I am amazed at the number of people who wait to be promoted. A long time ago I was mentored in a key skill that was critical to my career growth. “BE” your target role now. This means assessing your target role and deeply thinking through how a person in that role behaves and thinks.

Have you ever thought about who is in your advice pool? We live in a world of collaboration and the people you get your advice from (and there should be a lot of them!) should be a mix of generations. Gather the advice of your peers, people older than you, and younger than you so you receive balanced advice. Do you have a healthy generational mix? If not, what can you do to improve it?

Every business has different needs. Understanding those needs is a major key to success.

Most high performance up and coming leaders do not appear to truly understanding the difference between role specific skills and life skills. This is an important conversation as it relates to your long-term career goals. So, let’s break this down.

If you are a leader, or emerging leader, then this should be helpful to you. The goal is to develop business acumen – that is the underpinning business knowledge that comes from experience and wisdom.