Becoming a proactive leader
Sam:
“Sachin, although I have promoted some of my team members as leaders, they are not working like a leader.”
I Said:
“Let me ask you few questions and will get back to you.”
Richa: “Sachin, we are frantically scaling up though my leadership team also need to scale up their efforts and they are finding it challenging.”
– I gave same answer which I gave to Sam earlier. End result was the framework I designed ‘Getting started with leadership skills’ which includes two levels. Level 1 is about ‘Getting started with leadership skills’ and Level 2 is about ‘Next-Level Leadership Skills’.
Let me give you quick introduction.
For many leaders, their journey is lonely. A leader needs a guide to navigate from foundational leadership capabilities to advanced, strategic thinking. Whether you’re starting with your first leadership role or preparing to move up the ladder, there is a need to lead with purpose, precision, and impact.
Level 1: Getting started with leadership skills
Emerging leaders need to develop leadership mindset, need to take decisions like a leader, manage time effectively, and communicate like a leader. Let me introduce each concept with you.
Develop a Leadership Mindset
In her Harvard Business Review interview, Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, highlighted the importance of self-awareness and clarity of values. Her leadership style focused on ‘performance with purpose’. She had aligned business growth with sustainability and ethics. There is a need to clarify what you stand for and identify your core values at personal and professional level. There is a need to observe and learn from experienced mentors and such inspiring leaders who model such behavior. There is a need to introspect to better understand your thoughts, actions, and leadership style.
Take decisions like a leader
One of the important tasks of the leader is to make decisions. There can be three types of decisions, which are strategic, middle management and operational level. Strategic decisions have long term impact whereas middle management decisions have short term impact and operational level decisions are for day-to-day working.
Manage time effectively
All of us have exactly 24 hours every day, what sets each of us apart is how we utilize those hours. After decision-making, the second-most important task of a leader is delegation. First-time leaders get themselves into the trap of doing things on their own. The reality is you can’t do all the things on your own since you are a leader. This calls for delegating your work. There is a need to not only manage your work time but also to manage your personal time.
Communicate Like a Leader
The key differentiator to communicate like a leader is to be precise. This precise message needs to be communicated through varied media of communication like verbal, non-verbal and written. The key message a leader needs to deliver may require repetition. The hallmark of a good leader is to listen more and talk only when needed.
Level 2: Next-Level Leadership Skills
After getting started with leadership skills, you will have to elevate to the next level. For this elevation the skills required are: Developing a strategic mindset, using technology for leadership, Leading without attitude and Nurturing future leaders.
Developing a strategic mindset
According to an article in Fast Company, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, changed the company’s direction by shifting its focus towards cloud computing and collaboration tools. His leadership mindset prioritized empathy and continuous learning. Strategic mindset needs to be nurtured since the leader gets bogged down into day-to-day firefighting.
Using technology for leadership
I have seen that organizations are using technology but not necessarily the leaders. Since technology is continuously evolving, the leader also needs to evolve accordingly. There are various avenues wherein a leader can use technologies like artificial intelligence, business analytics, virtual reality, and so on.
Nurturing future leaders
As a leader, it is your moral duty to develop more leaders. Leadership is a very challenging path which stumbles upon unforeseen situations, sometimes humiliations, ego rides and many other such stumbling blocks. Hence, although everyone may want to become a leader but in reality, very few are capable of doing so. Nurturing involves identifying and mentoring future leaders.
So how are you planning for yourself or your team to elevate their leadership journey?
Regards,
Sachin