BW Communities

How You Can Learn To Lead

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[If you are like many leaders, you pay attention to opportunities to make a career move that expands your prospects and stretches your leadership capabilities. There is nothing wrong with that. New and higher-level positions typically offer learning, growth and better compensation. But in constantly scanning the horizon, you may miss seeing growth opportunities much closer to home. Our research at the Center for Creative Leadership convinces us that leaders, at any time, can take on challenges that will substantially expand their knowledge and skills without a job change. You, too, can seek fresh leadership challenges by using one of these three strategies. 1. Reshape your current job.  Manish, Director, Marketing Research at a large retail company, and Chandrika, his colleague in Public Relations, felt they were getting stale in their jobs.  They hit upon the idea of trading a couple of projects and sold the idea to their respective bosses as an opportunity to learn from experience through on-the-job development. As a result, they both learned new skills and gained a wider perspective on their organization and industry. Other ways to reshape your job are: <ul> <li>Ask your boss to delegate a new responsibility to you, such as making monthly presentations, managing a client relationship, or preparing a feasibility report. Look for something that he or she has already mastered and would be glad to move from his or her plate to yours.</li> <li>Take on a job that is needed but currently left undone. For example, one manager felt that it took too long for new employees in his unit to get up to speed. He stepped in, and set up and ran a peer coaching process. Teaching others to be peer coaches improved his own coaching skills.</li> <li>Rethink your approach to a current responsibility. Is there some part of your job that you tend to avoid? It might be because you are not very skilled at it. One administrator told us how she dreaded the introduction of new organizational systems or procedures because her employees always complained, and she didn't know how to change their attitudes. She came to realize that she needed to embrace this challenge rather than avoid it—using each new organizational change as an opportunity to practice being an effective change champion.  </li> </ul> 2. Select temporary responsibilities with your development in mind. In an interview, Thomas described how he had jumped at the opportunity to manage a large multisite research project with a tight deadline. The deadline, coupled with responsibility for critical decisions and the project's strategic importance and visibility, increased his decisiveness and his ability to work under pressure. You can seek out projects, task forces, and temporary activities that expose you to new leadership responsibilities for a limited period of time. For example: <ul> <li>•Join a project team that is breaking new ground in your organization, such as one that is opening a new market or installing a new system. With the opportunity to lead a new initiative, you enhance your ability to think strategically and your comfort level with ambiguity.</li> <li>•Volunteer to manage a high-profile customer or business partner.  You'll learn to deal with accountabilities from multiple directions—from your own organization and from external sources.</li> <li>•Co-lead a project with someone in another function. Assignments that require you to collaborate across functions or business units will strengthen your ability to influence others.</li> <li>•Serve on a team or committee with members from other countries. This is a way to get international exposure without leaving home.</li> </ul> 3. Seek leadership challenges outside the workplace. One leader described joining an environmental group not only because he was passionate about the cause but also because it was a setting for negotiating with multiple, equally passionate stakeholders—a skill that would be of great benefit to him in his workplace. You can gain valuable leadership experience by serving in volunteer, social, and professional organizations. For example: <ul> <li>•Start something new outside of work—a new volunteer program for your child's school or a new professional network in your region. </li> <li>•Volunteer for a task that you've never done before in a community or professional organization, such as organizing a fund-raiser or representing the group to the media.</li> <li>•Lead your charitable or professional organization through a process that requires input from multiple stakeholders (e.g., creating a long-term strategic plan, revamping the governance structure for the organization).</li> </ul> But before you take on new responsibilities in your job, you must take measures to set yourself up for success. If you take on a temporary assignment that increases your workload, talk to your boss about moving lower-priority responsibilities off your plate. And look for ways to work more efficiently. For instance, let go of tasks that could and should be delegated; or create better systems for monitoring and tracking work so that you don't need to "touch" projects at so many points. Most importantly, look around for someone who has done the kind of work you are taking on who can coach you and give you feedback.  You'll make fewer mistakes because that person can give you advice, answer questions, and point you to other resources in the organization. Talk to your most trusted colleagues about the skills you are working to improve; they can then pay closer attention and deliver richer feedback.  Finally, it's helpful to have a trusted sounding board—a person removed from the assignment who can help you reflect on your own learning and assess your progress. Ultimately, it is in your best interest to take charge of your own learning. This approach will serve you well throughout your life. (The author is a Senior fellow of Center for Creative Leadership)