Take Responsibility for Your Own Development
Filed under: Developing Yourself, Leadership & Career, Leadership Tip of the Day
In my not inconsiderable experience, too many people in business are in search of the proverbial silver bullet.
Unfortunately, there are no true silver bullets.
There are no quick fixes for any of: revenue shortfalls, product development problems, morale issues or disruptive competitors that have inconveniently changed the worth of your entire value proposition. The same holds true for your own professional development.
I’ve yet to figure out how to learn to lead without leading…and making mistakes. Can’t do it.
There are no courses or books that substitute for experience, although there are plenty to help you as you are gaining experience. Strategy doesn’t show up in a crystal ball, great execution doesn’t happen by accident and head-turning results that propel careers aren’t based on good luck.
If you are fortunate, some of your professional development will occur as a result of the feedback and guidance from an effective leader or mentor. For most however, it’s all up to you. You need to put the time in, read the books, apply the lessons, experiment, learn, fail, unlearn, relearn and then try some more.
At the end of the day, the reward and the rewards that you derive from your career are a function of what you put into it. The next time you attend a training class and say, “I’ve heard all of this before,” stop and recognize that it’s not hearing it that counts. It’s what you do with it.
Want to Lead? Consider These Questions: #7 of 7
Filed under: 7 Key Questions of Aspiring Leaders, Developing Others, Developing Yourself, Leadership Tip of the Day
Note: the Seven Key Questions for Ambitious, Aspiring Leaders, are presented in the book, Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro. I’ll explore each question here at Building Better Leaders through individual “Leadership Tip of the Day” posts, offering ideas for investigation and discussion.
The first six questions in this series challenged you to think through issues that are both philosophical and powerfully practical:
- Why do you want to lead?
- Do you understand the true role of a leader?
- Do you understand that the skills that made you successful as an individual contributor are not the skills that will carry you forward?
- Are you prepared to give up your domain expertise as your foundation for results?
- What do you believe are the skills and personality traits that you need to succeed as a leader?
- Do you understand that you will be judged by the output of your team and held accountable for this output?
If you’ve made it through the investigation of questions 1-6, it’s time for you to consider what your daily work life will be like as a leader.
7. What do you imagine your workday life to be like as a leader?
For those accustomed to having some semblance of autonomy over their daily lives, the transition to a role as a leader can shock the system. This move from a “me-centric” daily routine to “everyone but me” focus has caught many an early leader by surprise. The “day in the life” discussion fostered by this question will help clarify what a leader does everyday and how it differs from the role of individual contributor. One suggestion is to allow aspiring leaders the opportunity to shadow you from time to time, as a means of understanding just how unglamorous leading can be. Another suggestion is to have the aspiring leader spend a little bit of time with other leaders and interview them about their daily and weekly activities.
The Takeaway from The 7 Questions:
The Seven Key Questions for the Ambitious Aspiring Leader are powerful conversation starters to support a manager’s leadership development activities. They are not intended to be delivered in machine-gun style, but rather to be used in concert with an approach to helping individuals discover and explore the profession of leadership. Not everyone should lead, yet someone motivated by advancement might believe that leadership is the best or only way to achieve this goal. An effective mutual discovery process is the leader’s best friend in helping identify leadership talent and in helping individuals come to their own conclusion on whether leading is a good choice for their own careers.
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