DIY leadership development: DIY capstone project(s)
Why?
Capstone Projects in formal leadership development programs are intended to demonstrate your ability to:
- Work effectively with other leaders;
- Deliver when it’s not easy;
- Present effectively to a senior audience.
You don’t actually need an assigned capstone project to demonstrate these abilities; you can initiate one on your own… which also has the added benefit of demonstrating initiative.
What makes a suitable capstone project?
What makes a suitable capstone project is essentially the same as what makes a suitable “staff project” for Staff Engineers:
- Complex and ambiguous, allowing you to demonstrate delivering when it’s not easy.
- Numerous and divided stakeholders, allowing you to demonstrate the ability to work effectively with and influence other leaders.
- Visible where failure matters (aka high visibility, high impact), allowing you to present to senior audiences.
Visibility is not equivalent to impact
Will Larson talks about not conflating high visibility with high impact.
“Snacking” is low visibility, low impact work. It keeps you busy and it doesn’t matter.
“Preening” is high visibility, low impact work. It has attention. People talk about it at meetings. It doesn’t matter. This is a trap.
Low visibility, high impact work is also a trap. Working on this will be both frustrating and your efforts will not be recognized. Focus on increasing visibility first before addressing this. Capstone projects are about demonstrating capability. Visibility matters because you can’t demonstrate capability if no one sees your demonstration.
Capstone projects should be high visibility, high impact work. However, you still need to be careful about joining efforts that already have enough people focused on it, meaning there is no room for you to actually do anything.
