Stand Out As A Leader At Any Level
A common myth we hear is that developing leadership skills is only something people should prioritize who are interested in management or formal leadership roles. We cannot disagree more! We see a direct tie between developing leadership skills and growing your career and net worth. Yes - you definitely should prioritize leadership skills if you want to be a manager. But learning basic leadership tactics can help you grow in any role and at any level. Check out the tips below and start applying them to see the results!
Actionable Tips and Takeaways:
Learn the key metrics that drive success for the business and what matters most to your leadership team.
It’s easy to just focus on the key activities and metrics for your role. However, you can uplevel your performance and find ways to stand out as a leader by simply paying attention to the company presentations on how the business is performing. For example, if you learn that the company is losing more customers than they had hoped to a competitor, you can listen more carefully to customer feedback that mentions the competition and share it when it comes up. By paying attention to the business priorities in your day-to-day work, it will help you stand out as someone who is looking to have an impact beyond your role.
Be curious and help solve problems outside of your core function.
Be curious about what your manager and team members are working on and if they share challenges that they are facing, help them think through the root of the problem and offer constructive advice if you’ve faced similar challenges. This will also help you build trust, as people look to other people they trust when trying to solve problems. Being a good listener and a place for people to problem solve and get support is not only a nice thing to do but will also set you up to be in a great position for whatever you want next (a promotion, a leadership role, etc.).
Bring solutions to your 1:1s.
Don’t just use the 1:1 to see what your manager needs to update you on and a place to ask for help. Bring an update on what you’re working on as well as potential solutions to challenges you’re facing. Also use this time to be curious about what your manager is working on and get context on what’s happening outside of your team. This will enable you to find easy ways to support broader business priorities in your day-to-day work. Check out our “make the most of your one-on-ones” episode for more tips.
Share what works for you with your team and find ways to support the team to help others succeed.
Don’t be a lone wolf - while some people find individual success as a lone wolf, it’s not an effective leadership skill nor something we recommend for building your career. Be generous when you succeed at a task or goal, sharing your tactics and offering to support others. This will help you stand out as a leader on your team. If you want to start taking on more leadership within your team but don’t know how, here are some easy places to start.
Build process and systems: Did you create a spreadsheet or use a new tool that helped you be more productive or effective at your job? Share a template with your team, document how to use it and lead a training.
Be an onboarding buddy: Even if your company doesn’t have a formal onboarding program, raise your hand to support new team members and offer to set up weekly check-ins to show them how you do your day-to-day activities and answer questions.
Offer to support your manager when they are introducing a change: I wish we could highlight this in a big, bold color because this is one of the most powerful and quickest ways to stand out as a leader. Managers often worry that their team is going to be resistant to change and feel like they have to be the bearer of bad news or that when they introduce change it creates an us vs. them mentality. We have lots of great strategies for leading change at the Glass Advisory, but one way you can quickly stand out as a leader is by letting your manager know that you are there to support new ideas and strategies that are rolled out to the team. You can offer to be a sounding board and flag concerns the team may have when new changes are on the horizon and help reinforce “the why” behind changes when it comes up with team members.
Quick caveat: this requires you to authentically do the work to get behind a change, working through your initial hesitations and asking questions to get the information you need to support it. Inauthentically being a “yes person” isn’t going to demonstrate leadership to your peers, it's just going to result in you losing credibility.
Get good at knowing how and where to disagree.
One misstep we see all the time is people trying to stand out as a leader by consistently publicly dissenting. Or, in other words, being the “squeaky wheel”. Yes - we definitely recommend developing strategic thinking skills and offering new solutions or speaking up if you see that something may go awry. However, actively working against leadership when they are communicating changes or new information can have the opposite effect and you may find yourself boxed out of strategic discussions and problem solving spaces, stunting your growth.
Ask for a “skip level” 1:1 with your manager’s manager.
One great way to develop leadership skills is simply by talking to more leaders. If you do not meet with other leaders at your company, let your manager know that you are interested in developing leadership skills as a professional goal of yours and you’d like to get more exposure to leaders at the company. Ask if you can set up a quarterly 1:1 with the leader of your department as a development opportunity. We know this can be intimidating - see tips for how to lead an effective skip level 1:1 in our “make the most of your one-on-ones” episode.
Tips For Managers:
It can be easy to get stuck in the day-to-day operational tasks when working with your team members. However, helping your team develop leadership skills can help you succeed as a leader. If your team members are strong leaders, they will be able to prioritize their work in a way that makes them more productive and impactful. They’ll also be able to solve their own problems with less hand holding from you. Prioritizing leadership skill development in your team will also help put more time back in your day because you will be able to delegate work more effectively and lean on your team members for support when you need it. Here are some great ways to turn your team into a group of leaders:
Lead professional development around leadership skills like change management and conflict resolution: Take a few times a year to lead a professional development session with your team on leadership skills. There are some great resources online to pull from. Contact us at the Glass Advisory if you would like ideas for professional development sessions or even support leading a session with your team.
Set up 1:1s with your high performers and your boss: Sometimes we find managers are afraid to set up 1:1s between their direct team members and their boss (i.e. “what are they going to say?”, “Will it reflect poorly on me?” etc.). We encourage you to push past this fear, especially with your strong performers. This can be a great way to develop leadership skills within your team members and showcase the great work you’re leading with the team to your boss. You can also coach them on how to use the time (see tips in our “make the most of your one-on-ones” episode). By proactively suggesting this to your team members, they will likely be appreciative of the opportunity and use it as a way to be more effective in their role.
D-E-L-E-G-A-T-E: This is one of the most common mistakes we see managers make and still fall into this trap ourselves. You do not have to do it all! Identify strong performers on your team and delegate tasks to them to build their strategic thinking and leadership skills.
Give feedback to team members who are demonstrating leadership: If you see a team member stepping up and starting to flex leadership skills, acknowledge this in a 1:1 and offer them feedback. Be sure to not just share praise but also share constructive feedback and support if you find they are attempting to demonstrate leadership in ways that aren’t very effective (i.e. consistently dissenting publicly, taking up a lot of time on team members calendars without clear agendas, etc.).
Use your 1:1s as a space to encourage leadership: A very simple way to encourage leadership skill development is by just naming that it’s something you value and that it’s something you consider when making promotion decisions and evaluating performance. Open up a conversation about this in a 1:1 to find ways for your team member to start developing these skills.
