The Leadership Legacy Prism: Are You Promotable?

Mishirika Scott is the Director, IT PMO at UCLA Anderson School of Management, ad former Project Manager of Student Success Systems at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA). She is the managing partner of Riche Professionals, LLC (a jr. project manager training company) and she values robust engagement with emerging professionals.

  Career Development   Leadership  

You’re interested in promoting into a supervisory leadership role with a new title, more pay, perks, and growth opportunities. Beyond the key skills, knowledge, abilities and competencies from the job description, candidates seeking promotion will often times come face to face with the “job experience paradox,” which can be difficult terrain to navigate for the first time.

As illustrated by Austin & Jason, MBA graduates who’ve built their careers in strategy and operations, the paradox is about needing experience to get experience:

“How does anyone get a position managing people when they’ve never done it before, and the management job you want requires you to already have significant time in a prior management position?” (Alleger, J. and Strong, A., 2024)

Excelling as a new people manager involves modeling behaviors and standards that inspire those around you. This implies establishing a respected leadership imprint well before you aim for that next step up the ladder. Although my article can’t entirely unravel the “job experience paradox,” it’s my intention to share insider knowledge from my personal journey into a supervisory position.

The insights shared will equip budding first-time managers with some thoughtful tools to craft an impactful leadership legacy, regardless of their present role …

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