Professional Development Archives - Page 18 of 20

Are You Ready To Step Up and Lead?

Are you doing enough to stand out from the crowd and step up into that leadership role within your business or organisation?

Some years ago I came across an individual who had all the talent, skills, resourcefulness and potential for a promotion. However, they continued to go unnoticed while many of their colleagues were being recognised and indeed promoted. We agreed that she needed to find ways that they could get noticed at work and onto the fast track to a promotion.

First there were four questions that needed to be considered:

Am I gradually slipping into more and more obscure roles at work?
Have my colleagues with the same experience and talent already moved up the ladder?
Are my ideas and opinions looked upon as insignificant by my manager and team leaders?
Am I ready to move into the spotlight?

When she realised most of her answers were yes she knew she had to learn how to increase her visibility.

She needed to begin by learning to promote herself. We are the salesperson for our own skills. Just as with a job interview, where we sell ourselves to a potential employer, the same is true for when we are ready for a promotion.

10 Steps To Get Noticed

She came up with 10 ways to get noticed at work and get on the fast track to a promotion.

1. Dress professionally and appropriate to your positon. Be well groomed and invest in your appearance.

2. Be on time to the job, for meetings and functions. Be there for important events.

3. Respect others and yourself. Treat others with respect. Greet people with pleasantries. Be helpful and supportive to new employees. Make friends in other departments. Give complements and tell others when they are doing a good job.

4. Share your knowledge. Go ahead and share it with your boss. Be prepared to share your skills.

5. Make your presence felt whenever possible. Do your research ahead of time. Ask good questions and be visible at meetings and important functions. Add value as well as hard work.

6. Find your niche by knowing your stuff and your worth. Be confident in what you know. What are you really good at? Become the expert in it.

7. Be a good communicator. Your body language, how you talk, and your conversations should all reflect your confidence. Speak up clearly. Be assertive.

8. Get know throughout the organization. Be someone others recognize for their friendliness, hard work and the value they add to the company.

9. Be a leader. Don’t be afraid to head up committees.

10. Stay up to date with what is happening in the world. Know who the company competitors are and what they are doing. Do your market research. Join LinkedIn, start your own blog based on your profession, be on Twitter following your business. Be visible.

There are many ways to become more visible to your employer and get on the fast track to a promotion. It takes more than hard work and longevity. Suzy began implementing many of these tips and is on the way to getting that promotion she’s been eyeing.

How To Feel More Confident As A Leader

I remember coaching one individual who was responsible for managing a key team of people. There was one problem though which they and their line manager had identified which led to me becoming involved. They lacked the confidence in their own ability in the role of leadership. They were constantly asking their boss if they should do this or say that. Their boss was starting to have become concerned because, even though they knew that the individual had the skills, the team were floundering as well without the strong confidence from their Line Manager.

Does this sound familiar? Are you feeling less than confident in your own leadership role? So let’s take a look at how to feel more confident in your leadership role.

Confidence isn’t something you learn like rules. It’s your state of mind. It begins with positive thinking, practicing, training and gaining knowledge. You build confidence through actions and acceptance of your own skills and experience.

Are you ready to be confident leader? Have you hidden your power and confidence from your company’s leaders? There are ways to feel more confident even when you aren’t.

Keep your emotions out of it.

Good leaders know that their emotions don’t normally have a place in business. Yelling and getting animated over problems have no place in the workplace. Allowing your emotions to get in the way is a sign you’re not objective enough and may be too passionate about the situation. Learn how to put your emotions aside.

Respond decisively and with conviction.

Leaders who have self-confidence don’t show any signs of doubt. You can do the same by speaking with conviction and authority- even if you are unsure. This shows your employees you are in control.

Act like you have confidence.

If you are lacking confidence in some area, put on a smile and act like you do have confidence. Don’t lose your composure by worrying and giving in to fear. As the saying goes, “fake it until you make it.”

Know your strengths.

Knowing your character strengths helps you build your confidence in the areas you are lacking. Play up to your strengths in the way you lead. If you are good at building morale, use it in your role. If you are better at appointing work to others in a fair way, find ways to carry that over into other areas.

See yourself as confident.

A strong leader has a compelling vision of how they want to lead others. They know where they want their career to go. You can develop this skill by creating your own vision. See yourself as confident.

Hire a coach or find a mentor or role model.

You may need to get help building your leadership confidence. Hire a coach who specializes in building confidence. A mentor is another way you can build your confidence. Having someone who is already a confident leader mentor you through those times when your confidence is lacking will go a long way in building your self-confidence.

Take courses in leadership.

Most community colleges, technical schools and business schools offer courses on being a good leader. These courses will walk you through different scenarios and help you build confidence in how you handle them.

