Become a senior leader through critical experiences

Do you dream of becoming an executive some day? How do you get there?

In my role I lead executive succession planning, which means identifying potential candidates in advance of those roles becoming open. So I am deeply engaged in what it takes to "get ahead" and I'm asked to speak about this a lot.

Oftentimes when people think about advancing their careers, they are a bit hypnotized by their childhood education. Getting more training and more credentials is often the first thing we think of. Others who have received some good career advice have focused on networking with those who already hold the positions they seek, and/or finding a mentor or sponsor to help navigate their careers. This is all good stuff.

However, training, networking, and mentoring alone do not necessarily lead to career progression. There is a difference between building your skills and actually advancing your career. And I believe most organizations inadvertently over-invest in "feel good" initiatives, and under-invest in initiatives that actually propel good people into leadership.

So what really drives career advancement? That would be critical experiences on the job where you are able to solve difficult problems and really move the organization forward. Through these "crucible" experiences, you gain a reputation as someone who produces results and value for the organization, becoming more visible and more influential in the process.

However, it is very difficult to find examples of these critical experiences in one place. To help, I've gathered and briefly describe 8 classic on-the-job leadership assignments which I actually use when I evaluate candidates for succession to executive roles.

As you think about how to advance your career, I urge you to consider those projects, and even those "horizontal moves" (not necessarily promotions) that will expose you to these kinds of critical problem-solving experiences that add to your leadership repertoire.

8 classic critical experiences for upwardly-mobile leaders

?1. Start something new / lead a start-up

What is the experience? This assignment is about making something out of nothing. It will probably include conducting a needs assessment, performing benchmarking, making the business case to senior leadership (or investors), establishing Key Performance Indicators, and finally launching a new team, a new function, a new market, a new product, or even a new line of business. A successful startup will go on to generate new results for the organization that didn’t exist before.?

What is the learning that is gained? Leaders who successfully launch a start-up get to practice their skills around vision and mission, and learn how to quickly determine a business objective, influence the organization to invest, and hire or gather resources to achieve the objective, usually under a compressed timeline. The leader will certainly deal with skeptics, setbacks, and resistance, and build their resilience and perseverance.

2. Lead in a downturn or turn-around situation

What is the experience? This assignment is about quickly identifying what, if any, business value can be preserved or recovered in a challenging economic or competitive environment. The leader must clarify the essential mission of the team, function, product, or business, and preserve the organization’s ability to execute on that mission, while identifying and cutting away non-essential staff and investment.

What is the learning that is gained? Business isn’t always rosy, and sometimes difficult choices must be made in order to preserve the organization itself. The leader who is successful in a downturn or turnaround learns to assess staff for critical competencies, identify mission-critical (and non-critical) deliverables, practice communication skills by delivering difficult messages, and manage the impacted team and stakeholders under pressure in order to preserve maximum business value.

?3. Lead in a P&L

What is the experience? Sometimes called a “line” or “vertical” leadership role, the P&L assignment is to lead in a line of business (or subset of a business) that directly produces financial profit (or loss). In this role the leader is responsible for guiding everything from marketing, sales and operations to customer satisfaction and quality, whether directly or through influence, to ensure smooth business execution. The P&L leader must collaborate with numerous support functions like Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Global Enablement in order to achieve positive results.

What is the learning that is gained? The leader must balance numerous competing initiatives and allocate company resources optimally to generate near-term positive ROI while investing for long-term profitable growth. The leader builds their business acumen and customer relationship skills as well as leading through influence. The P&L leadership experience is a key stepping stone to the most senior executive roles in the business.

4. Lead in a function

What is the experience? Sometimes called a “staff” or “horizontal” leadership role, the assignment is to lead in a support function, for instance HR, Finance, Marketing or IT. In this role the leader provides critical support to the business, ensuring smooth, repeatable processes and service delivery, as well as continually innovating and advancing the function (for instance integrating predictive analytics, automation and/or social media).

What is the learning that is gained? The leader must develop functional depth, mastering the key skills, methods and metrics of the support discipline, while building business acumen in determining how to best support the ever-changing business. This is a high collaboration role, working horizontally across the lines of business as well as across other support functions.

5. Lead in a merger of teams / organizations

What is the experience? This assignment is about making a new organization (a new team, business, or entire company) out of previously separate organizations. The leader is required to articulate the business value of the new entity, and identify the key capabilities on each side of the merger that must be preserved and integrated in order to realize that value. The leader must also make difficult choices about capabilities and/or staff which are not essential to the new organization and may not be retained.

What is the learning that is gained? The successful leader will build their business acumen and project management skills in determining how best to integrate separate teams in order to achieve the business goal, while building diplomacy skills in communicating to affected parties and multiple stakeholders the decisions that are being made at each step of the merger process.

6. Lead in an international assignment

What is the experience? This assignment is about achieving business objectives by bringing needed skills and experience to an organization while being respectful of local culture and norms. The successful leader will thoughtfully bring numerous stakeholders into sometimes complex decisions, while managing senior leaders’ generally high expectations of rapid execution and results.

What is the learning that is gained? The successful leader will develop their learning agility and personal flexibility in order to manage diverse relationships and deal with ambiguity. The leader must develop cross-cultural sensitivity while determining how to achieve tangible results outside of one’s previous operating environment.

7. Lead a major change initiative

What is the experience? This assignment challenges a leader to deliver a significant improvement to the business that is probably outside one’s core role. Many change efforts fail! This assignment requires articulating a compelling vision of a better future and securing the support of numerous stakeholders, many of whom may initially resist the change. The leader needs to develop a (probably complex) change plan and drive the execution all the way to the end in order to achieve the desired improvement.

What is the learning that is gained? Change is hard, because it disrupts routines that many people have worked hard to master. The successful leader will build marketing and influence skills, managing stakeholders at various points on the change curve, while exercising determination and resilience in the face of inevitable overt or covert setbacks.

8. Leading without authority

What is the experience? Sometimes called “matrix management” this assignment is about leading a project, a task force, or an entire organization via influence when one doesn’t have direct supervisory authority over the people involved. This is a common scenario in global organizations where global functions need to collaborate with regional and/or local leadership teams to achieve business results.

What is the learning that is gained? The leader will build influencing skills, motivating a potentially disparate organization through vision, mission, and values. The leader will build empathy, enhance listening skills, and learn to earn people’s loyalty and discretionary effort vs. using force, which generally results only in compliance.

Summing up

Now, look back over your career: consider the roles you've held, and the projects you've led. How many of these 8 critical experiences have you already had? Which ones should you seek next to round out your experience?

When you pursue your next opportunity, whether a project or a full-time role, I encourage you to look beyond title, reporting line and (short-term) compensation. Consider which roles or projects will best set you up for long-term career success. And in the interview, be sure to mention exactly why you're seeking this new critical experience -- hiring managers will take note of how self-aware and planful you are.