find my level

what applies to me.

Two quick picks. No login, no personal information.

1. Pick your job ladder

2. Pick your grade level (GL)

you're on the Engineering ladder at GL 9. your DRIVE mastery level is expert.

Your level describes the rung, not the person. It reflects what your grade level asks for, not where your ability stops. Every level is fully achievable and fully creditable at its own rung. Meeting your level completely is the goal.

The Executive level is not available on this ladder. Executive level applies only to the Mgmt/Executive Ladder. Movement above a Ladder's ceiling requires transition to the Mgmt/Executive Ladder.

Awareness

See it early — risk and opportunity alike.

Expert

Scope: Your function, read against strategy. · Lead time: Before it shows in results.

Behavior

You read your function’s position against where the company is going and name what is not yet visible: the risk building, the opening worth taking, the assumption everyone stopped testing. You separate signal from noise and spend leadership’s attention on the few things that matter. You notice what leaders reward, tolerate and avoid, and you say so plainly.

Upside

Helping the function see sooner and spend its attention where it counts.

Trap

Seeing the pattern and going quiet because naming it would cost you something.

Not yet

You read your function in context, not the trade-offs between functions.

Threshold condition

Honesty about what you see, including when it implicates you. Required in full at every level; what rises with scope is what it costs you to hold. Your manager judges what meeting it looks like in your role, not whether it applies.

Teamwork & Leadership

Lead from where you stand.

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Mechanism: By setting a standard other leaders adopt — you develop leaders, not contributors.

Behavior

You set direction across functions and build leaders. You match talent to the highest-value problems and assemble teams whose strengths cover one another’s gaps. You attract strong people and address conflict while it is still small. The leaders you build take their cue from you, so the standard you hold becomes the standard they set — including when holding it costs you.

Upside

Raising what people expect of themselves, not just what you expect of them.

Trap

Generating belief and energy while letting missed commitments pass because morale is good.

Not yet

You raise your function; you do not yet set how leadership operates company-wide.

Threshold condition

Integrity and consistency: the same person under pressure as at kickoff. Required in full at every level; what rises with scope is what it costs you to hold. Your manager judges what meeting it looks like in your role — not whether it applies.

Solution Maker

Consistent, creative, robust solutions.

Expert

Scope: Your function, against strategy. · Problem: Not yet recognized as a problem.

Behavior

You frame problems the function has not yet seen and test them against where the company is going. You know when more analysis improves the decision and when it only delays it. You read repeated failures as symptoms of unclear ownership, weak capability or conflicting incentives, and you choose accordingly: coach, redesign, reallocate, or make a talent decision. Once the diagnosis is clear you commit.

Upside

Naming the real problem while there is still time to solve it cheaply.

Trap

Mistaking complexity for rigor and holding every option open.

Not yet

You frame problems within your function; you do not yet choose between them enterprise-wide.

Threshold condition

Curiosity, and willingness to look past the first workable answer. Required in full at every level; what rises with scope is what it costs you to hold. Your manager judges what meeting it looks like in your role — not whether it applies.

Execution

Commit and deliver it when promised — and build momentum.

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Commitment: Annual cycles, in good conditions and hard ones.

Behavior

You are accountable for what the function delivers across good years and difficult ones. You set the standard it holds to and keep holding it when lowering it would be easier and unnoticed. You decide where effort earns the most return and move resources accordingly, and you stop work that no longer serves the strategy even when stopping it is uncomfortable.

Upside

Making delivery reliable enough to become the function’s edge.

Trap

Protecting the quarter at the cost of the year.

Not yet

you set your function’s commitments; you do not yet arbitrate between functions.

Threshold condition

No corners cut under pressure; transparency about risk while it is still early. Required in full at every level; what rises with scope is what it costs you to hold. Your manager judges what meeting it looks like in your role — not whether it applies.

Continuous Improvement

Stay with it over time.

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Scaffolding: The function compounds, and improvement is expected rather than occasional.

Behavior

You treat how the work gets done as always improvable and stay a student of your own craft. You turn what you learn into a higher standard for the discipline and hold people to it, so getting better is an expectation rather than a project. You look for the recurring pattern and remove the cause instead of correcting the same symptom each time.

Upside

Turning what you learn into a standard the function keeps.

Trap

Defending how it has always been done because you are the one who built it.

Not yet

You raise your function’s floor; you do not yet change the systems that shape behavior company-wide.

Threshold condition

Treating improvement as yours rather than someone else’s. Required in full at every level; what rises with scope is what it costs you to hold. Your manager judges what meeting it looks like in your role — not whether it applies.

compare levels.

