Emerging leaders: Three simple ways to up your elevator pitch

Is your elevator pitch elevating your career all the way to the top?

If your current elevator pitch educates your listeners about what you do now, but not what you are capable of doing next, you may be missing an important opportunity to reshape how others perceive you - and even how you perceive yourself.

What do you typically say when you introduce yourself for the first time? When done right, this elevator speech - or 30-second commercial - can be the verbal equivalent of dressing for the job you want.

Let's say you are the go-to person for tasks that you wish you could move beyond. Things you basically could do in your sleep and perhaps should even be delegating to others.

Maybe people keep coming to you with requests that exemplify duties you were excited to perform a few years ago but now leave you feeling underused and even unappreciated.

Here are three read-today, use-today ways to sculpt how you are perceived in your organization.

1. Own responsibilities beyond your job description.

Keep it simple, straightforward and clean. Start with your name and job title, and then follow with a brief, crisp and lean overview of what you are responsible for by saying, 'I am responsible for a, b, and c,” in which a, b, and c are very concise bullets points.

To uplevel your elevator pitch, make sure at least one of these bullets goes beyond your current job description and describes a responsibility better fitting your next dream job within the organization.

For example, a product manager who aspires to manage a team of other product managers might say, 'I oversee documentation and sharing of product management best practices” or 'I represent product management in new business pursuits.”

2. Become the go-to person for the bigger picture.

After sharing your name, job title and responsibilities, finish your elevator pitch with a statement that sets you up as the go-to person for higher-level duties.

For example, you might say something like, 'Come directly to me whenever you need x, y and z.” Don't articulate the busy work or low-level tasks on your current roster or you'll only attract more of those.

Instead, choose up-market areas that showcase your leadership skills and the value you add to the organization.

3. Use leadership verbs.

Finally, use language to your advantage by focusing on active, strong leadership verbs to send a powerful message that is forward-focused.

For instance, to shift perception of yourself from being a doer to being a leader, catch yourself before you say you 'work on” something or even that you are 'responsible for” it.

Be definitive instead. Say you lead it, oversee it, orchestrate it or are in charge of it.

Do you know of more examples of leadership verbs? That is, right after you use them in your next elevator pitch.

' Jo Miller is CEO of Women's Leadership Coaching Inc. Twitter handle: @womensleadershp