Recently I had such a conversation with one our company leaders. It was out of the blue, I didn’t anticipate the invitation, but I definitely took the opportunity. I thought to myself, if an executive is going to reach out to me, of course I’m going to take the opportunity to talk with them.

It was an incredible experience. I asked the question afterwards, “Why me?” Is there something that I did in order to get the opportunity to have this meeting? Something beyond the immediate need? Was there something more? What’s the reason behind the reason?

I came up with 7 reasons why I think this meeting happened. Disclaimer: they are not that hard to do yourself. They’re the tools I use every single day, whether I’m meeting with an executive or another leader without a title. So, as you read below, consider what might help you when your opportunity comes, too.

I do my job. And I do it well.

Now this should go without saying, but that’s why it’s number one. In this particular instance it was a project that I worked on that was outside of my job description. I don’t normally advocate for projects beyond my role, for reasons worth sharing at a later date, but in this case I knew I would add some much needed value to the team. And it worked, we won the deal with some of the information I provided. The deal is what prompted the conversation with this executive. One reason why I was able to support outside of my responsibilities was because I do my job well. So consider this, focus on your task, and your work, and do it well. As you build competency in your current role, you’ll have the track record to be able to add value to other areas of your organization as well. Start with where you’re at. Do your job. And do it well.

I have a servant mindset.

I truly don’t think of myself above any task that could be asked of me. Sure, sometimes I challenge if the task is needed to be done, or if I’m the right person for the task, but it’s not because I’m too important. There’s a difference between being willing and actually overcommitting to tasks in your organization. Don’t confuse with saying yes to everything as being a servant. A servant is given a role, a task, a job, and at the same time must be willing to deviate on an as-needed basis. That was this scenario. I wasn’t walked on, trampled on, overwhelmed by the needs of another team, but I did get to serve them. Develop a servant’s mindset. When I was invited to support, and did well, I was invited to do more. And in so doing, was invited to share more and serve more.

I have an abundance mindset.

There’s always more than enough to go around. When it comes to knowledge, there’s always more than enough to pass it around, share it, and add knowledge to others. I happened to add value to this specific opportunity because I specifically knew how the technology worked, and others didn’t. But I wanted them to know what I knew, so I engaged in the conversation to empower others. Then, when the executive asked me about the technology and the project, I didn’t hesitate to share my knowledge liberally. I could have hoarded my knowledge and requested a position that focused on my unique skillset, as maybe some might do, but instead I felt the incredible honor to add knowledge to someone else with their project. That’s how I’ve always viewed my role: adding value to others. Don’t hoard what you know, liberally share your information, so that others might gain more knowledge, too.

“There’s always more than enough to go around.”

I’ve learned to speak to different levels of the organization.

I’m still learning this, but over the last 10 years of my career, I’ve learned that different roles and different titles need different information. They talk different, they think different, they process different. I’ve been growing in this a lot over the last 5 years, and it’s been extremely helpful for me when I’ve received the opportunity to talk to a higher executive. I’m not changing the story, and I’m not hiding any information, I try to understand what the other person needs to know and make sure I communicate what they need so that I’ve added the most value to them first, then if they need other questions, answer those as well. Learn how to speak to different levels of your organization. Building your interpersonal savvy will help you understand who you’re talking to so that they get what they need. I’ve learned this through receiving feedback. Once you’ve had a meeting with a leader, get some feedback, or ask another person who listened in on that meeting for their feedback. When you get the opportunity to meet with that higher executive, you’ll have some more tools to relate and address their needs.

I listen.

Is this a lost art in today’s world? I mean, we all hear so much, but are we listening? It’s easy to forget that the greatest impact we can have on someone else is to simply listen. I’ve worked hard to listen, to ask good questions, and listen some more. Naturally, I’m a speaker, I like to talk, communicate, and lead the conversation. Give me something I know a lot about, I’ll talk for hours, but that’s not always what is needed. When it came to this conversation, I needed to listen, which is interesting because I was asked to share. Even in the moment you’re the expert, there’s always something to learn. Learn to listen well. Greg McKeown shared that in his experience as a reporter he had to learn to listen for the lead. Listening for the lead isn’t always listening to what is being said, but to what is said under the surface, or between the lines. For this meeting I knew what I was to share, but what was most important was for me to listen. Practice the skill of listening. Let the other person finish their thoughts, then respond, not just until you can give your two cents. Listen actively. I’ve worked hard at listening, and am always able to get better, just ask my daughter…

“When it came to this conversation, I needed to listen, which is interesting because I was asked to share.”

I add value.

Don’t just answer the question and leave it there. Very few times does the executive leader just need an answer, they need something more. I didn’t just want to answer his questions, give him knowledge, listen to make sure I had communicated it well and walk away, I wanted to add even more value to the question at hand. I always strive to add more value to a conversation or a question. This doesn’t come at the expense of actually giving a good answer, though. You have to provide a good answer to the question being asked, but when you’ve done that, go the extra mile, add value beyond just what was asked. During the conversation, I learned that there was a greater project that other teams were working on as well. So what did I do? I reached out to the other departments to talk with them about what I learned so that we could break down the silos of information. This caused us to ask some more questions and come up with even better solutions. Choose to add value—not just check the box, complete the task, do the thing; do more, go the extra 1/10th mile, or mile, whichever adds the most value.

I learn what’s next.

Near the end of our time, I always like to ask, is there something else that I can help with on this project. I validate to make sure I’ve actually answered the questions given to me—I’ve done my job well—then offer support for the next step. This requires other skills laid out above: reading the situation (listening), adding value, maintaining a servant mindset, among others, but it’s important to submit yourself to the leader who came to you. In this case, the executive shared with me the higher level vision, of which the topic at hand only addressed one piece of the whole. I learned that there were other projects going on to solve other questions that I could add value to and support. So I offered myself to support. You know what happened? It wasn’t needed, and it still isn’t. You see, this time I wasn’t asked for additional context or support in other projects. So here’s what I did, I made sure I went back to focusing on my job and what was in front of me to do. I might be called on again to support, but in this case, there was no next step. And sometimes there just isn’t a next step. So get back to work, and be ready for the next opportunity to add value to a higher level executive. You never know, you might get to do more by simply asking that question at the end of the meeting.

“I made sure I went back to focusing on my job and what was in front of me to do.”

So you heard from me about the 7 observations I made after my meeting with one of my higher level executives. All of these take time to develop, and most, if not all, I have to work on daily. What about you? Do you practice these in your current role, your current position, your current title? Start today, take one of these and work on it. John Wooden said that the day of opportunity is too late to prepare.

Your opportunity could be just around the corner. Prepare today.