Most leaders aren’t born with the confidence it takes to lead others. It takes time and practice to before you begin to feel confident in your role as a leader.

The Importance Of Self-Awareness

I want to take a look at something I have been talking to a number of people about of late and that is the importance of self-awareness and how to increase your self-awareness as a team leader.

How do you know you are being a good leader? What are the most important traits you need to have to be a good leader? Is there one characteristic that is more important than any other? Some believe it is being a good motivator while others say it’s having integrity. According to psychologist and author Sherrie Campbell it is self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the ability to monitor one’s own emotions and reactions.

“Self-awareness keeps us grounded, attuned and focused,” said Campbell, author of “Loving Yourself: The Master of Being Your Own Person” (AuthorHouse, 2012). “When leaders are grounded, they are able to be efficient and deliberate in staying on task, and being attuned to those around them. Leaders who have the ability to control their minds and emotions help to guide those around them to develop their own self-knowledge and success.”

It can be difficult to master the skill of becoming aware of oneself but it can be done.

Learn to be mindful of your own weaknesses and strengths. Self-aware leaders are mindful of what they can and can’t do.
A mindful leader has strong boundaries in place. It’s fine to be friendly to others but you need to say no when you have to.
Figure out what your emotional triggers are. Self-aware leaders can immediately identify their emotions. You don’t want to limit your emotions or even deny what is causing them. Instead you need to be able to be flexible with them and process them before you communicate with others.
Self-aware leaders embrace their intuition. They trust their gut instinct and are willing to take any risks associated with following them. Instincts come from our need to succeed and the survival of the fittest. Your gut instincts tell you what you should do next. Go ahead and trust them.
When you are self-aware, you are disciplined in every area of your life. Practice self-discipline to help you stay focused as a strong leader.
Those that are self-aware are able to remain focused even among the many distractions in business environments. You need to train yourself to block everything out but what you are focusing on for long periods of time. That means the distractions of social media, emails and office politics as well.
There are a plethora of courses and self-help guides available to help you build your self-awareness. Personality test like the Myers-Briggs Predictive Index and the Strengths Finder are both popular and very good at helping you dig into self-reflection. Some people say that these psychometric tests can be useful for getting an objective view of how you behave.
Being new experiences can help you discover things about yourself that you don’t normally face as I have talked about previously. Your reactions to new people, environments or demands can help you see how you deal with your everyday life. Take a different type of vacation or try a new hobby. A stimulating or energizing activity may help you find hidden talents or other things you didn’t know about yourself.
Tell your life story to your mentor or coach. They will hear and see much more than the words you are saying. It can help them understand who you are and give you feedback on what they see.
Again as I have talked about before trying doing a daily writing exercise. Writing down your thoughts and feelings daily can help you build your emotional confidence. It can also help you keep track of the range of emotions you may be experiencing during any particular period of time when you review it at a late time.

Having a high level of self-awareness helps you be a better team leader by helping you build better relationships. When you know your strengths and weaknesses, you’re better able to control your emotions, and you can face situations from a distant perspective you are seen as a confident leader by your team members.

If you are interested in reading more about self-awareness then do take a look at Sherrie Campbell’s book Loving Yourself: The Mastery of Being Your Own Person in the UK or in the USA

How To Empower Your Team Members

As a Team Leader what can you do to empower your team members? Let’s take a look at some ideas as to how you can approach this and get the most from your team.

Maybe you’ve seen them; the employee who is doing extremely well at their job. What can you do to continue to develop them? Are they perhaps ready to take on more responsibility? Or perhaps they need help with discovering and developing their strengths further so that they become more confident. The latter is where you come in as the team leader.

You will most likely be the one to encourage them to build their strengths and gain more confidence in themselves. By helping your team members grow within the company you are empowering them to take on more responsibility and to make better decisions.

How Do You Empower Them?

Begin by helping them learn and develop their skills. If they feel like their skills are being under-utilised, they may begin to wonder about moving on or in the worst case may even start to doubt their abilities. Help them improve their abilities and learn new skills so they can play a stronger role when contributing to projects. Give them access to courses and training. Allow them time to undertake a project in an area that they are passionate about and would like to develop in.

Think about how you can delegate specific tasks which will help them grow in areas they are interested in pursuing. Don’t leave them to their own devices in unfamiliar territory. Instead agree with them that you will be available for support until you and they agree that they no longer need your guidance. Gradually give them more responsibilities.

Continue empowering your team members’ confidence by being supportive of them. Build a strong foundation by connecting one-on-one with individuals. Really listen to their concerns and show them how much they are already contributing.

As the team leader you will have influence over who does what projects. Use this to help build someone’s confidence, giving them work they are good at and will be interested in. Their confidence and motivation will bloom when they have a chance to use their skills.

