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Key Takeaways
- Plateaus signal that your current capabilities have maxed out — breakthroughs come from widening your perspective from individual contributor to enterprise thinker.
- Say yes to stretch assignments before you feel ready, because the challenge itself is what transforms you into the leader it requires.
Success teaches valuable lessons, including some that quietly hold us back. When you’re hitting revenue targets, earning promotions and receiving awards, it’s natural to double down on the behaviors that got you there. Then progress slows, and you no longer experience the same rate of growth. You’ve reached what I call the plateau paradox.
You’re succeeding by every conventional measure, yet you feel stuck. I’ve experienced that unsettling feeling several times throughout my career. But this feeling, as unpleasant as it is, can be the reality check you need to take the next step in your career. I knew it was time to expand my capabilities, challenge my assumptions and redefine what the next level of leadership required of me.
Entrepreneurs don’t fear plateaus. Plateaus are simply the beginning of what’s next. My own breakthroughs began when I embraced three mindset shifts that continue to shape how I lead today.
Widen your perspective
I love mentoring. It’s what inspired me to help launch the Louisiana Impact Fund’s CXO Leadership Program. When an emerging leader tells me they’ve hit a plateau, I share a simple truth: Every new level of leadership demands new capabilities. It’s a sobering realization, especially when you’ve built a reputation for strong execution. I know because I was that leader.
My breakthrough came when I stopped asking, “How do I contribute more?” and started asking, “How can we scale an enterprise capable of achieving far more together?” I made a fundamental shift from a high-performing individual contributor to an enterprise mindset. I stopped measuring success by quarterly execution and started setting the vision for where the business needed to be 24 to 36 months ahead. That perspective quickly revealed an entirely new set of leadership capabilities to master.
Success was no longer defined solely by driving sales growth or leading technology transformation. It demanded organizational design, strategic planning, talent development, partnership building and driving organizations on a global scale. That’s what happens when your perspective widens. Your next stage of growth begins.
Growth gets worse before it gets better
As an endurance athlete, I’ve learned that every climb begins with discomfort. Reaching the next peak requires mental fortitude to embrace it and the discipline to stay the course. Every meaningful breakthrough begins with uncertainty. Progress will get worse before it gets better. Don’t let a dip in progress derail your growth trajectory, but embrace it as part of the learning curve.
When I transitioned from a long career in technology leadership to co-founding a new venture, I knew I was stepping into unfamiliar territory. In many ways, I had become a student again. Because I expected and embraced the dip, I didn’t fall back on old habits when progress slowed — and it did. I stayed curious, kept learning, adapted quickly and made sound decisions aligned with a long-term vision.
That’s the power of embracing the dip. The leaders who break through aren’t the ones who avoid uncertainty. They prepare for it, stay open to learning and emerge stronger because of it.
Raise your hand before you’re ready
In the early hours of the morning, a life-changing email from my CEO landed in the inbox of our business unit executive. He posed a challenge that would change the trajectory of my career. If Intel was truly going to become a technology-first company, every employee around the world — from the U.S. to China to the Philippines — must have access to a PC and the internet. It was an ambitious initiative that would help lay the foundation for our digital transformation, and the CEO wanted to be ambitious with the impact.
So, I raised my hand – I wanted to be part of the team. The next day, I had one thought: “What did I just sign up for?” Over the next two years, that assignment became one of the greatest leadership accelerators of my career. The challenge wasn’t addressing the technology alone. It was leading a global transformation across different cultures, regulatory environments and organizational structures while aligning people around the world behind a shared vision.
That’s when my CEO’s words took on a whole new meaning: “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” I didn’t have all the answers, but I volunteered because I believed the challenge would help me become the leader it required. That single decision expanded my thinking, accelerated my transformation into an enterprise leader and reshaped how I’ve approached every opportunity since. The next time a stretch assignment presents itself, don’t ask, “Am I ready?” Ask instead: “Who will I become if I say yes?”
Make the plateau your runway
If there’s one lesson my career has taught me, it’s that growth requires forward momentum before it creates lift. Entrepreneurship often works the same way. When you widen your perspective, embrace the dip and raise your hand before you’re ready, you’ll stop mistaking temporary discomfort for failure. You’ll recognize it is the momentum required for your next breakthrough. Many people experience the dip and turn back. The best leaders persevere. If you’ve reached a plateau, remember that this is not where your growth ends. It’s the next runway from which your next breakthrough takes flight.
Key Takeaways
- Plateaus signal that your current capabilities have maxed out — breakthroughs come from widening your perspective from individual contributor to enterprise thinker.
- Say yes to stretch assignments before you feel ready, because the challenge itself is what transforms you into the leader it requires.
Success teaches valuable lessons, including some that quietly hold us back. When you’re hitting revenue targets, earning promotions and receiving awards, it’s natural to double down on the behaviors that got you there. Then progress slows, and you no longer experience the same rate of growth. You’ve reached what I call the plateau paradox.
You’re succeeding by every conventional measure, yet you feel stuck. I’ve experienced that unsettling feeling several times throughout my career. But this feeling, as unpleasant as it is, can be the reality check you need to take the next step in your career. I knew it was time to expand my capabilities, challenge my assumptions and redefine what the next level of leadership required of me.
Entrepreneurs don’t fear plateaus. Plateaus are simply the beginning of what’s next. My own breakthroughs began when I embraced three mindset shifts that continue to shape how I lead today.