The Critical Importance of Critical Experiences in Career Development

Growth and development usually come at a cost. They are important for us both personally and professionally, but that does not mean they are always pleasant.

Typically for us to truly build new skills as leaders in a chosen field, we have to stretch out of our comfort zone.

These opportunities are gems in one’s career — truly chances to pivot when you take advantage of them. Think of them as critical experiences. They are almost like a refiner’s fire for precious metal.

In talking with a business leader recently, we were discussing how both she and her entire team of direct reports had been going through a critical experience in their development. They had some incredibly difficult messages to deliver to their organization. It was far from easy, but necessary nonetheless.

3 ways you know you’re in a critical experience

Once you have completed a particularly difficult assignment, you can look back on it and recognize with much greater clarity all the things you have learned from it. While you are in the middle of it, you often do not realize the myriad benefits taking place in the moment.

My client and I agreed she and her direct reports may never have a need to replicate this exact same experience again in their careers — and that’s OK. The leadership lessons gleaned from this experience will help them become better leaders every day for many years to come.

So how do you know if you are in a critical experience? Or about to find yourself in one?

Critical experiences are:

Repeatable – More than one person in the organization can go through the experience across business units and geographies. They may not happen frequently, but they are not isolated incidents either. For example, working on a merger/acquisition, or a joint venture could be a critical experience.
Developmental – They support and accelerate your career development as you progress over time, based on predetermined criteria for success in your organization. For example, leading a cross-functional team that operates on a global scale might be particularly important for someone interested in moving to the next level in a multi-national enterprise.
Timeless – They stand the test of time. For example, they are not tied to a specific technology, since technology changes so rapidly. However involvement in changing the way your company operates due to business advantages gained from technology may result in a critical experience. Rolling out new technology to field operations is often an important experience in one’s career.

What critical experiences would you like to share below? I’d love to hear which ones have shaped you and your progress the most.

This was originally published on PeopleResult’s Current blog.