A developmental role is a position you are given to grow into: Bigger scope, new stakeholders, skills you have not proven yet. It is a vote of confidence and a test at the same time.
Being placed in one is exciting. It can also be tricky. However confident you are going in, you can end up overwhelmed if you are not ready to stretch beyond your current limits.
In January 2021, Forbes asked 12 members of the Coaches Council how high performers should prepare for a developmental role. I was one of them. Here are the 12 ways as I read them today.
In your current role, people judge you by results. In a developmental role, they also watch how you learn. Your manager, your new peers and often the executive board want to see whether you can grow into the next level, and that changes what preparation means.
A widely used rule of thumb in leadership development, the 70-20-10 model associated with Lombardo and Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership, holds that most learning happens on the job. A developmental role is that on-the-job learning, concentrated into one assignment.
Jennifer Wisdom advises doing as much research as you can and then starting. Research helps you understand the role intellectually, and the details only show once you are in it. A mentor or coach helps you reassess as you go.
Kashonna Holland treats outside research as constant work in a stretch role. Culture shifts fast, so stay sharp and flexible, and put what you learn into practice to show that it works.
Krishna Kumar points to the balance between challenge and skill. Ask yourself whether a task makes you anxious or relaxed. Anxiety is the signal to build that skill until the stress subsides.
This one is mine. Invest in your personality and your personal brand, and think carefully about how you act. People should feel they know you, even if they have never met you. Your delivery style should be as distinct as every other part of your brand, and it becomes distinct by itself once you stop imitating others.
Dan Ryan remembers his own stretch roles as painful and rewarding. What helped most were mentors who knew the role or knew where it might lead. Relationships carry you through new terrain.
Jonathan H. Westover reminds you that your organisation is investing in you. Prepare before and between development sessions, find out what is expected, and then deliver more than that, consistently.
Yamini Virani separates knowing from doing. If strategic thinking is required, learning the concepts is the first half. The second half is practising the behaviour until you can apply it under pressure.
Debra Kasowski counts conversations as research. Interview colleagues, find mentors, build relationships with stakeholders, and spend time with people who think differently from you.
Lauren Cooney points out that a stretch assignment often signals a promotion or a bigger project ahead. Keep your regular work steady and put your extra energy into the stretch project, because it carries the visibility.
April Armstrong suggests growing toward the role that may follow the developmental one. Prepare for the next level, and you will handle the current stretch with room to spare.
Brad Cousins names cross-boundary learning as a core skill of great leaders. Reach out to subject matter experts beyond your own area and build competence together with them.
Jeff Altman ends with a calm reminder. You were chosen because of your track record. Build a base of comfort with the new assignment, the way you always have, and trust the habits that brought you here.
In coaching I see one gap again and again. High performers prepare for the tasks of a developmental role and underestimate how visible they become. From the first week, new stakeholders form a picture of you, long before your results arrive. That is why point 4 matters more in a stretch role than anywhere else.
Two habits help. First, agree with your manager within 30 days what success looks like at the end of the role, in writing. Second, ask two or three new stakeholders every few weeks how your work lands. Both turn a vague stretch into a measurable one.
A role assigned to a high performer to build capabilities for a bigger future position. A developmental role stretches the person beyond current skills, with more scope, new stakeholders or a different function, and often comes before a promotion.
Research the role, talk to people who have done it, agree on success criteria with your manager and line up a mentor or coach. Then start, and adjust as you learn.
Feeling stretched is part of the design. Treat anxiety about a specific task as a signal to build that skill, ask for feedback early and keep your existing responsibilities stable while you learn.
A coach helps you see how you come across to new stakeholders, choose the one or two behaviours that matter most and reflect on progress between real situations. That keeps the learning on the job, where a developmental role is designed to put it.
Further reading on hofmann.coach: Leadership development: 15 ways to turn leadership weaknesses into strengths · Executive leadership coaching: 19 ways to land an internal C-suite role · Resilience at work: How to stay resilient after setbacks · Leadership positioning: How to stand out clearly in a new role · Newly promoted leader: 13 ways to handle shifting relationships
Note: This page goes back to the Forbes Coaches Council expert panel “Stepping Into A Developmental Role? 12 Ways To Prepare To Stretch In It”, published 6 January 2021. The 12 ways come from the members named; way 4 is my own contribution. The summaries and the framing are mine.
Cristian Hofmann is an executive coach in Zurich and Schaffhausen (MAS Coaching & Supervision BSO, Forbes contributor). Over more than 20 years he has coached more than 1,500 leaders: CEOs, executive boards and leadership teams in Switzerland, with measurably agreed goals and, on request, pay-for-results. More about Cristian Hofmann.
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