The Introvert Leader

Career Dilemmas: What Would You Do in These Tough Situations?

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Ever faced a situation at work that left you stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure what to do next?

In this episode, I tackle four real career and leadership questions pulled from Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, and more. These are practical, messy, honest scenarios professionals are living through every day. I give my take on how I’d handle them, including a few personal stories along the way.

Whether you’re trying to move up, lead better, or earn what you’re worth, there’s something here for you.


Timestamps:

0:58 – I’m a sales rep and want to move up. What do I need to do? Advice on breaking through to the next level, who to talk to, what to focus on, and how to demonstrate leadership without the title.

5:54 – Is climbing the corporate ladder even worth it? The truth about promotions, leadership, and what makes it meaningful. Spoiler: it's not about the money.

8:47 – My team asks me everything. How do I get them to be more independent? How to build trust, reinforce confidence, and empower your team to make decisions without always coming to you.

12:35 – How do I know if I’m underpaid and what should I do about it? Step-by-step advice on figuring out your market value and what to do if you’re earning less than you should.



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 Hello, this is your host, Austin Hopkins, and welcome to the Introvert Leader Podcast.

You ever had a career or leadership question? That you couldn't figure out a situation at work where you felt lost, you maybe felt hopeless. Maybe you just felt overwhelmed 'cause you didn't know what to do, you didn't know who to ask, and so you maybe just kind of let it go, or you just kind of put your head down and hope it gets better.

Well, if that's you today, you're in luck because I have scoured the internet and I'm gonna answer the most popular slash most interesting career and leadership questions that I could find. So we're going places like Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn. YouTube, you name it. I found the questions, I looked for the best one.

So we're gonna answer a couple of 'em today. Today's episode is, what would you do? So I wanna jump in and kick things off with question one. And this actually comes from a friend of mine, someone who is a sales rep and has kind of been stuck in that role for a while. So here's the question. What do I need to do if I'm a sales rep and want to advance to the next level?

What skills do I need? Who do I talk to? What do I do? So. This one is actually kind of interesting because I was a sales rep for many years and I know how challenging it can be to be stuck right before the next level, right? When you're ready to kind of break through into leadership to the next level, but you feel stuck, maybe everyone's identified you as an individual contributor, and maybe that's what they've branded you as, as kind of the the great sales person, but maybe not a leader.

So here's a couple of things that I would do. Who do you need to talk to? Let's start with that. You need to talk to and get in front of the people that can actually make the decision and actually give you an opportunity. So people like your boss, they should definitely know what your goals are, what you need to be working on.

Ask them questions like, what am I missing? What does it take to get to the next level? When have you heard the next positions are opening up? Like make sure your boss is your number one supporter and they're aware of your goal. The second thing is you gotta find out whoever is gonna be in charge of that new team that you want to.

Get promoted to. So is it a director? Is it another senior leader? Is it a manager you can talk to? But they need to know who you are. At minimum. They need to know you exist and what value you offer. Now, I'm not saying you need to be best friends, but they should know who you are and kind of what your goals, aspirations are.

What skills do you need to do? Here's the deal. When you're an individual contributor and you're just managing your own personal performance, it can be hard for others to see you as a leader because the only interactions they have with you, the only examples of your work. Are you working on things for yourself?

So here's what I would do if I was in this position. I would find opportunities to take on leadership roles, leadership tasks, without the title. So lemme get more specific. Are there any problems that your team, your company, your department is facing right now that no one's addressing? Is there a project you can volunteer to take on?

Can you tighten up a organizational procedure? Can you. You know, turn around an underperforming team or area of the business, whatever it is. I want you to think about a current problem, something that you think you could help with, and I want you to volunteer to take that on. And this was gonna be on top of your current role, but then I want you to document and really.

Make sure that you are telling the story of the value you're adding. So I remember for me, I've told this story before, but when I wanted to become a director and move up, I volunteered to turn around an underperforming group of sales folks within the company. There was like 30 of 'em. They weren't very good and we were leaving money on the table.

So I asked if I could take that on and really lead the charge in training, developing and holding that group of associates accountable. To my delight, it worked. I was able to turn them around and it really showed the folks around me, Hey, Austin's capable of more, even though he's not in this role right now.

Look at what he can do if, you know, he puts his time and energy into something like this. So that would be the first thing I would do, is I would find some opportunities to show my leadership expertise. Now, it doesn't always have to be projects. It could be little things like, are you volunteering to speak up during meetings?

Um, are you taking on additional work outside of your. Own role that is important to the company? Are you finding out what the senior leaders really want and then adding value that ties into that? That connects into that. So that's what I would really work on, is I would make sure that the folks around me who can actually give me the promotion, know what's going on, and know my goals, I would want to show them that I'm capable of that role by taking on additional work projects, opportunities, getting outta my comfort zone to show.

Hey, this is what it could look like if I moved into a leadership role. And then what do you do? At the end of the day, you need to be performing, so focus on performing in your own role. Focus on adding value other places within the company. And then the last thing I would say, and it's more of a soft skill, which would be you have to hold yourself to a higher standard.

