The following is a guest blog from Jessica Rayburn from our OI Global Partner in Denver. In this blog she outlines four common sense ways to grow your leadership skills. This sound advice applies to everyone in an organization from the most senior leader to any individual contributor because leadership goes beyond doing performance reviews or telling people what to do. Leadership is about setting examples, growing, inspiring and being able to work well with others - by chain of command or by influence.
Posted by: Jessica Rayburn - OI Global Partners - Innovative Career Consulting - Denver/Cincinnati
Leadership skills. We’ve all read the articles and books, seen the LinkedIn posts and listened to the speeches about why they are so important. But how exactly do we hone these skills?
Simply reading, researching and listening to others tout the benefits of these skills is only the beginning of your journey to great leadership. So, what steps should you take to move past simply learning about leadership to actually putting them into practice?
Here are four ways to actively grow your leadership skills:
1. Executive coaching – Working with an executive coach will allow you to get an unbiased outside perspective on your leadership skills. A quality executive coach will assess your current skills by observing you at work, talking to colleagues and reviewing past documentation of your workplace performance. From here, a developmental plan will be crafted, and you will be coached through the plan to ultimately lead to the definition of success that you and your coach have defined.
2. Assessment – Assessments are powerful tools that help you gain self-awareness and identify gaps in your skill set. While there are a plethora of assessments in the marketplace today, researching or working with your executive coach will help you determine which is best for you. Begin by deciding what you hope to gain from taking an assessment and how this tool will help you reach that overarching definition of success.
Many leadership consulting services companies offer multiple assessments and talking to someone may help you determine which assessment is best for you. For example, are you second guessing your career choice? Do you want feedback from your supervisors and direct reports? Questions like these will help you narrow down which tool is best for you.
And, last but not least, ask yourself how you will use these results to become a great leader. Taking an assessment is the first step. Actually using the results in your day to day activities is another.
3. Continued Learning – Workshops, classes and seminars offered through resources outside of the workplace allow you to continue to grow and learn. Without this continued learning, you will become stagnant and fail to achieve that leadership success that you so strive for. Great leaders evolve in order to keep up with an ever-changing market and workforce. Do you expect your direct reports to grow and learn? Why would you expect anything different from yourself?
4. Understand your vision – What do you want to achieve and how will you get there? What values do you live and lead by? Defining your vision and making sure that you schedule “check-ins” to ensure that your actions directly align with your vision and values will keep you on track and help you to lead with purpose. Being able to articulate your vision to your colleagues helps to create buy-in and create a unified workforce. Would you want to follow a leader who wasn’t sure of his/her destination?
No matter how you decide to develop your leadership skills, the most important step is to turn your approach from passive to active!
How do YOU actively grow your leadership skills? Please take a moment to share with us!
Need help developing your leadership skills? Contact OI Global Partners today - we would be happy to help.
Jessica joined the OI Global Partners - Innovative Career Consulting team as a Georgia native with deep roots in Colorado. As a graduate of the University of Georgia, she is a highly motivated, results-oriented professional with experience in recruiting, staff training, and leadership. Jessica has worked in the fields of hospitality, banking, and mortgage which have allowed her to develop strong skills in the areas of company strategy, direction, and communication. Her experience helps leaders and clients achieve their goals in the areas of Executive Search, Executive Coaching and Career Transition. She offers excellent interpersonal skills, creative thought and a drive to her clients.
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