You finally realize that it’s time for you to move on to a job where your talents are appreciated. 

Now, you’re evaluating what you should be looking for in your next executive role. 

You’ve been through the fire before and you know how hard it is to work in an organization with a leader that doesn’t value your skills and a team that doesn’t respect your expertise. 

This doesn’t allow you to help the people you came to help; the patients and the frontline members that look up to you. 

You need to be in an environment that nurtures you but there is a chance you can jump out of this fire pan and into one that’s worse. 

You need to slow down and really think about what environment you want to be in and what it takes to be successful as a leader. 

5 Things to Look for in Your Next Executive Role 

1. Equitable Pay 

The first thing you need to look for is that you are equitably paid with everyone else around the table. 

Too many executives have top notch skills, degrees and expertise but get for the low. 

When I say the low, I mean 30-40% less than your peers. 

And you probably knew that the place you came from did the same thing. 

That’s why you’re looking for a new opportunity. 

So, make sure to do a market analysis and know what compensation for a role like this in an organization of a comparable size should be. 

This is easy to do on a site like Glassdoor, where you can look up an organization’s tax returns, income and expenses. 

Once you figure out how much you should be paid, add 25% on top of it. 

Why? 

We have the lowest unemployment rate we’ve seen in this generation.  

People are out of work because they choose to be out of work. 

Companies are starved for top talent. 

You are top talent, and because of this, you should ask for what you want. 

If you don’t get it, don’t take the job. 

There is someone else out there that will give it to you. 

But also remember, money is not everything, or even the most important thing. 

2. Growth Opportunity 

You need to look for the opportunity to grow in your next executive role. 

Be careful not to take a job in a role designed to only solve one problem. 

There may be a long job description with many things to do, but everyone interviewing oyu is looking at you to solve one problem. 

Maybe it’s the nursing turnover rate or maybe it’s the patient satisfaction course. 

No matter what it is, they’re looking for a leader to solve that one thing, and once it’s solved, they won’t ne you anymore. 

That’s not the kind of environment you want to be in. 

You need to be in an environment where you have the opportunity to scale your job. 

Once you do this, people in the organization will see you as more than a job. 

This is seen clearly in the best organizations. 

You can look at where a person was five years ago and see that they’ve progressed to a new role with greater responsibility. 

Take a look at the organization you’re interested in. 

How long have people been there? 

Is the entire organization full of people that parachuted in to do one job? 

If so, that’s probably not the right place for you. 

3. Mentoring Opportunities 

Your next executive role should provide opportunities for mentoring. 

You need to be given the time and space to develop young leaders behind you. 

The day you start a job is the day you start looking for your replacement because you shouldn’t strive to stay in one place forever. 

You always want to make sure to be in an organization that encourages people to formally mentor. 

It can always be done informally, but is there a formal framework? 

You should be looking for that. 

4. Professional Development 

The next thing you should be looking for in an organization is a leadership team that believes in the professional development of its executives. 

How much of their budget is allocated to training and learning? 

If every executive doesn’t have their own budget for the development of their team and themselves, that’s not the organization you need to be in. 

Is there a budget for executive coaching? 

As a leader, you should never stop getting better; this means you need a coach. 

Even the greatest athletes in the world couldn’t achieve their success without a coach. 

You need a coach and your next organization should be supportive and encouraging this. 

The greatest organizations are really training and development organizations masquerading as other businesses, such as hospitals and banks. 

But the goal should be training and developing people to be great at the core business. 

5. Offsite Executive Retreats 

You need to be looking for an organization that has offsite retreats with the executive team. 

This is something you can ask about in the interview process. 

If an organization does not have offsite retreats, they are ruthless and don’t have a real plan. 

If they can’t have a 48-hour meeting at a hotel or someone’s home where you can casually sit around and talk about strategic direction, you don’t need to be working there. 

You need to have time with your team without your business suit. 

You need to be able to get comfortable and dive deep into the challenges you’re facing as an organization. 

And these retreats need to be at least two days. 

This is the kind of organization you will want to be in. 

These are the things you want to focus on when looking for your next executive role. 

If your next employer is not committed to these things, it’s not the right place for you. 

You will be thinking of this post in a year or two, knowing you’re in the wrong place and wanting to make a move. 

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