"I must have looked confused because he quickly added, "I don't mean literally." Though I still wonder sometimes... What he meant was simpler and more powerful: start doing the job before you have the title. Take on more responsibility before you're officially given it. This advice has stuck with me through years of career growth, and later when I became a manager myself, I saw exactly why it works."
"Here's what made this powerful: they had clearly identified an issue I'd been thinking about, come up with a solution, written the proposal, and estimated the cost. This wasn't in their wheelhouse of expertise. But the mere fact that they had thought about this issue showed me they were expanding their vision beyond what was right in front of them to the wider team's problems."
Start performing the responsibilities of the role you want before receiving the title. Take on team-level ownership, identify problems beyond assigned tasks, design solutions, and produce concrete proposals with cost and time estimates. Demonstrating expanded vision and initiative shows readiness for higher roles. Promotions require sustained demonstration of capability, not isolated actions. Proactively doing the thinking, planning, and execution for broader team issues signals leadership potential and makes it clear that the person can handle the responsibilities associated with the next position.
Read at Grahamyooll
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