Think back over your career to the times when you grew the most as a leader.
Some of those growth spurts likely occurred when you had a new job opportunity or perhaps when you dealt with a crisis or other significant challenge. But it’s also important to remember that equally powerful learning experiences can be found in the context of your current job.
Through developmental assignments, you can shape your work and life experiences in ways that will expand your leadership knowledge and skills.
Strong leadership is essential for career advancement and organizational success. Great leaders inspire teams drive change and bring out the best in those around them. Leadership abilities can be honed and developed over time through intentional learning and growth.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore 10 proven ways to enhance your leadership capabilities at any stage of your career. Follow these tips to become a more effective and inspiring leader.
1. Observe Other Leaders
One of the best ways to grow as a leader is to carefully observe how other successful leaders operate. Pay attention to leaders you admire and take note of their communication style decision-making process and the way they engage with teams. Look for role models both within and outside of your organization to expand your perspective. Reflect on what makes these leaders effective and how you can incorporate elements of their approach into your own.
2. Understand Your Weaknesses
It’s important to have an accurate view of your own shortcomings as a leader. We all have blindspots – identify areas where you struggle so you can proactively improve. Ask for candid feedback from colleagues, mentors, and direct reports. Look back on past situations where things went wrong and analyze how your leadership gaps contributed. Awareness of your weaknesses is the first step toward strengthening them.
3. Seek Constructive Criticism
Don’t shy away from criticism – embrace it. Actively seek out constructive feedback from bosses, peers, and your team Ask clarifying questions to fully understand different perspectives on your leadership. Feedback may be hard to hear, but it provides invaluable insight. Demonstrate that you are committed to growth by probing beneath surface-level criticism to identify opportunities for development.
4. Learn from Mistakes
Reflect on mistakes, both big and small, as vital learning opportunities. Don’t gloss over or shift blame for errors – own them. Analyze the root causes and determine what you could have done differently as the leader. Did you miss red flags? Not have all the information? Fail to read the team properly? Isolate the leadership lessons embedded in each misstep. Let your mistakes fuel your maturity.
5. Follow Experienced Leaders
Find a mentor – someone further ahead in their leadership journey who can provide wisdom and advice. It could be a senior leader within your company or an experienced leader in your network. Schedule regular check-ins to learn from their expertise. Ask questions about how they overcame leadership challenges you are facing. Mentor relationships fast-track your own growth.
6. Challenge Yourself
Step outside your comfort zone and take on new leadership challenges to expand your capabilities. Volunteer for high-visibility projects or committees. Lead a team you’ve never managed before. Take a role covering an unfamiliar function or region. New tests reveal areas for self-improvement. Embrace assignments that make you feel in-over-your-head and require you to find your bearings.
7. Invest in Leadership Training
Formal programs provide structured opportunities to enhance your leadership abilities. Many companies offer internal leadership development tracks. There are also external seminars, bootcamps, certificate courses, and executive education programs. Identify training aligned with your growth goals and invest time and resources to sharpen critical leadership skills like influence, strategic thinking, and driving change.
8. Build Your Network
Surround yourself with leaders who inspire you, challenge you, and make you better. Join industry groups or LinkedIn communities to connect with leadership peers. Expand your circle by introducing yourself to leaders at partner companies, conferences, and networking events. Develop meaningful bonds beyond surface-levelrelationships. Brainstorm, collaborate, and exchange feedback regularly. A diverse leadership network provides support, insight, and accountability.
9. Commit to Self-Improvement
Leadership growth requires an ongoing commitment to personal development. Make it a priority to read leadership books and articles. Listen to educational podcasts. Pursue a professional coach to stay accountable. Maintain a growth mindset. Set aside reflection time each week to assess your progress. Continuously refine and build upon your skills over the arc of your career. View leadership development as a lifelong journey.
10. Put Learning into Practice
The true test of leadership comes with real-world application. As you learn new techniques and strategies, implement them in your day-to-day leadership. Adjust your style and approach based on the lessons gleaned through trainings, mentors, and past experience. Practice applying feedback and observations in the moment. Stay adaptable, continuing to iterate as you gain new perspective. Leadership excellence requires translating knowledge into impact.
