22 Leadership Experiences Most People Don’t Consider when Growing Their Careers

Early on, I thought growing my career was primarily about moving up the ladder.

As I’ve matured and had the opportunity to be mentored by many great leaders, I’ve learned there are many other dimensions to career growth in addition to vertical progress.

The most insightful method for expressing these dimensions is a leadership experience checklist I received from a senior leader at General Electric (Mike Swinford who is currently CEO of Numotion) while I was still an individual contributor.

I’ll share the checklist below I have used over the last two decades as I’ve assessed leadership opportunities in my career.

Leadership Experience Checklist: Have you led in these dimensions?

Type of Team

• Direct reports(Most Common)

• A big team

• A distributed team

• Leaders of teams

Organizational Context

• Across a matrix

• Through different cycles

  • Turnaround

  • Tough-times

  • Growth

• Through Headquarters bureaucracy

Internally Focused Teams

• A P&L, Balance Sheet, or Both

• A function(e.g. Supply chain) or Department(e. g. procurement)

• A highly technical team

• “Corporate” or Central Teams

• Department / Functional level

• Executive / C-suite level

• A global team w/diverse cultures

• Multiple teams w/multiple functions/offerings

Externally Focused Teams

• Industry expert(s)

• A customer-facing team

• Directly against competitors

Developed People

• Built a team/organization

• Grown/promoted leaders

• Grown/promoted diverse talent

  • “Affinity” diverse

  • “Different than you” diverse

• Dealt decisively with poor leaders

Reflecting on my career in these dimensions has helped me stay intentional about the kinds of roles I choose to take on and the experiences I intentionally develop in those roles. Hopefully, it helps you do the same.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

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