https://theskip.substack.com/p/three-crucial-skills-that-leaders
New skills are hard for leaders to develop simply because they’ve already found success, which makes them less motivated to make substantive skill shifts. But those who see change as a path to growth will ascend to top roles within an organization.
When you reach Act II, you’re comfortable and have a successful career. But to grow, you need new experiences, which likely means you need to change jobs. Change now takes courage and significant risk—you have more to lose than you had in Act I. So most prefer to avoid making big changes, resulting in fewer new challenges and much slower growth than they experienced in Act I.
It’s far easier to remain a harvester than become a pioneer again.
in Act II you must be humble, be highly self-aware, thirst for self-improvement, and be able to hold things loosely so that you can quickly recalibrate and build the necessary skills.
When you join the ranks of leadership, getting things done is more than getting your team to execute in a good direction and managing the individuals. More substantive projects require you to convince and influence the other leaders in the company working on adjacent projects or disciplines. This requires building strong relationships with other senior people, some who work in entirely different functions. It requires powerful listening skills, patience and empathy, an interest in compromise, and the ability to diffuse conflict. These soft skills are difficult to master and less likely to build in Act I because projects are smaller and less complex organizationally. But they are key in unlocking success in Act II and moving forward to Act III.
So on your path to becoming an executive, mastering each detail will hold you back. You’ll need to develop a new, crucial skill: building teams and trusting the people in them.