By Ralph Pillot III, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer at Aurora InvestCo
Early in my management career, I learned that running one strong location was only the beginning of preparing for greater responsibility. A clean, organized, properly staffed, compliant, and client ready operation was expected. Knowing and hitting the numbers was expected. Maintaining company standards throughout the year was expected. Those responsibilities demonstrated that I could lead the business I had already been entrusted to manage.
Promotion required different evidence. I had to demonstrate that I could learn from senior leaders, develop other people, transfer successful practices to another location, and produce results without personally controlling every interaction. I needed to show that my leadership could travel beyond one store, one team, and one set of circumstances.
Seven questions became an important part of that development. When a senior executive or regional leader visited my location, I did not view the visit as an inspection or an opportunity to perform for approval. I viewed it as access to someone who had seen more locations, more leaders, more business conditions, and more examples of success than I had. I wanted to understand how that person evaluated the business and what they saw that I might be missing.
The questions mattered, but what I did with the answers mattered more. I spent late nights studying our products, financial results, sales process, client objections, operating standards, and leadership practices. I role played conversations until I could handle them confidently and teach them to someone else. I read books about selling, influence, communication, and management, including The Little Red Book of Selling and How to Win Friends and Influence People among so many others. I was not studying merely to become a better individual producer. I was learning how to become a better teacher.
That distinction helped change the direction of my career. The strongest salesperson can produce an impressive personal result. A strong manager can help an entire team produce better results. A multi unit leader must then prove that those methods can be transferred across different managers, employees, clients, and operating environments.
The Minimum Standard Is Not the Promotion Standard
Strong organizations establish clear operating standards and make them nonnegotiable. The location should be ready every day, not only when leadership is expected. Employees should understand the priorities & goals. The manager should know the financial and operating results. Clients should receive a consistent experience. Compliance, staffing, merchandising, inventory, expense control, and basic execution should never depend on an upcoming visit.
Those standards establish management credibility, but they do not automatically demonstrate readiness for district or area leadership. A manager who wants greater responsibility must move beyond maintaining one successful location. Senior leaders need evidence that the manager can develop other leaders, diagnose unfamiliar businesses, transfer successful practices, and improve performance through people who do not report to them in the same way their current team does.
The promotion standard is not simply, “Can this person run a good store?” The better question is, “Can this person help several managers build good stores without taking over their jobs?”
That is why the questions a manager asks during an executive visit can be so valuable. They reveal whether the manager is focused only on approval in the current role or is actively developing the judgment needed for the next one.
1. What Stands Out Most About This Location, and What Would Take It From Strong to Best in the Company?
A capable manager already knows that the store should be clean, organized, and operating to standard. This question should move the conversation beyond basic presentation. It invites the visiting leader to identify the difference between a solid location and one that could become a benchmark for the organization.
A senior leader may notice untapped sales potential, inconsistent client follow up, weak leadership depth, scheduling opportunities, missed commercial relationships, or a team that is performing well but relying too heavily on a few individuals. The manager and employees work inside the business every day. Familiarity can make certain opportunities difficult to see. A leader who visits many locations brings a wider comparative perspective.
The manager should be prepared to hear an answer that challenges their assumptions. Asking for honest feedback and then defending every current practice defeats the purpose. The value comes from comparing the executive’s observations with the manager’s own assessment and deciding what should change.
A manager looking for praise asks, “How did we do?” A manager preparing for greater responsibility asks, “What would take us to another level?”
2. What Are the Top Performing Managers Doing That I Should Begin Doing?
Senior field leaders see patterns that individual store managers cannot see from one location. They know which managers produce strong results consistently, which ones develop promotable people, and which ones create performance that continues even when they are not present.
The answer may have little to do with personality. Strong managers often distinguish themselves through discipline. They study the business before problems become urgent. They coach throughout the week rather than waiting for a formal review. They understand the drivers behind the numbers. They identify talent early. They communicate before an issue becomes a crisis. They maintain high standards without creating fear.
The purpose of the question is not to imitate someone else. It is to understand which habits repeatedly produce results across different markets and teams. The manager can then adapt those disciplines to the needs of the local business.
I used these conversations to improve my own routines. When I learned that another leader was producing better results through a particular coaching approach, performance review, or client development practice, I studied it. I wanted to understand why it worked well enough that I could teach it, improve it, and apply it without simply copying the visible behavior.
3. If You Were Leading This Location for the Next 90 Days, Where Would You Focus First?
Most locations have many opportunities. Sales may need improvement. Staffing may be uneven. Training may be inconsistent. Client retention could be stronger. Expenses may be too high. The leadership pipeline may be too shallow. The real challenge is not identifying everything that could improve. It is determining which issue should be addressed first.