Setting Expectations

Let them know what your expectations are from the beginning. They need to know what the end goal is for a project for them to feel truly empowered. Be sure to clearly share what the short-term and long-term plans are for the company and for each project they are asked to do.

Give objective feedback regularly. Let your team members know how they are doing and what they can do to improve.
Create an environment that encourages your team members to grow and learn new skills.
Provide your team with all the information they need for any project you ask them to do that they normally don’t do.
Give your advice when it’s needed or asked for. Be available for your team members by making it easy for them to ask questions or get your feedback on something. Always let them know you are happy to answer their questions.

As a successful team leader you need to learn how to empower your team members to discover and develop their strengths and feel more confident in their abilities on the job. Help them make confident decisions, learn new skills and take on new projects with confidence.

Let Your Inner Leader Out – Leadership Isn’t Complicated

When we talk about Leaders and Leadership we tend to focus on the big names, the giants of business and politics don’t we? If I asked you to name leaders who come instantly to mind I would imagine that the names you will think of would generally be household names. We tend to think of leaders in terms of those who have achieved great things and often on a national or indeed global scale.

But for me there are many more leaders operating all around us than we might believe. People who are going about their daily lives, they are doing things that they are passionate about, involving others in their work and activities and delivering results. But these unsung or unlikely leaders may not even recognise it for themselves because all too often “Leadership” is elevated to the level of a mysterious set of skills and characteristics. Leadership and what it is has become an incredibly complex subject. You only have to look at the multitude of books on the art of leadership to recognise that it is a subject which many people have devoted tens of thousands of pages to.

Leadership isn’t or shouldn’t be a complex subject. It is happening all around us, people are demonstrating their leadership skills in so many different roles and in so many different ways. You don’t even have to have a team in order to be a Leader as I explain in a post here.

Those who have read other posts on this blog and anyone who knows me will be aware that I am a great believer in not over-complicating things. Which is why a few years ago I was so drawn to Steve Radcliffe’s book Leadership – Plain and Simple. As I mentioned in the post I had reason to re-read the book recently. Having done so I thought it was time to write a review. I cannot recommend this book highly enough because whether you are leading a team, job seeking or just want to approach your work from a different perspective this book has something to offer.

One of the things that you are going to appreciate about Steve Radcliffe’s book, Leadership: Plain and Simple, is that it really does delivers on what he promises in the title. The bottom line is that if you read, consider and then implement the strategies he outlines, you will find it relatively easy to start using them and then see positive results. The approach Steve outlines do not contain any elaborate or complicated formulas that frustrate or confuse readers who are looking for practical answers. The book provides you with real world examples in simple language and the tools needed to develop your leadership skills regardless of the current role that you hold.

The reason that Leadership: Plain and Simple is so engaging with readers is because Steve Radcliffe uses a unique FED approach to getting his message across. Within the 170 pages of this book, he clearly lays out his Future, Engage, and Deliver approach. Steve breaks down leadership into three clear stages:

Future – The Leader needs to have a clear vision that they can articulate about where the organisation is going. Or to put it another way they are “up to something” that they really care passionately about.
Engage – The Leader needs to be able to engage others, bring them onboard and get them moving towards that future vision.
Deliver – The Leader needs to be able to make things happen.

The approach he lays out in Leadership: Plain and Simple can be implemented as soon as the book has been completed. Through a very precise set of questioning, Steve will help you to understand exactly what your strengths already are, and where you need improvement in your leadership skills. Once you identify the areas that you are weak, the book is designed to help you to improve those areas through different scenarios that make you think about why you are lacking in those areas. The first chapters of the book go into specific detail in each of the three components of leadership, Future, Engage, and Deliver. There is one chapter dedicated to each of these practices, giving you the ability to create a strong foundation on which you build upon as you continue reading later chapters.

Once you begin reading these chapters, you will soon realize how important it is to understand what you care about and why is it so important for you to lead. Then you will learn about developing the skills needed for connecting and impacting those around you. Then once you learn to develop leadership skills, you will see how delivering through others will give you the ability to both deliver more today and in the future.

I am sure that as you read will quickly start to realise, like me, that a misconception that has been circulating for decades. There is no reason for leadership to be complicated, regardless of a persons IQ level or their job title, the natural human activity of leadership is within us all just waiting to be let out and developed. If you can create a compelling enough future, you have the ability to become an effective and powerful leader. This book will show you that if your future is compelling and you can get emotionally connected to it, you have the greatest chances of becoming a very strong leader.

As I said earlier, this is probably the best book on Leadership that I have ever read and I have read a few over the years! It’s Leadership – Plain and Simple and it’s an opportunity that’s waiting for you to grasp it.

You can buy Steve Radcliffe’s book here:

In the UK: Leadership – Plain and Simple
In the US: Leadership – Plain and Simple