Existing leaders love an emerging leader who is doing a great job by producing great operational outcomes, can be trusted 
to deliver and needs little supervision. Why bother engaging them in strategic thinking, decision making or any other element of business mastery – this is my job says the Existing Leader.
This approach means Emerging Leaders have their development stunted – they stop learning. Their career has become about producing great business results. This should be a signal to any emerging leader that they also have stopped looking after their career.
I always remind emerging leaders that no one is going to look after your career the same way you do – so create the opportunities to learn and engage in the right experiences as early as you can so you are developing business mastery.
For an emerging leader it is important to seek out the right experiences as early as they can in their careers to develop business mastery.
Do this and you find the risks are low and you build up a bank of experiences to build confidence in your ability to engage in strategic thinking, make decisions and ultimately determine what the right thing to do is. Then later in your career you can call on this bank of experiences when the risk is high and the time is tight! You do not feel you are thrown in at the deep end of business mastery when the pressure is high and you have had little firsthand experience.
It feels quite natural and fair to blame your existing leaders for not having spent the time with you and helped you learn! However it has also been your choice to allow yourself to get buried in the busyness of operational business life and forget to create some of these learning experiences for yourself.
So, take responsibility and make choices to develop your business mastery as early in your career as you can.
