If you faithfully work on your personal development process, it is inevitable that one day you will be a leader. Now, leadership is a very tricky position to occupy because it requires a lot of capabilities to be effective. Many times things fail to progress because of poor leadership. If you see a country, a company, a project, or even a family not progressing well, look no further than the leadership.
Today we will talk about the things you should start doing now so that when that day comes for you to assume a leadership role, you don’t suck at it.
What is leadership?
Leadership is the art of motivating, guiding, and influencing someone or a group of people to work toward achieving a common goal. It involves setting a vision, communicating it effectively, coordinating the team, and inspiring it to engage with that vision. If you have a grand purpose in life, it is most likely that you won’t be able to achieve it alone. You will need people to help you execute it.
Leadership is all about influence. You may not even have an official supervisory title or have people that work directly under you, but if you carry yourself in the right manner you will have the ability to change the way they think or make them do something for the greater good.
The earlier you start developing your abilities as a leader, the better. Let’s delve into the process.
How to develop yourself as a leader
1) Develop Credibility
The word ‘credibility’ refers to the quality of being trusted and believed in. It's the perception that an individual is reliable, authentic, and trustworthy. For you to be a credible individual, you will have to start cultivating honesty, reliability, integrity, communication skills, and a good reputation by staying away from shady situations. Take your words seriously. Let your “no” mean no and your “yes” really mean yes.
Most importantly, you will need to start developing expertise in your area of focus. Get to know almost everything there is to know about the field you intend to excel in. If it is education, then know about all the key stakeholders, regulations, current trends, historical contexts, statistics, etc.
As John Adair says:
“authority flows
to the person who knows”
2) Take Initiative
If you see that there’s something that should be done to make things better but it is not being done, then take the initiative to do it or suggest it to the team. This is a crucial factor that will, not only develop your leadership ability, but also put you in a better position for leadership selection when the time comes. Always look for and suggest ways that things in your field can be improved. This requires a bit of research and thinking. Your ability to suggest plausible and practical ways to make things better will highly depend on the level of knowledge you have of your field.
From now on, be on the lookout for things that can be done to make something better. Is it your home, work, religious institution, or neighborhood? There are always ways to make things better and people appreciate the ones who take the initiative to notice and suggest or even make these improvements.
The bottom line? DON’T BE PASSIVE!
3) Start Talking
Attend meetings and don’t shy away from contributing to the proceedings. Make social media posts about it. Let people know that you are about it. Make yourself visible and heard. There’s a theory called The Babble Effect, which posits that though we may think people become leaders due to their keen insights and indisputable acumen, we actually tend to promote people based on the quantity of their verbal output – not the quality of what they say. Basically, “authority flocks, to the person who talks” 😂.
Develop Your Communication Skills
Do not chew your words. Pronounce words clearly so that people can hear you. Learn how to speak with poise, to use vocal variations for an interesting speech. Speak assertively like you mean it. We will delve into how you can develop your communication skills more deeply another day but for now keep this bit in mind.
Now that you know what it will take for you to develop your leadership skills, are you ready to take on the mantle of leadership? Consider what specific areas you need to focus on to emerge as a leader in your field and start working on them!
Your challenge:
Go on Linkedin and write a piece on any subject/area within your field. Anything that you think of as one or two people might find valuable. Don’t worry if the post doesn’t get a lot of engagement. The point is to make sure that when people visit your profile they know that you are keen on improving things and that you are not just a regular joe in your field. This will help you develop thought leadership and credibility.
Don’t worry about writing like Shakespeare either. Just make sure the piece is logical, coherent, and free of any grammatical errors.
