You're a mid-career professional aiming for growth. How can you elevate your leadership skills even further?

Instead of trying to predict your future, start by excavating your past. Take a deep dive into the moments when you felt most alive, most engaged, most in flow. Ask yourself: - What environments allowed me to thrive? - What kinds of challenges lit a fire within me? - What types of interactions energized me? - When did I feel like I was making a meaningful difference?

Since much of leadership is remote, elevating your Virtual Executive Presence is critical to gaining buy in and moving up in your career. key to

Create your own plan for learning, don't expect your manager to do it for you. Think about the formal and informal learning opportunities that will help you build needed skills. And - if you're not sure about what skills you need, start having some conversations. Reach out to colleagues and connections who are a few steps ahead of you to gain their insight. And then, craft your plan.

Networking has been the most valuable practice of my career. My network helped me land my first job outside of college, helped me move into tech, connected me with my first few consulting clients, and helped me land my biggest project. Network often and network with heart. It's not just about what's in it for you. Create mutual benefits and you'll build some really strong relationships.

Build your internal network and be strategic in how you do it by creating allies. An ally is someone who supports you and advocates for you. When you create allies, you are creating a support network that can help you navigate challenges, provide honest feedback, and even offer growth opportunities.

Want to elevate your leadership skills further? Here is my laundry list of considerations to focus on as a mid-career professional aiming for growth: - Identify a mentor - Build a personal board of directors - Select leaders within the organization to spend time with to learn from - Networking in your industry, internally, and with peer companies - strive to be known well - Spend time with your people, as leadership improves the more you do it, and you can elevate your impact by spending more time with your teams - Read, just read. Business and leadership books are great, but also branch off if you can pull it off, into nonfiction - Professional Research - study your craft, and find one area to be the expert in your field - Balance

Okay - how about this, it worked for me in my former career, and I guide my clients to do the following: Volunteer for leadership positions within professional organisations or community projects to gain practical experience. Or an internal initiative. Fractional leadership - is there an opportunity to take part time leadership of a small team or project, or for a set amount of time? Seek opportunities to participate in cross-functional projects - develop collaboration skills & broaden your understanding of different business areas. Look for opportunities to work on international projects or travel for conferences to gain a global perspective. Leadership doesn't have to be a straight line & often isn't, like everything else in life :)