Build Out Before You Build Up
Broaden your operating foundation before pursuing greater authority.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 84%
The model treats career development as a choice between building up and building out. Building up increases title, authority, and specialization within a familiar system; building out adds experience across sectors, functions, or problem types. A leader first identifies the consequential work they eventually want to undertake, then audits the gaps in the experience required to do it well. Instead of automatically accepting the next vertical promotion, they select lateral moves that broaden their operating foundation. Over time, the accumulated perspectives improve their ability to assemble teams, translate between specialists, and solve complicated problems. The intended output is not a varied résumé for its own sake, but the range and judgment needed to lead meaningful transformations.
Origin
Warshaw described choosing business school and renewable-energy operations instead of continuing vertically in government after helping rebuild the World Trade Center.
Core principles
- 01Breadth can create more leverage than another promotion.
- 02Transformational work requires experience across different operating environments.
- 03A lateral move can strengthen the foundation for later leadership.
- 04Choose roles that expose you to meaningful, complicated problems.
How to run it
- 1
Name the transformation
Define the meaningful change you eventually want to lead and the capabilities it will require.
Pro tip Describe the desired impact rather than starting with a target job title.
Watch out A vague ambition makes it impossible to identify useful experience gaps.
- 2
Audit your foundation
List the sectors, functions, stakeholders, and operating conditions you already understand. Identify which perspectives are missing.
Pro tip Ask experienced operators what knowledge your current path is unlikely to provide.
Watch out Do not mistake years of repetition for breadth of experience.
- 3
Compare up with out
Evaluate each opportunity according to whether it adds authority within familiar territory or expands your operating range.
Pro tip Favor a lateral move when it adds a capability central to your long-term mission.
Watch out Do not pursue novelty that has no connection to the work you want to lead.
- 4
Enter a consequential arena
Choose a role where the new capability is exercised against a real, complicated problem with measurable stakes.
Pro tip Work alongside specialists whose expertise differs materially from yours.
Watch out Observation alone will not create the same judgment as operating responsibility.
- 5
Integrate the perspectives
Apply lessons from the new arena to problems that cross organizational or sector boundaries.
Pro tip Document which assumptions changed as your foundation broadened.
Watch out A collection of disconnected experiences is not a leadership system until the lessons are integrated.
In the wild
After helping lead the World Trade Center redevelopment, Warshaw could have continued advancing within government. He instead attended business school and joined a power company building a renewable-energy investment and development platform, adding business, finance, and energy experience to his public-sector background.
→ He developed a broader foundation for solving complicated public and private problems.
An affordable-housing executive who understands policy but lacks capital-markets experience takes a role financing housing projects. The move is lateral in status but exposes her to underwriting, investor incentives, and capital structures.
→ She becomes better equipped to design housing programs that can attract capital and survive implementation.
Common mistakes
Treating every promotion as progress
A higher title can deepen an existing blind spot if it only adds responsibility inside the same operating environment.
Collecting unrelated experiences
Breadth is useful when each move adds a capability relevant to a larger mission, not when moves are driven solely by novelty.
Abandoning depth too early
Building out works best after a person has acquired enough expertise to contribute meaningfully in at least one domain.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for emerging leaders who have advanced quickly within one organization or sector.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for people who still need deep competence in their current discipline before diversifying.
From the transcript
“I had the opportunity to either keep going vertical and keep going up within government or build out.”
“To do that, I think you need experience and you need to broaden your foundation and not just build on high”
“others like me who just were good at solving complicated problems.”
From the episode
BONUS: NY Comptroller Candidate Drew Warshaw on Changing the NY State Pension Funds
Drew Warshaw