How involved are you with "more senior" conversations? - SmartBrief

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How involved are you with “more senior” conversations?

2 min read

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: How involved are you with “more senior” conversations?

  • Very — I always have a seat at the table: 25.73%
  • Somewhat — they include me when I’m the expert: 51.19%
  • Rarely — I have to fight to be included in those discussions: 14.06%
  • Never — I’m always kept at the “kids table:” 9.02%

Earn your seat at the table. To be invited to the table and involved in senior level conversations, let people know what you’re bringing. If you expect to sit in on those discussions based on your title or role alone, prepare to be left out of the important discussions.  If, however, you bring a perspective that drives someone else’s agenda or objective function, you’re much more likely to be invited.  It’s not hard to avoid sitting at the kids’ table as long as you think about the other participants and how you can help them achieve their goals.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of “Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results” and “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”