Your first leadership role is coming. Well, it depends on how much you want it and the effort that you are putting in. If you are naturally ambitious in your career, then it is inevitable and there are some mistakes that you need to avoid.
We have all met leaders that are not… well supported. They do not have the confidence of the people in the workplace and some people would rather avoid interacting with them totally. As much as such leaders seem like they do not care who says what, they are having a bad work day most of the time. You do not want to be that.
How did they get there? These are top 4 mistakes that they made and you should avoid them when you enter your first leadership role:
They Wanted to Be Liked
A lot of leaders want to be liked, but they do not understand what that looks like in a professional setting. They try to please everyone and that tends to come at the expense of others. That is a recipe for disaster. Being liked in the professional sense means even if people cannot stand to have a conversation with you in the lift, they know they can always rely on your guidance when they feel stuck. That is all that matters.
They Demanded Authority
Why do people automatically and confidently become subservient to some new leaders? That is because the leader has shown that they are in the same mission as their followers. Do that and you will automatically make people accept your authority. If the mission is to remove bottlenecks in processes, lead that fight. If the mission is to change some structure so that your team can work more efficiently, lead that fight. Use your leadership position to confront EXCO so that things can change.
They Cannot Balance Their Service
As a leader, you are a servant to two groups of people in the company. People that are lower than you and people that are higher than you. If you focus only on one group, you lose the other group. Once that occurs, you lose favour. If you lose the tops guys, you will be replaced. If you lose the low guys, you lose your department…which will make you lose the top guys. So, learn the balance.
They Are Indecisive
As a leader, your team looks up to you for decisions. If something needs to happen fast and the people that you need to consult are unreachable, you need to make some sort of decision. It can be a contingency or a stalling method. Otherwise, your team will have to sit with enquiries that are piling up from customers and stakeholders. That will make you lose support.
There are many other mistakes that you could make to dig yourself a grave, but let us start by avoiding these ones.
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