Overreach if You Want to Advance - From "Call an Audible"

This lesson was inspired by the experience of Daron K Roberts, an individual who earned his JD from Harvard Law but instead decided to grow his career from the ground up as a professional football coach. In his book Call an Audible, Daron talks about the strategy he employed to slowly gain responsibility. 

At the bottom of the food chain in the Kansas City Chiefs coaching staff, Daron relied on being really consistent and beating expectations on the most mundane of tasks. He started earning respect by filling that role and he began building a reputation, but his involvement grew when he did something very simple. He asked.

Reflecting on his decision, Daron wondered if he was overreaching by asking. Then he reasons that in order to advance in any position, you need to take on new frontiers, and you can either way for that work to be assigned to you or you can ask for it. Well, in his case, Daron was able to secured the responsibility and cement himself as a fundamental contributor to the coaching staff.  

You too can accelerate your progression if you ask for what’s next. As long as you have performed to standard, feel prepared to make the jump, and have confidence the positive results will continue, you can open up the next opportunity on your path.

Have the ambition to overreach, stick your hand in the cookie jar and see if you pull something good out. You’ll realize you have a lot more to gain than you realized!