successfully Moving to an Executive Role

relationships. The skill set weaves through-
out the conversation here but culminates
in an understanding of how to level up your
growth. While the world might be spinning
out of control, you will have control over
how you respond, see things and not miss
key insights that deliver accuracy.
Fortune Favors the Prepared
John had his eye on an executive-level
position from the time he’d started
with the company. As the old guard
retired, spots were finally opening
up. It felt like it had taken forever to
be given a chance to prove himself.
Flagged as a high potential gave him
an advantage yet not one he wanted
to take for granted. Although he felt
pretty confident, he had seen others
fail and had no interest in adding to
that statistic. Learning from actor
Chris Evans, who recognized when he
accepted the role of Captain America
he needed to properly prepare, John
realized his success rested on being
psychologically and emotionally ready
to handle whatever came at him. How
could he prepare for the uncertainty?
Catherine started her company on
an inspired whim. Seeing a need that
hadn’t been met, she began putting
the pieces together to develop a
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and
­secure seed funding. Her background
was product development so that
part came naturally. It was dealing
with the unpredictability of market
and global conditions she was con-
cerned with. How could she build a
team, predict the future and make the
executive-level decisions her experi-
ence did not prepare her for?
Though John and Catherine are in dif-
ferent positions, their role as executive
decision makers requires advanced skills
and expanded awareness—the capacity to
broaden perspective and see the big pic-
ture while perceiving dynamics beneath
the surface. As companies convert from
directing and controlling performance
and ­ behavior to creating the conditions
for rapid response and initiative, there is
an added requirement to inspire initiative
­repressed by aversion to risk and mistakes.
What worked in command-and-control
environments and what works today are
totally different. Leading at the executive
level, demands growth on ­every level.
According to article in Chief Executive
magazine, the top ten reasons (https://
chiefexecutive.net/top-10-greatest-causes-
of-leadership-derailment/) your ambitions
can be derailed are:

Leadership Derailment Reasons—Underlying Assumptions

Self- Personal ambition comes before team success and network of allies.
Leadership A failure to know how to learn and know what to focus on.
Excessive ego, arrogance, and a need to control the details. Self-centered rather than caring.
No sense of direction/vision or if one exists then it is either negative (you know what you
don’t want) or your vision collides with the values of the organization.
A failure to understand leadership without leaning on authority and the value of valuing
employees as your allies in success.
Mindset Resistance to change marked by inflexibility. Inflexibility is rooted in a fixed mindset. Flat,
one-dimensional perception where only one dot is in view at a time, leads to failure to adapt
to surprises.
Assuming everyone is in it for themselves. Trust is low. Assuming that betrayal and
deception are part of business. Do you truly care about something greater than yourself or
are following your ambitions at the expense of others?
Having fixed ideas about how the world works leads to: I’m right and you are wrong.
Continued
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-313-4 (2018) Expert Insights
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