Leanna Cruz
Close to fifty percent of individuals promoted to leadership roles fail. This is because the skills that got you promoted to a manager position will sabotage your success as a leader. Yet most promotions to leadership roles do not come with instruction about how to succeed as a leader.
10 Tips for Success at the Next Level
Hone your interpersonal communication skills because as a leader you must have the ability to influence, inspire and motivate others to act.
Get comfortable delegating. As a leader less of your time will be spent using task skills and more on planning and strategy. You’ll need to allow others to handle the very things that got you noticed in the first place.
Develop your story telling skills. Stories can change the way we think, act and feel. They can inspire everything from understanding to action. They have the power to break down barriers and turn a bad situation into a good one. The best leaders know how to use the power of a story to influence and motivate their team.
Emotional balance. Competence models suggest that for top leadership positions, the most critical competencies draw heavily on Emotional Intelligence. Many companies look at Emotional Intelligence as a deciding factor when considering candidates for promotion.
Listen with an open mind. As a leader you will get unsolicited advice but you will also need to seek input from others. The best leaders are open to input from those with diverse thought, divers perspective and diverse experience. Particularly during the current change in the way business is done, openness to new thoughts is essential.
The ability to discern with clarity. To be able to decide on the best path with the input of others leaders must have clarity of purpose and values. They must be able to see things as they really are and use discernment to see through the noise and the contradictions.
Be decisive. Leaders must have the confidence to act even in the face of opposition and with conflicting information.
Pattern Recognition and the ability to spot trends. Leaders need to be track changes in production, demand and customers, employ analytical skills and call on intuitive skills to be able to recognize a trend and determine whether action is required.
Courage to act, take risks and speak against the silent majority. What companies need most are leaders who have the courage to act from their values and give candid feedback during planning and decision making.
Bonus
Develop your ability to leverage differences among all members of your team, soliciting input from those who do not voluntarily share, obtaining input from all to ensure the best idea prevails. Because the best ideas are born from diverse perspectives.
A promotion to a leadership position does not guarantee success in that position. Success comes from knowing which skills to delegate, which skills to use more and which skills to develop.
Leaders of the future need a richer and broader set of leadership skills than before. No longer should leaders work to maintain the status quo or preserve the success of the past, but rather pushing forward through challenges without a road map to newer and more innovative ideas.
