At a recent business luncheon and panel discussion, I heard many of the usual questions asked of a CEO. I gave my usual answers – about my career path, about my company and about how we are changing the face of our organization.

Afterwards, a young professional approached me. She was a millennial and wanted to talk at length about how I got to where I am now, the path I had taken, and advice for her on her journey.

I started with the obvious: Have you read Meg Jay’s book, The Defining Decade? She hadn’t. This book is so good, and not just for millennials. It’s insightful for those wanting to understand this important demographic, and for those in the group looking to jump-start their careers. We talked about asking for special assignments, rotations, mentoring and coaching as career and personal enrichment opportunities.

During this discussion, it occurred to me that my professional career – and my personal life – has been a series of ups, downs and sideways turns. The path hasn’t been linear, I’ve had regrouping and reorganizing, moving sideways or up, moving back down at times, then up and over again, then up. This may sound strange, but it’s the type of path many leaders take.

I’ve had nine different jobs with four geographic moves in my career. Each of the first three moves involved a pay cut. Really. In other jobs, I entered fairly high-risk and messy situations. I was passed over for one role, and asked to move laterally to a position that was, by most accounts, a lesser one.

Most people don’t realize that the road to success is usually not a straight line. It often works like this:

A positive career path is often less about how you react when you move up, and more about how you react when you move sideways or down. It’s about how you cope when things don’t go your way.

The sage advice I received from then-American Family Insurance executive Dan DeSalvo when I didn’t get one job was, “Hey Jack, you’re not getting the job, but remember – everyone will be watching how you react to this. The interview for the next job starts now.” How about the reaction to a sideways move? “Yeah, you and I both know it’s a lower-impact role with less visibility. But I think it’s got a wider breadth of accountabilities.”

This brings me to a leadership formula – something I’ve been discussing with our human resources area recently. It’s what I call IQ + EQ + AQ = XQ.

  • IQ is the raw intelligence of an employee.
  • EQ is the person’s emotional awareness/effectiveness. (Note: This is not emotional quotient.)
  • And AQ? That’s the all-important ability to take action, get movement and momentum, and achieve results.
  • XQ is the ideal leader for a given company and a given job. We’re working to quantify this at American Family.

Granted, the components might not be something you can actually add together. Instead, it could be a product of the three. What’s important, I think, is that people who want to be leaders think in these terms, with personal questions like:

  • “When I’m asked to move sideways, do I recognize the learnings from that new position and figure out how to bring my past knowledge into the new role?”
  • “When I’m moving down for whatever reason, do I see it as a restart, a fresh change, a new spot from which to launch – or do I see it as a career-limiting move that can’t be overcome?”
  • “When I do get a chance to move up, how do I act – with all of the IQ and EQ and AQ – to have a bigger impact on the organization?”

Admittedly, EQ is probably the hardest to quantify. Yet, the ability of leaders to control emotions and relate well to others is critical to a positive career path. Have you ever known that really smart employee who pushes and shoves to get things done, but no one wants to be around them or work on their team? I have.

I hope that young millennial reads this. And thanks to her for asking the questions, engaging in this topic and getting me to think deeper about leadership.

And for those of you who are career-minded, and are moving sideways or down – don’t lose hope. This may be just the step you need to move forward. It just depends on how you react!