Just like your Brilliant Difference, your Edge Moves are as unique to you as your fingerprint. They look different for everyone, as they align to someone’s integrity, talents, and aspirations. Some people may want to evacuate their workplace comfort zone to get a promotion. For others, to harness purpose with a new project. And maybe it’s even to have more influence and get a strategic seat at the table. Whatever your goals are, they’re valid, valuable, and you’ll get there with Edge Moves.
Edge Moves are any actions you take to stretch you from your comfort zone to courage zone. Last week I set the foundation for this article, explaining the six types of Edge Moves:
- Mindset.
- Visibility.
- Relationship.
- Leadership.
- Communication.
- Innovation.
While this was high level, now we’re going deeper. I’ll take you through how to choose an Edge Move that’s specific to your role and industry. Think of this not just as a blog but as a mini coaching session.
Download your worksheet, and by the end of this article, you’ll have defined one Edge Move you can start making at work right away.
The 6-Step Process
This process supported me throughout my 20+ year financial services career, as I transitioned from an individual contributor (financial advisor) to a strategic leader (district manager).
I needed to find ways to bridge my gap from individual contributor to leader, and it looked like this:
- Identify a problem or goal.
- Identify actions that are producing current results.
- Visualize where to go; define the destination.
- Determine a person, place, or scenario to apply Edge Moves.
- Brainstorm a list of Edge Moves.
- Choose and act on the first Edge Move.
When going through this process, keep your own goal in mind, but I will include examples from my past to put each step into context.
Do you have your worksheet handy? Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify Your Problem or Goal
Worksheet Question: What’s a problem you want to solve or a goal you want to achieve?
Growth requires direction, whether you’re chasing a goal or solving a challenge.
For many of my clients and corporate leaders I’ve surveyed for my own research, there is a common theme: they’re stuck as a technical, individual expert, but they want to be a strategic leader. They don’t know what to do to stop executing and scale their impact.
This brings me back to when I was a financial advisor. I was exceeding goals and serving clients’ needs, and my manager always counted on me to close the gap between my goals, contributing to the overall district. When I wanted to move up, it seemed like I wasn’t going to get there because I was performing so well, and I worried they wouldn’t want to lose me.
Have you felt something similar? Using this as inspiration, answer the first question in your worksheet, and then move to step two.
Step 2: Identify Your Actions That Are Producing Your Current Results
Worksheet Question: What actions are producing your current results?
To get different results, you need to take different actions. But to know what action to take, acknowledge what you are already doing.
For instance, in the above example of being a technical expert, you take an inventory of your current comfort zone activities, and you acknowledge that you:
- Rely on technical expertise.
- Focus on personal deliverables.
- Perfect the details.
- Work independently.
- Solve through knowledge.
When I reflect on my days as a financial advisor before I moved into leadership, the things that I did were:
- Focus on hitting my personal sales goals. Even though I liked working with others, I wasn’t very collaborative.
- Be more concerned about hitting my goals than the overall district goals.
- Focus on in-the-weeds problems isolated to my area, not my company’s strategic radar.
So, in the worksheet, reflect and make your own list of what you’re doing right now.
Step 3: Visualize Where You Want to Go; Define Your Destination
Worksheet Question: Where do you want to go from here? What’s your future-self doing?
You know where you want to move to, but now it’s time to know what that actually looks like.
For example, for the technical expert you want to be seen as a strategic leader. You want to be invited to critical meetings, not just implementing the tasks afterward. You want to be chosen for bigger projects.
Or in my example, I wanted to be identified as a potential people leader, so I needed to:
- Leverage my expertise strategically.
- Enable team success.
- See the big picture impact.
- Build collaborative solutions.
- Lead through influence.
In the worksheet, brainstorm what you need to be doing in the future to reach your destination.
Step 4: Determine a Person, Place, or Scenario to Apply Your Edge Moves
Worksheet Question: What person, place, or scenario can you apply an Edge Move to?
Now it’s time to start embodying those future habits.
Continuing with the technical expert to strategic leader example, this may look like:
- Team projects.
- Cross-functional meetings.
- Mentoring sessions.
- Strategy discussions.
- Knowledge-sharing forums.
Write down your own options in your worksheet.
Step 5: Brainstorm a List of Edge Moves
Worksheet Question: What Edge Moves can you make when you think about your future self and impact? Make a list.
Depending on what your goal or situation is, your list will be different, but if you’re a technical expert wanting to be a strategic leader, here are some Edge Moves to take to bridge the gap:
- Turn technical expertise into teaching moments.
- Create frameworks others can follow.
- Share knowledge that enables others.
- Connect technical work to the business impact.
- Use expertise to guide rather than do.
- Translate complex concepts for others.
- Build capacity in team members.
- Create systems for knowledge transfer.
- See the big picture impact.
- Build collaborative solutions.
Step 6: Choose and Act on Your First Edge Move
Worksheet Question: Looking at your list, what’s the first Edge Move you want to make?
As a technical expert, you may choose to transform one technical process into a simple framework that empowers your team to solve problems independently.
For me, I took my best practices that worked for me and shared them at team meetings. I mentored new advisors and helped them gain sales and client management skills.
Edge Move Every Week
For more tangible leadership support and mentorship, like this blog/exercise, join the Find Your Brilliance community. Every Thursday, you’ll receive a new blog, podcast episode, and resource that supports your leadership and career growth pathway. Growing your leadership in the corporate space can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Join the community and I’ll coach you through.