This question helps reveal how an experienced multi unit leader prioritizes. Strong operators distinguish symptoms from causes. A store may be missing its sales target, but the underlying issue may be scheduling, product knowledge, conversion, coaching, inventory availability, or the manager’s inability to create urgency. Trying to improve every metric at once often creates activity without meaningful progress.
The manager should arrive with an informed point of view rather than asking the executive to diagnose the entire business. I might have said, “I believe our greatest opportunity is repeat business because our initial client acquisition is strong, but our follow up discipline is inconsistent. I would value your perspective on whether you see the same issue.”
That approach demonstrates preparation. The manager has studied the results, developed a conclusion, and invited a more experienced leader to test the reasoning.
4. What Does the Organization Need From This Location During the Next Quarter, and How Should I Align My Team?
Managers can become consumed by the immediate demands of operating one location. Staffing, schedules, clients, compliance, inventory, expenses, and daily performance require attention. Leaders preparing for broader responsibility must also understand how their location contributes to the priorities of the market, region, and enterprise.
The organization may be focused on profitable growth, client retention, expense discipline, a new product category, digital adoption, talent development, or expansion. A manager should understand how the local business supports that priority and how to translate it into clear expectations for the team.
This question also helps clarify competing priorities. Organizations sometimes communicate several objectives without explaining which one should take precedence when resources are limited. A strong manager does not allow the team to become trapped between unclear expectations. The manager seeks context, makes the tradeoffs understandable, and creates alignment.
A store should never operate as an isolated business. The strongest managers understand that local success should contribute to regional and companywide performance.
5. What Habits Separate Good Managers From Leaders Ready for the Next Level?
Producing good results in one store matters. However, district leadership requires more than repeating the same responsibilities across a larger number of locations. The role demands broader judgment, stronger delegation, more sophisticated talent assessment, and the ability to create results through other managers.
A potential district manager must be able to identify patterns across businesses, separate an isolated problem from a systemic one, coach leaders with different levels of ability, communicate with executives and frontline employees, and improve a struggling location without taking permanent control away from its manager. They must also be willing to share talent and successful practices rather than protecting their strongest people and ideas for personal advantage.
The best individual salesperson is not automatically the best future district manager. The stronger candidate is usually the person who can explain why results are happening, teach the process to others, develop successors, and reproduce the performance across different teams.
That is why I worked to become a better teacher. Leadership is not proven by how much a manager can personally accomplish. It is proven by how much stronger other people become because that manager led them.
6. What Am I Not Seeing That Could Limit This Location’s Results or My Own Growth?
This may be the most important question because every leader has blind spots. Strong results can make those blind spots more difficult to recognize. A manager may not see that the team has become too dependent on them. They may underestimate a developing talent issue. They may believe expectations are clear when employees remain confused. They may focus so heavily on current performance that they neglect succession planning or long term client relationships.
A senior leader may also see a personal development issue that could limit promotion. The manager may need greater financial understanding, better executive communication, stronger delegation, more cross functional exposure, or the ability to coach people without immediately taking over the work.
Asking for that feedback requires maturity. Insecure leaders seek information that confirms their self image. Leaders who want to grow seek information that improves their judgment, even when the answer is uncomfortable.
The value of the question depends entirely on what happens next. Feedback that is received politely and then ignored has no developmental value. The manager must translate the insight into specific action, practice, and measurable improvement.
The Real Work Begins After the Visit
Asking thoughtful questions may create a valuable conversation, but questions alone do not build a career. The work begins when the executive leaves.
I studied the answers. I studied the business. I studied our products and the way clients made decisions. I practiced how to open conversations, explain value, respond to objections, and ask for commitment. I read about selling, influence, management, and leadership. When I learned something useful, I did not keep it as a personal advantage. I worked to teach it to the team.
Teaching forces a leader to understand the subject at a deeper level. It is not enough to tell an employee, “Sell more,” “Improve conversion,” or “Build stronger relationships.” The manager must be able to explain the behavior, demonstrate it, observe the employee attempting it, provide useful feedback, and repeat the coaching until performance improves.
This is one of the clearest differences between a strong producer and a strong leader. A producer knows how to succeed personally. A leader can make success understandable and repeatable for other people.
Stretch Assignments Create the Evidence
The opportunity to help lead two locations became a defining stretch assignment in my development. It required more than working longer hours or dividing my time between two buildings. I had to prove that the standards, routines, and leadership practices that worked in one location could also elevate another.
I could no longer be present for every decision. I had to develop people who could lead when I was elsewhere. I had to understand the differences between the teams instead of assuming that one management approach would work everywhere. I had to identify which practices were transferable and which ones needed to be adapted to the local business.