Developing your abilities takes time, effort, and dedication. But the investment yields outsized dividends in terms of career advancement, fulfillment, and organizational impact. Follow these 10 tips to accelerate your leadership growth. Commit to honing your skills and you will become the inspirational, strategic, and visionary leader you aspire to be.
3 Truths About Growing as a Leader
As you explore developmental assignments to help you succeed as a leader, remember these 3 important truths about leader development:
To be effective in a wide variety of leadership roles and situations, you have to master new competencies. Instead of always relying on a limited set of natural capabilities, you must become well-rounded. This development of a repertoire of skills is a gradual, continuous process.
You learn through on-the-job learning when your day-to-day responsibilities and challenges require it — and when you have the opportunity to engage in experiences, draw lessons and insights from those experiences, and apply the new knowledge and skills to the next experience.
Leaders who continue to focus only on doing the work they’re already good at are less likely to broaden their capacity. Leaders who step into new situations that test other abilities continue to develop their skills and successfully take on higher levels of leadership responsibility.
Want to make a formal effort to develop these skills? Explore our virtual leadership programs to find the right one for you, and then learn how to convince your boss to make an investment in you and your future.
Learn to Lead Through Developmental Assignments
Challenging, real-life experiences are rich sources of growth and learning, but you don’t have to wait for opportunities to present themselves. You can — and should — be proactive and seek them out.
Developmental assignments can help you learn to lead. They are roles and activities that provide opportunities for you to stretch and grow as a leader. They don’t require a major job shift or a move to a new organization.
These assignments allow leaders to intentionally develop new skills, practice new behaviors, and improve on weaknesses. Here are 3 approaches for adding developmental assignments to your current job:
- Take a good look at your current job and think about how you might reshape it. Adding new responsibilities to your job or restructuring it might be more doable than you think. Consider moving responsibility from someone else’s plate to your own, trading tasks with a colleague, or taking on a role or task that needs to be done but that nobody currently “owns.” Also re-examine responsibilities that are already a legitimate part of your job, but have received little attention. The changes you make can be permanent or temporary. Remember, the goal is to make changes that enhance your leadership skills.
- Take on temporary assignments. Look outside your job description or department for projects, task forces, one-time events, and activities that you can participate in for a short period of time. You might wonder, “Who has the time to take on more work?” But if your goal is to grow as a leader while you’re in your current job, you may need to temporarily make the time to take on more.
- Seek challenges outside the workplace. Other areas of your life often provide the same challenges found in job settings. You’ll find plenty of leadership responsibilities in nonprofit, religious, social, and professional organizations, as well as schools, sports teams, and family life. There are many opportunities to learn lessons of leadership through personal experiences, and even hardships.
Developmental assignments give leaders the opportunity to ignite their “growing edge,” where deeper knowledge is discovered and new capabilities are honed as you use experience to fuel your development. Without those experiences, leaders continue to rely on a narrow set of skills and limit their career potential.
Simon Sinek’s guide to leadership | MotivationArk
What makes a successful leader?
Successful leaders are resilient, have exceptional decision-making skills, and hold themselves accountable for their actions. Ultimately, the people they lead trust them to do the right thing for the good of the group. The Fundamental 4 describes four essential skills for leaders: communication, influence, learning agility, and self-awareness.
How to become a better leader?
Self-motivation is often necessary to become a better leader and have a positive effect on the lives of others. Think about your motivations for growing as a leader and what you hope to accomplish in terms of your leadership career. During challenges that might arise, think about your motivations and continue your commitment to growth. 3.
How do you grow as a leader?
Part of your growth as a leader involves asking questions about how to best delegate tasks and lead different groups of people. As you gain experience, you can become more aware of your strengths and ask others how you can best leverage them in challenging situations. 9. Practice empathy
How do you become a successful leader?
To be effective in a wide variety of leadership roles and situations, you have to master new competencies. Instead of always relying on a limited set of natural capabilities, you must become well-rounded. This development of a repertoire of skills is a gradual, continuous process. 2.
