What is your leadership vision?
The goal of leadership development cannot simply be “leadership.” When a goal is created without a guiding vision, it becomes a mirage of achievement. It looks good in the distance, but the endpoint has no surrounding structure. Leadership isn’t a destination, simply one point on a path.
A young professional was identified as a high-potential employee early in their career and moved through the leadership development program of one of the world’s largest companies. Over the years, they were given increasingly significant leadership opportunities across multiple business segments, eventually reaching the executive level.
It seemed like the ideal career trajectory, but every step was determined by the organization based on their immediate needs and initiatives.
Because the opportunities kept coming, the leader never paused to ask themselves what was the best next move for their career. And because they were successful and up for any challenge, no one at the company ever asked the leader, “What do you want to do next?”
Eventually, the executive was recruited to a senior leadership role within a growing company. This time, there were no established structures and no one was mapping out their next move.
The opportunity turned out to be the wrong one, and the executive had no experience in career development or self-advocacy. They were exceptionally talented at stepping up to the plate and responding to opportunities. They had less experience in owning the direction of their career.
The question is, who is responsible for creating career vision?
There are two sides to leadership development: the company’s and the potential leader’s. Many companies don’t have leadership development programs, and those that do are often self-serve or dependent on line-level managers to identify and mentor high-potential talent.
Even companies with highly structured leadership rotations and programs like the one in this story can be remarkably short-sighted, focused on their immediate needs rather than creating a symbiotic relationship with their leaders that aligns and supports growth toward a larger vision.
Companies that create leadership development goals without tying them to a larger vision do a disservice to both their future leaders and to themselves.
That sounds like the moral of this story and yet, it’s not.
The takeaway is that leaders cannot wait for someone else to determine what comes next without questioning how it fits within their long-term career plan.
YOU are the owner of your career vision.