If you’ve been around the block a few more times, take this as a self-check opportunity on your leadership habits. Consider these tips and pass this on to someone early in their career.
Important: You aren’t a leader just because you’re a manager.
Leadership is a thing you do.
Image by This Is Engineering on Unsplash
That leads into my first tip:
You can be a leader without accepting a management job. Leaders help groups of people accomplish things that they couldn’t do as individuals. A formal title isn’t required, but the skills and mindsets are. Learn and use the Rocket Model (book link here) to discover what makes teams effective.
Give people what they need. As a leader, you get results through other people. Find out what they need to handle the task. Then, help them get that. Give the amount of direction and support they need for the situation. (Situational Leadership video link here)
The Golden Rule is a minimum standard. Strive for Platinum. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t wish for yourself. This is basic but we are all imperfect human beings. A more advanced rule is to treat others as they want to be treated. This is often different from what you might wish for yourself. Discover the difference. (Start with the PQ techniques in the starter guide)
You don’t (and shouldn’t) have all the answers. Leadership is about making the most of the skills of a group of people. (Remember Tip #1?) If you could get it done yourself, it wouldn’t need leadership. Rely on the knowledge, skills, experiences, and relationships of others. Invite them in and get the best input from the group. Get good at not knowing, but knowing who to ask.
Ask open-ended questions and listen actively. You learn a lot by asking questions that don’t have simple answers. Get good at this kind of question and work them into your habits. Examples include, “What do you think we need?” “How do you think this should work?” “What’s getting in the way?” “What else could you try?” (see also the PQ mental operating system from the starter guide)
Take responsibility. Leaders are responsible for everything the group does or fails to do. This is more true with formal management assignments, but applies to informal leadership, as well. You get ahead by accepting responsibility and succeeding in producing results.
Respect is earned. Everyone gets a base level of respect to start off. Their actions bump respect up or down from that point. Rack up the points! Behave in a way that earns you respect for treating people well, for making and keeping commitments, and for getting results in the right way. Make yourself a leader people want to follow.
No one (including you) “deserves” raises or promotions. An organization has limited resources. It has to bring in more revenue in order to spend a portion of it on staff. Earn raises and promotions by achieving results and showing the potential to make greater contributions to the organization. Simply doing a good job isn’t enough to persuade most decision makers. We make promotion bets on people because they have shown the potential to succeed in roles with more responsibility.
Install the Positive Intelligence (PQ) mental operating system to do better with ALL leadership skills. A positive and effective way of thinking gives you the foundation or “operating system” to perform well, be resilient, and have successful and rewarding relationships—all things that leaders need to do.
Leadership is an additional skill set. Just because you are great at your job in sales or technology, for example, doesn’t mean that you automatically know how to lead people. Effective leadership requires an additional set of knowledge, skills, and habits that we typically don’t learn in preparation for our main jobs. Be humble and willing to learn. It’s okay (even encouraged!) to be bad at first in order to grow new skills.
Often, we choose people for formal leadership roles because they have shown results and leadership potential in informal ways. Make sure that you get a realistic “day and week in the life” preview of any role before you take it. You may not want the responsibilities that go with managing people.
And that’s okay. Spend your energy wisely. You can still be a very influential leader without having to be in a management role. You can always change your mind later.
Let me know how these tips resonate for you!
Get information on the PQ mental operating system from the Technical Rock Star Starter Guide. You can use that whether or not you are in a manager role, or in a technical field or not. Feel free to set up a meeting with me to learn more. I’m happy to talk through a few things and give you an idea of how this works, no obligation.
For your success, –Steve
BONUS TIP: Follow the rules of respect. There are unspoken standards of behavior in every organization and career field. Be accurate. Be truthful. Be humble. Be on time, every time. Follow safety rules. Be dressed to respect others. Be courteous. Do what you say you will do. Take responsibility for your actions and their consequences. Your organization will have other expectations. You are joining this much bigger group, so you are expected to learn and follow their standards. You are and should be an individual. Displaying your individuality within the boundaries of your organization can win you more credit to push those boundaries as you grow and advance.
