Level Up Your Leadership
There are a few consistent characteristics that define the top level of leadership. If you’re looking to advance to the next level and feel you are stagnating without getting concrete reasons as to why, consider the below. Would your team use these to describe you? How about your supervisor, their peers, and the level above them?
Intelligent. If there’s an area that you feel weak in, learn as much as you can. Read up, take classes, practice with a trusted partner. Strengthen that muscle so that you present as a confident and trustworthy resource in all areas related to the role you aspire to.
Strategic. Make the best use of the resources you have, and put them together in new and creative ways to get to the optimal outcome. Much of being strategic is finding the simplest way to success, while thinking through all the other possible scenarios to get there. What’s the easiest, least wasteful, most fun way to get the best results?
Charismatic. This is also one of those things that is more important that people will readily admit. This is a skill you can learn. Reading the room, identifying what will make others smile, what will make them think, what will impress them, and displaying energy, positivity and confidence while being exceptionally perceptive as to how you’re being received and adjusting accordingly is CRITICAL.
Socially intuitive. Reading the cues given in facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, verbal pauses, and so on will give you a huge advantage in that you’re getting subtle feedback on what’s working and what’s not so that you can tweak your approach and your offerings to best meet the needs of the other party, without having to ask for direct feedback. Sometimes they don’t know or don’t want to tell you. Save them the stress and help them feel understood and exceed their expectations.
Polished. Putting that energy into your appearance, your presentation, your arrival time (always a little early), will always make a huge impression. It shows you hold the other party in high regard, that you respect yourself, and that you pay attention to the details. This is key in coming across as sophisticated and intuitive.
Graceful. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you, or find a safe outlet to express them (never in front of your team or client) so you can always display grace under pressure.
Humble. Give credit to your team, take ownership of mistakes, and share what you’re going to do to make things even better. Have a growth mindset and shower your team in all the praise.
Thoughtful. Don’t make others do the thinking for you. Consider things from the other party’s perspective and rule out options you know they won’t go for. Find the points of connection and work from there.
Commanding. You need to be able to embody leadership, command a room, inspire a team to action, and enlist supporting resources confidently and capably. You can be kind but commanding - don’t fall into the trap of being too nice and letting people perform at a suboptimal level - that makes you and your team look bad, and will disqualify you from higher level leadership 100% of the time.
They inspire confidence. Everything you present should be final draft. Don’t run your rough draft by your boss. Give it your best effort and if needed, run it by others before sending to your boss. You’re doing well if they say “great job” and don’t even need to check your work. You’re doing even better if they send you work that’s their level and trust you to do a great job. Seek to reach that level and you’ll be top of mind for consideration for that next promotion.
Work smarter, not harder. Don’t be known for being a work horse. That’s a quick way to getting saddled with more work without advancement, and to feeling burned out and taken advantage of. How can you use your skills, experience, and strengths to execute faster, better, cheaper, smarter, more creatively, more beautifully? The key is this cannot come by putting in obscene amounts of hours or effort - that’s not sustainable and not a life you want long term. It also doesn’t show you can effectively prioritize or level up and let go of the work that your team will need to execute on once you’re in that higher role.
They can win new business. Can you read a room and identify what the others around you care about? What impresses them? Can you match their level of urgency? Match their energy? How can you connect with them? How can you speak their language? This is more important than most people will admit. It can feel a bit superficial, but it’s a key way to develop trust and inspire confidence because the other party feels like you are relatable and you “get it.” This is like gold.
Trustworthy. Do what you say you will do, plus just a little bit more. Turn your work in early. Be consistent in your energy. Overdeliver. Don’t disappoint. If you must disappoint, get ahead of it as quickly and proactively as possible and come with solutions that the other party would appreciate, and then execute on those so that you create as little pain or work for the other party as humanly possible.
Consistent. Manage your energy and your time so that you don’t burn out. Ask for help in a way that shows you as a strategic, capable performer. There’s a big difference between burning out, overpromising and underdelivering and then calling in a panic because you need a break - versus thoughtfully evaluating what’s the most important use of your time and resources, and ensuring a strong execution on those endeavors. Frame the other stuff you can’t get done as an opportunity for others to take on a stretch assignment, or as a great project for next quarter, or as of lesser importance than the projects you’re focusing on and you will come across as strategic and doing what’s best for the business versus frazzled and overwhelmed. Just be sure you’re prioritizing well or this could backfire if the more important priorities are tabled because you picked a pet project you preferred.
Seek out feedback and put it into action. Don’t wait for others to tell you how to improve - take initiative and then execute to consistently improve.
Be thoughtful with others’ time - especially leadership. Don’t waste their time. Utilize your team, your peers, or other relationships to answer questions first before going to your supervisor. Save your time with them for mentorship, feedback on your performance, questions about their vision for their department or for the company, and how you can be a part of advancing that success.
Do the job above you without stepping on toes. How can you take more work off your boss, and make their lives easier? How can you start doing the job you want before you have the title? How can you lead your peers through influencing them, mentoring them, and getting their buy-in of you as their unofficial leader? Put yourself in the job before you have it by taking it on now and showing you can already do it. The key is ensuring your regular job is on point and well-handled by your team or yourself in minimal hours so that you have the capacity to pull this off and look and feel great while doing it.
