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This is my final post in my 5-part series on taking control of your career. In this post, I’ll be reaching out to Entrepreneurs. (Check out my previous posts on Integrators, Producers, and Administrators).

Every organization has an Entrepreneur. They’re the ones who come up with all of the cool ideas at meetings. And on top of that, they can take someone else’s idea and generate dozens of interesting projects at the snap of a finger.

Entrepreneurs are naturally admired and valued. They minute they embark on their corporate development career path, they are constantly busy figuring out ways for their company to innovate and expand. And they excitedly jump into new areas, taking their teams on journeys to the novel and exciting.

But the creativity doesn’t stop there. Entrepreneurs become known for meeting challenges with out of the box solutions, making their presence vital at strategy meetings. So no one is surprised when a young Entrepreneur is promoted to middle management, along with the promise of free reign to explore and test out new ideas. A true corporate development career path dream for any Entrepreneur.

And the dream goes on for the next few years. The Entrepreneur is busy at work, helping to move the company into unexplored territory. And at some point, there’s talk of a senior management opening and the Entrepreneur is sure that’s it’s theirs for the taking.

Except that it’s not. That promotion ends up being given to someone else - someone less creative and even a bit younger than the Entrepreneur.

What’s happened? Has the Entrepreneur done something wrong?

Well, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword here. The company was indeed very happy to have the Entrepreneur’s team always coming up with innovative ideas. But not all of the ideas were actionable.

Unfortunately, the Entrepreneur had never bothered to take note of the impractical ideas and instead concentrated on generating new ones. In other words, the Entrepreneur failed to learn about the less creative sides of management - approval processes, budget allocations, and resource development - to name a few. And without a thorough understanding of this less glamorous side, an Entrepreneur can just remain that - a mid-level Entrepreneur.

So if you see yourself as an Entrepreneur, do yourself a favor now. Leave your brainstorming aside a bit and begin showing interest in the administrative aspects of managing. For example, learn how to put together formal proposals or how to allocate resources to projects. This might not seem as interesting as other tasks, but they will be the key to your next promotion.

Remember that only managers who are perceived as well-rounded will make it to the corner office. It’s time to become more well-rounded.

And always remember:

Great managers are made. Not born.

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