Leaders Accelerate Career Trajectories

Happy Friday,

Good leaders ignite an important virtuous cycle.

It begins with the belief that every person on their team has an inherent upward trajectory, even if they can't name it or haven't thought about it much themselves.

A leader’s job is to see it and deliberately put the next rung of the ladder right in front of them. Things like a stretch project, more scope responsibility, ownership of a new task or initiative, faster feedback, or a public win.

When you move someone along their career trajectory, four things happen at once:

1. They feel progress (it's the #1 reason people stay). Worth reading that again...
2. They get better, fast.
3. Their value to the organization compounds.
4. The whole organization levels up because one of its parts just did.

That’s the cycle: Spot potential → push growth → compound value → increase retention → repeat.

It’s self-reinforcing too. The faster you move people forward, the more capable and loyal they become, which in turn increases your capacity to move them even faster. You spend more time making meaningful positive progress and less time being hobbled by problems and turnover.

That's it...

Thanks for making this a better world,

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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