Opportunities for leadership impact are all around you. The key is knowing where to look—and how to act.
Whether managing a team, leading a department, or working as an individual contributor, there are always opportunities to grow your leadership. You just need to know how to find them. Seizing these opportunities means more impact, faster career progression, and greater satisfaction from doing work you enjoy that leads to outcomes that matter. And if you can teach your team to do the same, you’ll see an explosion of productivity and creativity.
In this article, I’ll share a model for finding—and acting upon—meaningful leadership opportunities, which I call raising your view. Doing this work matters.
Why leadership impact matters
When you’re aiming for a promotion, opportunities to prove yourself aren’t always going to land in your lap. When you’re leading a team, identifying what needs to improve is your responsibility. No one else is going to hand you those opportunities. If you want to grow your leadership impact and advance your career, you need to actively seek out problems that matter.
Research shows that self-leadership—the ability to influence and lead yourself to improve your effectiveness—can predict your success as a leader even more than years of leadership experience. This means that the leaders who take charge of their development and proactively pursue growth opportunities are often the ones who rise faster.
So, how can you consistently find the right opportunities to grow your impact? Here’s how.
A model for growing your impact as a leader
More than anything, I believe my career success—from engineer to manager to director—has been driven by my willingness to look for opportunities beyond my job description. A former manager of mine summed this approach up best: raise your view.
Raising your view means asking two key questions:
- “What’s expected of me?”
- “What sits at the level above this?”
When you answer and act on these questions, you unlock the ability to think differently, tackle work you enjoy, and discover leadership opportunities you might otherwise miss. These opportunities are often where the next level of leadership lies. Let’s break this down.
Meet expectations: Get your house in order
I once knew an engineer who loved improving systems for other engineers. He actively sought out problems and implemented solutions. His peers respected him, and the practice leader praised him. But in his next performance review, he received an unsatisfactory rating. Why? He wasn’t meeting the core objectives of his role—helping his team deliver on projects.
Before seeking additional opportunities to expand your impact, make sure that you’re meeting the expectations of your current role. The responsibility to meet expectations shouldn’t fall solely on you—managers play a key part, too—but often, you’ll need to take initiative.
There are two ways to meet role expectations:
- Do the work.
- Change the expectations to reflect the work you’re doing.
In either case, communication with your manager is key. Talk with her about what’s expected in your role and how those expectations align with your career growth. Set measurable goals and communicate your progress. This allows you to take on leadership opportunities without neglecting your core responsibilities.
Find opportunities: Raise your view
My former manager asked, “What sits at the level above your current work?”. He used this question to encourage me to think beyond my immediate role. What would I do if I had his job? Or what if I weren’t bound by the organisation’s hierarchy? This type of thinking expands your sense of responsibility and positions you to step into a leadership mindset, even if you don’t have the formal title.
Asking questions like these can help you spot leadership opportunities:
- What problems are above my current pay grade?
- What would I do if I were promoted today?
- What’s the biggest challenge facing my organisation?
If you already make all the impact you can within your team, it’s time to raise your view. Start by looking in two key directions. First, look across at the teams around you. What shared problems affect both your team and others? What are the common goals of your peers? Then, look up. What are the priorities of your manager? What are your company’s broader objectives?
Once you’ve identified opportunities, focus on the ones where you can have the most impact. This is where you look inwards to assess your strengths. What challenges are you uniquely positioned to solve? Finally, look forwards to plan the next steps. Whose support will you need? What’s the smallest action you can take to make progress? How will you measure success? By thinking strategically, you’ll ensure that your efforts lead to measurable outcomes.
A story of raising your view in action
Once, when I was an engineering manager, I wanted to have more impact as a leader. My team was running smoothly, but I was eager to do more. So, I went looking for a problem to solve. I interviewed my peer engineering managers to understand the challenges their teams faced. One issue that came up repeatedly was their teams’ lack of Ruby (a programming language) skills. This knowledge gap was slowing progress.
After summarising my findings, I met with my manager, the Director of Engineering, to share what I’d learned. His response was supportive, and he encouraged me to find a way to address the problem.
What happened next? I partnered with several senior engineers to create a series of workshops and study groups where engineers could learn Ruby. As a result, engineers across multiple teams developed much-needed skills. We fostered a culture of learning, with engineers regularly making time to upskill, and team effectiveness improved since their capabilities better matched project needs.
We can analyse this story through the lens of the raising your view model, mapping each phase onto one step of the model. Here’s how I approached the situation:
- Looking across: I asked other engineering managers about their challenges and identified the “Ruby skills gap” as a common one.
- Looking up: I shared this insight with my manager, understanding his priorities in the process. This also helped me meet expectations by getting buy-in.
- Looking inwards: I recognised that organising and leading groups was one of my strengths, which made me well-suited for the task.
- Looking forwards: I involved several influential engineers to access their advocacy and expertise, leading the creation of workshops and study groups.
This approach had a positive impact on the entire engineering group. And it happened one step at a time.
How can I have more impact as a leader?
The short answer: Look for opportunities, determine which ones align with your strengths and situation, and then take those opportunities while still meeting the core responsibilities of your role.
The long answer: Leadership opportunities won’t be handed to you. But by following a process, you can consistently uncover the right challenges to grow your impact. Here are some suggestions.
Align expectations with your manager
Before anything else, ensure you’re meeting or resetting your manager’s expectations of your role. Make your work visible and share progress with your manager and other stakeholders.
Look for (and don’t wait for) opportunities
The most impactful opportunities often lie outside your day-to-day work. You may need to look beyond your immediate team. Talk to your manager and peers to identify pain points. Here are the four key areas to look:
- Look across to identify shared challenges between teams.
- Look up to align with the goals of your manager and organisation.
- Look inwards to assess your unique strengths.
- Look forwards to plan the smallest next step and measure success.
Identify your strengths
By playing to your strengths, you’ll have more impact and energy for your work. Your natural talents will help you confidently lead in areas where others may struggle. Ask yourself: Where do I have the most leverage? What challenges am I uniquely equipped to solve?
Leadership isn’t just about titles—it’s about consistently seeking opportunities to create positive change for yourself and those around you. By raising your view and acting on the opportunities beyond your current role, you’ll grow your leadership impact and position yourself for future success. Align your strengths with high-impact challenges and take action—one step at a time.