You have to have something called executive presence. Most folks that are individual contributors that wanna move into leadership, they fail to make that change. So they're focused on how they've done things before. And so maybe they're immature walking down the hallways when, when they see someone, or maybe they're not really engaged during meetings, or maybe they don't take.

Company-wide initiative's very serious. Well, at the end of the day, if you wanna get promoted into a leadership role, you have to do all those things. So you have to separate yourself from the individual contributors, from the people that don't really care and just come in and do their job. And you need to shift and make that change to someone who actually cares, who cares deeply about the success of the organization, and cares deeply about the performance within their given area.

So hopefully that was helpful. Um, I, I definitely know what it's like to be in an individual contributor role and move up and it's not the easiest thing to do, but at the end of the day, that's how people get promoted all the time. So it's not impossible. Focus on those things. I think you'll get there.

Okay, so question two comes from Reddit. Is climbing the corporate ladder worth it? Real answers only I hear. It can be pretty lonely and empty at the top. It makes work and everything. Feel unmotivating. Okay, this is a great question. This is a fantastic question. And you know why it's so fantastic is it gets to the root of really why some people want to move up in their careers.

So here's the answer. For me, it was 100% worth it moving up the corporate ladder. Now, if you would've asked me at the beginning of my career, why do you wanna move up Austin, I would've said, Hey, I wanna make more money. Um, maybe I wanna feel more important. I want more challenging work. And those are kind of weak answers, to be honest with you.

But as I moved on, I realized that in order to have an impact. To really change the lives of the people around me to help people become the best version of themselves. I couldn't do that from the bottom, and I had to do that from the top. So I would really ask yourself, why do I wanna move up? Is it for money?

Okay, that's not a great reason because money isn't happiness. Money doesn't fix your problems, money doesn't get you motivated. It's money. It's important, don't get me wrong, but it's not everything. And so if you're moving up just for money, just so you can have a bigger paycheck so that you can maybe buy more stuff and take more vacations and impress the people around you.

Eh, I don't really think that's worth it. So if you wanna move up in your corporate ladder because you want to test yourself, if you want to get out of your comfort zone, if you want to be of service to others, if you wanna make real change within a company, then absolutely. I think it's worth it. Now as far as it can feel lonely.

I think that's depends on kind of how you run things. If you get to the top and you isolate yourself from others, if you don't engage with your team and you just purely keep a professional and don't build meaningful connections, yeah, it can feel super lonely. And also it comes down to your leadership style.

So if you're the kind of style that's really authoritative and you don't really wanna be collaborative with your employees or people beneath you, then absolutely it can feel really isolating. But for me, I never felt that. In fact, I would dare to say the higher I moved up. The better I felt, and the reason why for me is that I was able to impact.

Others in a positive way, and I was able to impact more people than I had before, and that is what drove me. That's what really filled my soul. That's what kept me going. When things were tough, that's what kept me, getting me outta my comfort zone. It was the fact that I knew I could change the lives and help people around me, and I knew I could do that way more the higher I moved up versus maybe just the few people around me when I was lower in a company.

So I hope that answers your question. Um, I thought that was a really good one, but again, ask yourself, what are my motivations for moving up the corporate ladder? If they're good motivations, then no, I don't think you're gonna regret it. I think it's a great decision. But if they're, you know, surface level, monetary, materialistic things, I want a better title.

So I look cool. I want more money so that I can buy more shit. I don't think it's worth it. Okay, so question three comes from Cora. I have been in a supervisory position for a year, managing three people on a team, doing very specialized work. I started two years ago and was promoted to supervisor within nine months of my initial employment.

In those nine months, I did a lot of work on my own. Due to the lack of staff, I created lots of processes, tracking tools, guides, work aids. As a supervisor, I have always provided guides, procedures, work aids, along with a very organized binder of documentation and access to my highly organized OneDrive files for my staff to reference examples of completed work.

I trained each one of my staff members and provided additional times to ask questions. How do I get them to stop asking me everything? So that's the question. How do I get my team to stop asking me for everything? This is another good one. So here's the deal. When you have a team that is doing something new.

Or a team that has been in an environment where they had to ask for permission for everything they did, it can be a little weird. So here's the first thing that I would do, is I would make sure that my team is fully trained on whatever they are expected to do within their role. So how do I do that? I inspect what I expect.

I make sure that every aspect of their job they feel comfortable with. After I'm satisfied and I think that they're comfortable. If I find that people are coming to me too much, here's what I do, A couple things is I will be direct with them and ask questions like, Hey, is there a reason you came to me for this?

Instead of just making the decision on your own. And you might think, oh, that's kind of an awkward question or uncomfortable question, but you don't have to ask it like a dick. You can just be genuinely curious like, Hey, is there a reason you didn't kind of make this decision on your own or do, were you feeling insecure about it?

So that would be the first thing. Figure out why they're coming to you and if they say something to the effect of, well, I just wasn't sure if I was doing it right. I want you to reinforce that they are capable and smart enough to make these decisions on their own. So I would literally. As I had my teammates come to me and ask me, Hey, how do I do this Austin, or can I send this email?