What do I need to work on to grow? Pick any two levels and scan the difference.

FromTo

Awareness

Expert

Scope: Your function, read against strategy. · Lead time: Before it shows in results.

Upside: Helping the function see sooner and spend its attention where it counts.

Trap: Seeing the pattern and going quiet because naming it would cost you something.

Not yet: You read your function in context, not the trade-offs between functions.

Executive

Scope: The enterprise and its ecosystem. · Lead time: Before the inflection arrives.

You read the company as one system — markets, regulators, patients, capital, talent, culture — and name the turns before they arrive. You help the enterprise tell important from urgent and put resources behind the difference. You ask how leadership produced an outcome before asking who is responsible for it, and because you ask that way, others begin to ask it too.

Upside: Making the whole company see sooner, and act where it matters most.

Trap: Reading good conditions as proof of a good position.

Not yet: No wider scope. What deepens is how early you see it and how honestly you say it.

Teamwork & Leadership

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Mechanism: By setting a standard other leaders adopt — you develop leaders, not contributors.

Upside: Raising what people expect of themselves, not just what you expect of them.

Trap: Generating belief and energy while letting missed commitments pass because morale is good.

Not yet: You raise your function; you do not yet set how leadership operates company-wide.

Executive

Scope: The enterprise. · Mechanism: By building a system that sustains it; capability comes from how the company works, not who is watching.

You build the leadership system: decision rights, succession strength, accountability mechanisms, and the standards leaders hold each other to. You make enterprise trade-offs openly when local interests conflict with company interests, and say plainly what will stop. You create conditions where leaders challenge each other early, commit once a decision is made, and hold each other to both the results and the climate they produce.

Upside: A direction people commit to and carry when you are not there.

Trap: Demanding accountability while tolerating avoidance and rescue among your own leaders.

Not yet: No wider scope. What deepens is how well the system holds without you in the room.

Solution Maker

Expert

Scope: Your function, against strategy. · Problem: Not yet recognized as a problem.

Upside: Naming the real problem while there is still time to solve it cheaply.

Trap: Mistaking complexity for rigor and holding every option open.

Not yet: You frame problems within your function; you do not yet choose between them enterprise-wide.

Executive

Scope: The enterprise. · Problem: Many are real, the work is choosing among them.

You define the strategic choices that shape the company. When many possibilities look attractive, you say which get investment, which wait, and which the company will not pursue. You connect people, disciplines and opportunities in ways others would not. You put resources behind calculated bets, make the trade-offs visible, and change course when the evidence says to.

Upside: Concentrating finite resources on the few things that matter most.

Trap: Keeping too many good options alive and thinning attention, talent and capital across all of them.

Not yet: No wider scope. What deepens is the quality of what you decline.

Execution

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Commitment: Annual cycles, in good conditions and hard ones.

Upside: Making delivery reliable enough to become the function’s edge.

Trap: Protecting the quarter at the cost of the year.

Not yet: you set your function’s commitments; you do not yet arbitrate between functions.

Executive

Scope: The enterprise. · Commitment: The operating rhythm, through sustained uncertainty.

You set how the company operates: priorities, resource allocation, decision cadence, and what leaders are held to. You make sure the organization commits to the right things rather than an increasing volume of activity. When priorities collide you make the trade-off explicit, reallocate, and say clearly what will stop. Your operating rhythm lets the enterprise plan and invest through uncertainty.

Upside: Extraordinary results through focus and disciplined allocation.

Trap: Trying to win everything at once.

Not yet: No wider scope. What deepens is how well the rhythm holds when conditions turn.

Continuous Improvement

Expert

Scope: Your function. · Scaffolding: The function compounds, and improvement is expected rather than occasional.

Upside: Turning what you learn into a standard the function keeps.

Trap: Defending how it has always been done because you are the one who built it.

Not yet: You raise your function’s floor; you do not yet change the systems that shape behavior company-wide.

Executive

Scope: The enterprise. · Scaffolding: The company keeps compounding after you.

You make improvement a condition of how the company operates rather than a value on a wall. You keep asking whether the structures, incentives and operating model still fit the strategy, and you redesign the systems that shape behavior rather than improving isolated activities. You expect the same of your leaders, so better ways of working compound across the company and keep compounding after you.

Upside: Building an organization that gets better without being told to.

Trap: Reading past success as proof the system still fits the future.

Not yet: No wider scope. What deepens is how little of it depends on you.