How to Achieve a Leadership Position?
Many people come to me for career advice and to ask how they can get into a leadership position.
I tell them all the same thing…and that takes about four minutes. The following is my four minute recommendation.
First you have to be technically competent in something, so pick a job or line of business and become an expert in that line of business or role. Learn something new about your business every single day. Ask lots ofquestions.
After you do that, work really hard on being
organized and disciplined. You may need to take a Time/Life Management class to
understand the huge responsibility that you have to be organized as a leader
and manager of others. If you can’t get things done and on time, it really does
not matter how much you know. Credibility is everything. Most people are very
disorganized. Are you one of them?
Next you need to make sure that you have a very
positive and can-do attitude . . . and that you are flexible and willing to
take on any assignment with a positive attitude. No whiners apply. Leadership
is a 24/7 responsibility. The hard part of leadership is that you have to do it
everyday.
Last, but not least, make sure that you understand
what great leadership looks like and what the expectations are for leadership
behaviors and performance from the people you lead. I suggest you read the 7
Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and also read my 12 Great
Leader Strategies for practical common sense leadership strategies and
behaviors which apply to any person and to any organization.
My book Creating Magic 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies From a Life at Disney outlines clear tactics on
how any individual can be an effective leader in all parts of their life.. This book will be the
perfect Christmas or birthday present for someone in your life or even start a new tradition in your family and give Thanksgiving presents to your friends and family and especially to your children who are about to go out in the world.
The next thing you need to do is be great in your performance. You need to stand out above the rest by doing the things described above. You just have to be better than everyone else to stand out and to get your break in life. You can relax later when you are my age.
Finally, you need to be a continuous learner.
- You must work hard every day to become even more technically competent in whatever line of work you
decide to take on. - You must work hard every day to be more and more organized. Time management skills matter. If you don’t have a planner in your pocket, you have no plan. Without a plan, you will not get where you want to go. A Day-Timer is your GPS.
- You need to learn a lot about the possibilities that technology can bring to bear on your life.
- You must pay great attention to becoming a better and better leader until people say that you are a
great leader and they are glad you are their leader.
So now that you have read this, what are you going to do about it? If you are not satisfied with your progress you need to change
your approach.
Be honest with yourself. What is holding you back? Ask someoneyou trust what exactly they observe in your performance and behavior which is affecting your reputation in a negative way. Lack of self awareness is the main
reason people end up not achieving their dreams in life. Many many leaders and wanna be leaders at every level are living in self denial. They think they are great. Many are not. If they only knew what people were thinking about them
behind their backs they would not be proud of their leadership performance.
Do these things . . . and you should have no problem attaining and sustaining a leadership role! Don’t do them and your can look forward to a lot of regrets down the road . . . Lee