Most importantly, I had to maintain the performance of my original location while helping another improve. A stretch assignment should not create success in one place by allowing another to deteriorate. The purpose is to demonstrate greater leadership capacity.
For managers seeking advancement, this is where ambition becomes evidence. Volunteer to support another location, train another manager, lead a regional initiative, test a new process, assist with an opening, or help turn around an underperforming business. Do not merely complete the assignment. Document what changed because of your involvement.
What was the starting condition? What actions did you take? Which leaders did you develop? How did performance improve? Did the results continue after you stepped away? Those are the facts that strengthen a district manager interview.
Begin Performing at the Next Level Before Receiving the Title
Managers sometimes wait for a promotion before attempting to develop the skills required for the role. The stronger approach is to begin preparing before the opening exists. Study how district leaders evaluate performance. Learn to compare locations. Strengthen your financial understanding. Develop successors. Build relationships across departments. Volunteer for assignments that require influence beyond your current authority.
Promotion should recognize demonstrated readiness. It should not become the first day someone begins learning how to lead at a broader level.
When the district or area position becomes available, the strongest candidate should be able to present more than good intentions. They should be able to show that they improved more than one business, developed leaders who were promoted or given greater responsibility, created practices that other locations adopted, and produced results without becoming the permanent solution to every problem.
This is also why the best operators build leaders rather than dependence. A manager who must personally approve every decision may appear important, but that model cannot scale. The future multi unit leader builds clear expectations, strong routines, capable managers, and enough trust for people to make sound decisions when the leader is not present.
The Promotion Is Earned Through Other People’s Success
The six questions helped me understand what senior leaders valued and how they viewed the business. The late nights helped me build knowledge. The practice helped me improve my own capability. Teaching helped me transfer that capability to others. The two location stretch assignment gave me the evidence that my leadership could travel.
That progression eventually prepared me for district and broader multi unit responsibility. It also shaped the way I developed leaders throughout the rest of my career. I did not want managers who were satisfied with minimum standards. I wanted leaders who understood the business, invested in themselves, elevated their teams, and wanted to become among the best in the industry.
Strong financial and operating results do not come from building average people. They come from investing in people, inspiring them, holding them to meaningful standards, teaching them how to improve, and giving them opportunities to prove what they can do.
The manager ready for promotion is not simply the person running the best looking store when the executive arrives. It is the person who has built a strong business every day, developed people capable of leading without constant supervision, improved performance beyond one location, and created measurable evidence that the organization can trust them with more.
Ask better questions. Study the answers. Practice until you can teach what you know. Develop people who can succeed without depending on you. Then look for the stretch assignment that allows your leadership to travel.
7. Can We Build a Career Development Plan for My Next Role?
What was the seventh question? It is the one I would ask last: “Can we schedule time to build a specific career development plan with my manager for my next role?”
This question moves the conversation from general ambition to deliberate preparation. Telling a senior leader that you want to advance is easy. Building a plan that defines what you must learn, demonstrate, and accomplish before you are ready requires greater maturity. It also gives your leader an opportunity to tell you honestly which capabilities you already possess, which ones need further development, and what evidence the organization will expect when the next district, area, or multi unit position becomes available.
Want to learn how I built these types of plans with my district managers and Regional Managers when I was a Director? You’ll have to read my full article on the subject.
Im the meantime remember, This is not a request for a promise of promotion. It is a request for clarity, accountability, and the opportunity to prepare. A thoughtful leader will respect a manager who is willing to hear what is required and then do the work necessary to demonstrate readiness.
When the next position opens, the career development plan becomes more than a record of ambition. It becomes evidence for the interview. The manager can explain the goals that were established, the stretch assignments that were completed, the leaders who were developed, the results that improved, and the feedback that was applied. Instead of saying, “I believe I am ready,” the candidate can demonstrate how readiness was intentionally built and measured over time.
That is the purpose of a strong career development plan. It turns a future promotion from a hope into a disciplined course of preparation and gives both the manager and the organization a clear way to evaluate progress.
That is how a manager begins becoming a multi unit leader before the title is ever awarded.
Related reading: Read Customer Experience Transformation Requires Organizational Transformation, which examines why lasting client experience improvement requires alignment across leadership, people, operations, technology, training, and culture.
Explore additional perspectives on executive leadership, strategy, operations, and organizational transformation through Aurora InvestCo Insights.
Aurora InvestCo Insights, from the Office of the Chief Strategy Officer, publishes market intelligence, investment perspectives, and executive level analysis for investors, business owners, and senior leaders. Topics include enterprise strategy, organizational transformation, luxury real estate, retail, hospitality assets, operating companies, and cross border investment opportunities. Content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax, or professional advice.
