Stretch assignments: 4 reasons why it is crucial for remote employees to consider doing them

Stretch assignments: 4 reasons why it is crucial for remote employees to consider doing them
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There are lots of advantages of being in a sales job- it gives you independence, flexibility, and autonomy. One gets an opportunity to act and think like an entrepreneur and be solely responsible for their territory. The biggest drawback, however, is being completely on your own with limited interaction with the team. It is a lonely job and requires a special kind of personality to self-motivate and get through this hurdle.

Having worked at Global HQs in my previous roles, I was used to either people coming up to me constantly or walking into other people's office for quick impromptu discussions. I enjoyed those water cooler talks and the opportunity it gave me of forever meeting new people within the company and expanding my network regularly.

When I first moved to the field, it was the lack of team engagement and socialization of ideas, that I missed the most. To overcome this and to continue to hone my international marketing skill sets, I approached my then VP with a possibility of a stretch assignment and a global project. Frankly that was just the beginning. Since then I have done multiple stretch projects for the company and have cherished each experience thoroughly.

To throw a word of caution, I will be the first to admit that sometimes finding the right assignment might seem like a job on its own. This is where clear goals for your career development along with open communication with your managers, mentors and sponsors come into play. Here are the top reasons why it’s worth navigating these hurdles and putting in that extra time and effort soliciting stretch assignments or even creating one:

1. Become visible in the organization: One of the biggest advantages is it gives you an opportunity to increase your network and showcase your work to people beyond your immediate team or even your greater segment.

2. Share/utilize valuable field knowledge: I have come to realize that people in the field sometimes take what they know for granted. We learn a lot from our constant interactions with the customers and imagine this knowledge is something that everybody else is already privy to. But in reality, sometimes what we think as common knowledge is really not so common. We are bringing in indispensable tidbits that can provide key input for crucial strategic/marketing decisions.

3. Optimize your productivity: I always joke that becoming a parent has made me more productive. In the same way, I feel taking up an assignment (my adoptive baby for a said period) pushes us type A people to become better at time management. Ironically my biggest sales volume years have coincided with the years I also did stretch assignments.

4. Step out of your comfort zone and develop new skill sets: Like we know “all the magic happens outside our comfort zone”. I was talking to my friend D, who is a successful franchise owner and a wonderful mom and wife. She shared how she was doing a stretch assignment for her franchisor helping them figure some new systems and processes. I remember thinking to myself why would someone like her who is already so well established want to take on additional work and how does it even help her? That's when it dawned on me that she and others who do stretch assignments don't do it to gain success. On the contrary, these individuals are successful because they continue to push themselves and develop new skill sets by doing these stretch assignments.

Ultimately the stretch assignments I did voluntarily made me a much more competitive candidate when that rare remote promotional role opened. I did not have the preferred clinical degrees but the network I had developed and the quest for constant growth and learning that I had demonstrated, in my years of doing stretch assignments, is what I believe differentiated me and made me someone the team was willing to take a chance on.

Every opportunity that comes your way might not be the right one. But as long as you have found one that seems like a fit with your aspirations, a win-win for both you and the company, and gives you enough butterflies in your stomach, I say, take a deep breath and go for it- in the end you will never regret doing it.

“The Reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more work” – Jonas Salk

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