Great executives prioritize developing subtle skills beyond those required for leadership. They must embrace significant career risks, learn to scale by trusting their team, and cultivate advanced soft skills. Leaders often resist these changes because past successes create complacency. Those who view adaptation as a growth opportunity will rise to the top of their organizations. Key Points: - Executives need to develop skills that differ from basic leadership abilities. - Essential skills include taking career risks, scaling through team trust, and enhancing soft skills. - Resistance to change stems from previous successes, making leaders less motivated to adapt. - Viewing change as a growth path leads to advancement in organizational roles.
This article is crucial for Engineering Leaders as it highlights the need for skills beyond traditional leadership, such as taking calculated risks and trusting teams to scale effectively. An actionable takeaway is to embrace change as a pathway to growth, encouraging leaders to develop their soft skills and adaptability to thrive in executive roles.
Summary: Becoming a great executive requires a set of skills beyond what's needed to be a leader. Executive skills are subtle and can be elusive to managers, demanding a great deal of focus, courage, and dedication. These skills include taking (almost irrational) career risk, learning to scale by trusting your team, and developing advanced soft skills. New skills are hard for leaders to develop simply because they’ve already found success, which makes them less motivated to make substantive skill shifts. But those who see change as a path to growth will ascend to top roles within an organization.