I would say, Hey, Oscar, I trust you man. I think you got this. I don't mind being a sounding board, but honestly I want you to own this. I think you can figure out how to send the email, what to write in there, and if you get stuck, of course I'm here for you, but I first want you to try on your own. If you fail and you can't get anywhere, absolutely come to me.

And it's, it's weird when you do that, you empower your staff and you show them, Hey, I trust you. I think you can handle this. And a lot of times that's all it is, is they don't trust themselves and they need a little bit of proof of that. And so you have to build them up, give them the confidence to say, Hey, I believe you can do this.

I know you're capable of it. And of course you're there for, you know, guardrails to make sure things don't go totally crazy. But it's their decision, it's their move. They make the, the, the day-to-day decisions. You don't do that. And that takes time, right? And at first, sometimes it can be tempting to just wanna solve their problem.

They come to you for a quick question and you're like, ah, maybe it's just easier to answer the question. And that would be a mistake because you are then enabling that behavior and you're actually encouraging more of that. So when you take an extra second to say, Hey, is there a reason you came to me for this?

Why didn't you make this decision on your own? I believe you can do it. You set yourself up for the future and you eliminate them coming to you for every little thing. Now, if it continues to happen over and over and over again, you've had the conversation, you've encouraged them, it's not working out, then it may be time to, to look a little bit deeper.

What is the root cause? Why are they coming to you? Um, have they been. Discouraged in the past from making decisions like this. Uh, do they have some sort of insecurity from something that happened earlier in their career? Are they still just kind of getting out of the, the poor culture of the team before you came on board?

I don't know what it is, but you may need to dig a little deeper. But I have found nine times outta 10 figure out what's going on, give them some reassurance and they're gonna be just fine. Okay. Let's go on to the next one. Okay, question four comes from Reddit. How do I know if I'm underpaid? And if I'm underpaid, what do I do about it?

This is a good question. So how do you find out if you're underpaid? Well, number one is I want you to look at the resources that are on the internet for free that you have, right, available to you right now. So things like PayScale uh, salary.com, Glassdoor. I want you to look at the position that you're in, find that exact position if you can, and find out what the average salary is for your area.

So make sure that you have the right seniority level, the right area, years of experience, all that kind of stuff. Let's say you can't find your exact role, that's okay. Find a role that's very similar to that. Now, if you're within that range, my guess is you're probably not underpaid. If you find that you're below that range, probably a good guess that you're underpaid.

So what do you do after you find out you're underpaid? Here's what I would probably do one, take a step back and realize that it's not gonna be an easy. Task to get paid more for the current job, but it's not impossible. So then I would wanna figure out, do I wanna stay in this current job? 'cause if I like this job and I just think I'm underpaid, maybe I just need to ask for a raise.

And if so, absolutely check out my previous episode, called at Ask for a raise. But let's say you're not sure you wanna stay in that job. Maybe you think, you know there, there's kind of an upper limit to this job and. You know, that's not gonna be enough pay, so maybe you need to look at another job completely.

So I would figure out, do I like the job I'm in and can I just negotiate more pay? Or do I need to look for something totally different? Here's what I would not do. There have been times in my career when I felt underpaid and I had the temptation to do something rash, to go in there and demand more money to go apply for a thousand jobs online and just, you know, quickly spiral trying to get more money.

Lemme tell you what, it does not work. When you're chasing money, you fall into what I like to call a scarcity mindset. I don't have enough. I need more. And guess what? The more of a scarcity mindset you have, and the more you're worried about the money, the less of it comes to you, the more you believe that.

There is abundance and that money is flowing to you freely and that there's plenty of opportunities. The more money, the more opportunities you find. I know that sounds weird, right? Because you almost have to have faith that things are gonna work out, and reality is it will work out if you truly believe you're worth more.

If you believe you're underpaid and you. Make that known, and you find the right opportunities, you're gonna get paid more. But if you stress about it and cry about it and complain about it, that you're underpaid, that does not work, unfortunately. So just thinking and worrying about it is not enough. You gotta figure out, am I underpaid?

If so, can I get paid more in my current role? If not, where do I need to look next? Is it within the company? Is, is it outside of the company? You make that decision, that's up to you. So we answered a couple of questions today. I hope those were helpful. This was kind of fun, uh, looking at questions in the internet and finding out what people were thinking and what they're struggling with.

So if you find yourself in a similar scenario, let's say you're at work and you're just feeling. Like things aren't going well, like you're just capable of more that you wanna break through to the next step. You want to get paid more, you want to get promoted faster. You wanna find out what you really wanna do in your career.

I know I can help you. This is what I do all day long with our clients, and so if that's something you're interested in, click the link in the description. I'd love to have a chat. And see if we might be a good fit to work together. So I wanna say thank you so much for listening. Make it a great day.

This has been The Introvert Leader podcast. Subscribe for new episodes every other Wednesday.

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