Many young people, fresh out of educational institutions and starting their first jobs, begin to wonder when they can aspire to a higher position and what factors might influence that coveted day. We have put together a collective portrait of an effective leader and gathered advice to help you advance to this position.
Our answer to the question "How to become a leader?" is to work diligently and effectively. No dancing around, life hacks, manuals, or golden rules like "become a leader in 10 steps in a month." Working hard and effectively means certain actions, tools, and skills. That's what we want to talk about.
What is a dream leader like?
At the head of every product, project, and company stands a leader – a person responsible for successes, failures, the smoothness of production processes, and the atmosphere within the team. This is someone whose effectiveness is evaluated through the work of others, and whose area of responsibility extends to every employee.
What skills will help you grow into a leader?
All competencies can be divided into hard and soft skills.
Hard skills are the professional knowledge of a specialist in their field. Each leader's hard skills are unique; for example, the head of an analytics department should be able to work with a large amount of information and extract the most important insights. In this regard, they need to be a top-notch specialist.
On the other hand, soft skills are not related to a specific profession but are directly linked to personal qualities. They help in performing one's job well and are crucial for one's career. With the help of soft skills, you can establish yourself as a leader.
Additionally, soft skills are not synonymous with "leadership," "focus on earning money," or "inner strength." It is important to clearly understand what these skills entail and which ones you will need for your work.
Start taking responsibility
Every leader can confidently state: "The higher the position, the greater the responsibility."
As we mentioned earlier, the first distinctive feature of any leader is responsibility – for employees, for performance, and for the results of your department or team. Therefore, the first step is to learn not to be afraid to take responsibility.
Management highly values employees they can rely on. A novice specialist should pay great attention to the details of their tasks and strive for perfection in their work. This will mark you as a reliable and conscientious person, which can lead to faster career advancement.
You can demonstrate this quality to your management in several ways:
- When given a task by your management, suggest having them check the correctness of its completion.
- If you are given a task that is slightly outside your direct responsibilities, do not be afraid to accept it. Instead, perceive such situations as opportunities to demonstrate your abilities.
- Do not hesitate to be persistent in matters you are confident about. It is better to insist and achieve a high-quality result than to let your idea go unnoticed due to your indecisiveness.
However, not only your personal qualities contribute to career advancement. We have prepared several universal tips to help you develop into a leader.
Show initiative
A beginner specialist should not only carry out their tasks but also observe the processes and suggest ways to improve them. As the experience of modern leaders shows, they were initially entrusted with a small amount of work, gradually increasing it along with promotions.
Here are a few recommendations for being seen as an initiative-taking employee:
- Dive into all the processes related to your work. To demonstrate initiative, you need to know where and when to show it.
- Forget the phrase "This is not my concern" – now all work processes concern you (within reason, of course). Stay informed about all circumstances and situations so you can understand where to suddenly make your mark.
- Participate in all work-related events, volunteer for conferences, and agree to business trips.
- Be active in work chats, respond promptly to messages and calls, and remember digital etiquette.
Think quickly and creatively
The ability to make decisions quickly is a lifesaver in many situations. In a world where everything is relative, the one who can quickly and clearly give commands to action wins. To do this, it is necessary to develop critical thinking and observation skills, analyze how leaders make decisions, and gradually learn from this experience.
Quick advice:
Act according to this scheme: first "test the waters" with a casual mention, and if you don't get a negative response, prepare to justify why the innovation is beneficial for the company. Explain the problems it will help solve and the difficulties it will help avoid; management will appreciate this.
Acknowledge your achievements
For many people, it's not customary to praise oneself or speak well of oneself, but this is one of the effective ways to present yourself to your superiors. If a specialist wants to grow into a manager, they need to step out of the "imposter" role and start asserting themselves, acknowledging and vocalizing their achievements.
Of course, we're talking about real, significant achievements that showcase you as a unique professional.
Don't be afraid to ask questions
A bad question is the one that was not asked. There's no need to pretend to know everything; it's more effective to be a specialist who asks questions. It's worth getting into the habit of researching and clarifying nuances with those who assign the task before tackling any complex and initially unclear task. If a person asks a lot of questions, it shows their initiative and willingness to work.
However, it's not advisable to ask the management trivial questions that you can find answers to yourself. Don't waste your or the manager's time. Questions should be carefully considered and ensure they are relevant.
Quick advice
When faced with a task from management, ask yourself two questions: “Why are we doing this?”, “Can we achieve this differently, more effectively, economically, reducing costs and with less risk for the company?” One of the most serious mistakes an employee who wants to become a leader can make is adopting the mindset of "I did it the way you told me to do it."
Make mistakes, but draw conclusions
It is healthy for a person to face reality. All the negativity towards criticism is just a beautiful cover for the fear of appearing foolish and the unwillingness to work hard and persistently on oneself. Your superiors may point out your shortcomings in one way or another; perceive this as feedback on your work, not as a personal offense. Show that you have listened and worked on your mistakes.
Remember that even negative experiences are still experiences! The most important thing is to analyze your mistakes and think about possible ways to avoid them next time.
The path to a position through communication
The work of a leader is directly related to team management. Without the ability to build relationships with people effectively, success will be hard to achieve.
It's important to be able to communicate with people who are already successful in this field, those who inspire you and whom you want to emulate. People appreciate being asked for advice; most likely, they won't refuse you. The more positive feedback you receive from them, the easier it will be for you to lead projects yourself.
Let's get acquainted?
Make new acquaintances not only in your field but also in related ones. A leader is an explorer, someone interested in all processes, relationships between colleagues, and even the color of folders on desks. They need to speak the language of their employees to give technical tasks effectively and have a clear vision of what they want to achieve in the end.
Patience, my friend!
And, of course, you need to be patient, because to fully understand all the work processes, you need to steadily climb the career ladder, gradually reaching the desired position.