As a career coach, I frequently tell people that stretch opportunities are your best ally for career advancement. If you’re looking to accelerate your professional development, hands-on experience is the most effective way to quickly build new skills while also enjoying the additional benefits of on-the-job learning.

What Are Stretch Opportunities?

Stretch opportunities are assignments or projects that go beyond your current skills or experience level and challenge you to develop new capabilities. These opportunities often involve taking on tasks that require you to learn as you go or manage a piece of work with more complexity or difficulty than you’re used to. The idea is to “stretch” you outside of your comfort zone, pushing you to grow and develop your skills in ways that might not happen in your everyday role.

How Stretch Opportunities Help Your Career and Professional Development

Stretch opportunities have a nearly endless list of benefits, but here are just a few:

• Skill Development: Stretch opportunities help you gain new skills, often very quickly, and deepen existing ones. By tackling work outside your usual scope, you learn by doing, which is generally more impactful than theoretical learning.
• Increased Visibility: Taking on stretch opportunities demonstrates your aptitude (ability to learn), as well as your willingness to grow and contribute beyond your current role. This is a great way to get noticed and catch the interest of higher-level leaders and decision-makers.
• Enhanced Confidence: Stretch assignments are inherently challenging because they force you to learn on-the-fly. Successfully completing them is one of the most effective ways to build authentic, lasting confidence in your abilities. It is often said that “the more time you spend stretching outside of your comfort zone, the bigger your comfort zone gets” – meaning, you actually become more comfortable BEING uncomfortable. This is because you’re confident you can handle whatever is thrown your way.
• Expanded Network: Stretch opportunities often require collaboration with different departments or teams, allowing you to build relationships with colleagues you might not usually interact with.
• Career Advancement: Demonstrating your capability to handle more challenging work (combined with your added visibility and expanded network) can add heft to your resume and position you for promotions or more significant roles within your organization.

Tips for Identifying Stretch Opportunities

Stretch opportunities are generally plentiful, but often hidden. They require you to seek them out, advocate for them, or initiate them. Occasionally, a stretch opportunity might come to you, but that typically only happens once you’ve successfully demonstrated your willingness to take on such assignments. So don’t wait around hoping the right thing will find you. Instead, go exploring! Here are some strategies to help guide you:

• Pay attention to areas where your team and/or the organization are facing challenges and where there might be gaps in expertise. Consider what work might facilitate improvement and what skills would be required, and see if it’s a match for your needs and interests.
• Reflect on your strengths and areas for development. Look for opportunities that will allow you to leverage and build on your strengths while developing new skills at the same time.
• Talk to colleagues and leaders about potential opportunities. Let them know you’re looking for ways to develop new skills and interested in taking on new challenges. You never know who might have the perfect project that could benefit from your involvement.
• Stay up-to-date with your organization’s strategic goals and upcoming projects so you can spot opportunities early. This is especially important if opportunities tend to get snatched up fast!

Tips for Asking for Stretch Opportunities

When approaching your manager, be specific about the type of opportunity you’re interested in and how it aligns with your career goals. But remember that this isn’t all about you! The work itself must also benefit the team and/or organization.

Demonstrate that you’re prepared for the challenge by sharing examples of past achievements that show your ability to stretch.

Lastly, be prepared for constructive feedback. Your leader might not believe you’re ready to tackle this particular level of challenge yet. Ask what needs to happen to demonstrate your readiness and be prepared to take the necessary action to make it happen. Then, pick up the conversation again at a later date.

Maximizing the Impact of Stretch Opportunities

Of course, landing a stretch opportunity is only the beginning. Your next step is to knock it out of the park. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

• Work with a trusted mentor to get feedback as you go. Learning on-the-job can be very uncomfortable and, without the proper guidance, it’s easy to get off track or demotivated.
• Proactively manage problems. Because you’re working outside of your established “zone of genius,” it’s possible to get in over your head. If that happens, don’t panic. Work with your leader immediately to get the support you need or scale back on expectations.

Once the work is complete:

• Include the details of stretch assignments and their results on your resume.
• Talk about what you learned and how you approached the challenge in your performance review and other important career conversations.
• Reflect on the experience. Explore what worked well and what you would do differently next time. Reassess your career goals and define what you want to gain in your next stretch opportunity.

Stretch opportunities are invaluable for career growth and professional development, so take the initiative to go after them!