At a Crossroads in Your Career, this is the Most Useful Tool
After decades of focused hard work, many leaders unexpectedly reach a crossroad: where to next?
Before moving on, you must know where you stand. A thorough assessment evaluates not just what you do now, but where you can go next, and enjoy doing.
We incorporate a rigorous, benchmarked leadership assessment into our programs; we give people feedback before the first session so they can use it immediately. We focus on these characteristics:
Motivation. You should love your job, but job ladders aren’t designed around you. Consider the source of your emotional energy, to avoid taking a role that drains you instead of energizing you.
Scaled executive-specific capability. A scaled capability is a characteristic precisely differentiating performance in a specific role. We have a person who co-developed the first scaled capability framework and developed the first scaled executive capability framework. We can benchmark your core capabilities even against roles you never occupied.
Size and Scope. It’s hard to move from managing five people to five hundred and beyond – even with great capability you learn to apply that capability on a larger scale.
Personality/Style. Even with great capabilities you may still fail because you don’t fit into the company. Capability first – but then fit.
Potential. We’re written about this, but briefly: how much farther can you go, or want to go, and how quickly?
Take a person moving up the technical ladder from engineer to manager – perhaps to Chief Technology Officer. Despite loving hands-on technology, they only work with people and politics all day. How to deal with this frustration? Move to a smaller firm? Start a new one?
Another example: a financial expert who wants to move beyond a senior finance role. This person wants to reach CFO, or even CEO – but doesn’t know how to cross the gulf from expert to top leader.
Or even someone who has reached the top: a CEO of a firm, restless to do more or change, or who fears being made obsolete by a changing market. How can one keep growing everything successfully?
How to navigate through these crossroads? Learn how Ascent can help. Read more here.