Your executive resume is one of the most critical vehicles for conveying your leadership qualities, achievements, and strategic vision. It may be tempting to treat it as a sort of laundry list, touting job titles and their tasks, but really, it’s about showing impact, leadership potential, and success.
Executive resume writers (like my team) follow a set of guidelines to create an executive resume that demands attention.
The following are seven simple things you can do to turn your resume into a powerful personal marketing tool:
1) Highlight Achievements in Relationship to Return on Investment – ROI
Why It Matters: You are the driver of growth and profitability as an executive. Quite often, one of the key measures of your success will be your ability to improve ROI. Start thinking of what you can add to that and show how you offer it. Backing it up with accomplishments will help prove that.
How to Implement: Instead of listing responsibilities, show added value to the companies you have led. Use hard metrics, such as percentages and dollar amounts, to demonstrate impact. People love numbers. Make sure you have them listed on your resume.
Example: Instead of saying, “Oversaw sales department”, say, “Grew sales revenue 45% over three years to drive an incremental $5M in revenue.”
Pro Tip: Be specific. What exactly was improved-cutting costs, increasing efficiencies, launching new products? Quantifying your achievements gives the recruiter an idea of what you bring to the table.
2) Exude Executive Presence
Why It Matters: My friend, Gina Riley, explained it perfectly at the NRWA conference recently.
Executive presence isn’t about looking the part; it’s about actually developing into leader-permeated confidence, authority, and strategic thinking. It also helps eliminate doubt about the job seeker’s candidacy.
How to Implement: Include language that emphasizes your role in setting strategic direction, making high-stakes decisions, and leading initiatives. Don’t forget to add soft skills and how you impact others.
Example: “Led the strategy vision and execution of a $50M company transformation while securing stakeholder buy-in across five departments.”
Pro Tip: If applying for a more executive-level position, use words like “executive strategy”, “visionary leadership”, and “transformational change”. This should be reflected on your presence in your LinkedIn profile.
3) Demonstrate Team Leadership and Development
Why It Matters: Being able to build and lead successful teams is, for many roles, a key component of being an effective executive. How you lead is just as important as the results you showcase.
How to Deliver: Emphasize how you impact team performance- through the development of better leaders, improved engagement, or greater retention.
Example: “Led a team of 100+, across three regions, to realize a 30% increase in employee engagement and a 15% reduction in turnover within two years.”
Pro Tip: If you’ve ever mentored future leaders or built leadership programs, be sure to include that here. It shows that you’re all about talent development and making sure that the organizations within which you work are going to grow and thrive.
4) Add Board Experience
Why It Matters: Board experience indicates a high level of trust, capability in governance, and strategic acumen. There needs to be a mix of hard skills, soft skills, operational expertise, financial skills, and vision.
How to Execute: Mention formal board roles held in a corporate, non-profit, or advisory capacity. Include specific contributions such as policy development, financial oversight, or strategic guidance.
Example: “Board Member, XYZ Corporation-led governance reforms that reduced compliance risks 20% and accelerated decision-making 25%.”
Pro Tip: Even if you haven’t had formal board experience, highlight your interactions with boards or advisory roles you have played. That could show that you are ready for board-level responsibility.
5) Use Executive Keywords Strategically
Why It Matters: Keywords are important to pass through ATS systems and to the eyes of a recruiter or hiring manager. Your resume will have a higher ranking with the use of proper keywords at the executive level.
How to Implement: Research job descriptions for the roles to which you’re applying and incorporate high-impact terms such as “P&L responsibility,” “strategic planning,” “mergers and acquisitions,” “growth strategy,” and “stakeholder management.”
Example: If the job posting asks for experience with “organizational change,” make sure that your experience includes the precise phrase, such as: “.led organizational change initiatives that resulted in a 35% efficiency increase.”
Pro Tip: Tailor your resume to each opportunity with keywords specific to that role. You can also check out the most-used terms in similar roles’ LinkedIn profiles for ideas.
6) Include a Potent Executive Summary
Why It Matters: Your executive summary sets the tone for the rest of the resume. It has to, in capsule form, provide an overview of career achievements, core competencies, and your leadership philosophy.
How to Do This: Stick to 3-4 sentences; highlight your most valuable accomplishments and strategic skills. It should reflect your career goals and value you will bring into an organization.
Example: “Transformational executive leader with 15+ years of experience driving growth in Fortune 500 companies. Proven track record of increasing profitability by up to 50% through innovative product development and operational efficiencies.”
Pro Tip: Do not use generic phrases and try to keep the fluffy adjectives to a minimum. Make the summary personalized, at the same time that it is compelling and relevant to what the company is seeking.
7) Emphasize Cross-Functional Collaboration
Why it’s a must: It’s quite common for modern business leaders to work across multiple company teams: finance, marketing, human resources, operations—the list goes on and on. By highlighting cross-functional collaboration and functioning, you’re demonstrating adaptability and an all-round appreciation of the enterprise in question.
How to achieve it: While trying to work out how to describe your experience, reflect on where you have been able to help others get something done. This may involve projects such as the development and launch of a new product with marketing and R&D teams or working with finance on budget development.
Example: “Partnered with marketing, sales, and finance teams in the launch of a new product, delivering first-year sales of $10M and a 20% increase in market share.”
Pro Tip: Action verbs include, but are not limited to, the words “collaborated,” “partnered,” and “coordinated,” which drive home the point of your contribution to teamwork.
Wrapping It Up
Improving your executive resume does not have to be an overhaul of sorts. Minor modifications can work wonders:
– Quantify the achievements of the job
– Create commanding executive presence
– Use keywords appropriately
You will come across as sturdy leadership material. Take these seven steps today, and watch your resume get a complete makeover, propelling your career upward.
