{"id":13883,"date":"2019-04-30T15:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sourcelive.wordpress.com\/?p=13883"},"modified":"2021-12-08T07:51:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T12:51:05","slug":"are-you-ready-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/?p=13883","title":{"rendered":"Are You Ready to Lead?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Jennie Yelvington, Sr. HR Professional for Organization and Professional Development.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you interested in moving into a formal leadership role, but not sure how to get there? The first step is to examine whether you have and are exhibiting the types of skills necessary to be successful in the role. That assessment can help to inform your development plan, prepare you for more responsibility, and highlight your capacity to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following behaviors will help you demonstrate leadership\nability no matter your current role:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Identify\nyour goals, discuss with your supervisor, and actively work toward them.<\/strong>\nLeaders need to be continually learning and developing themselves to maintain self-awareness\nand deal effectively with change and complexity.<\/li>
  2. Take on\nstretch assignments<\/strong>. Look for opportunities to lead projects or\ninitiatives, serve on committees, suggest improvements, and provide value added\nservice.<\/li>
  3. Learn\nabout the university and how it functions<\/strong>. Leaders need to consider how\nissues impact not only their unit, but also their department, college, and the\nuniversity. Familiarize yourself with issues impacting higher education, attend\nevents that allow you to hear other leaders speak, and network broadly to\nbetter understand the landscape. While it is normal to think about how a\nsituation impacts you personally, leaders place a priority on what best suits\nthe mission, goals, and values of the organization.<\/li>
  4. Strengthen\nyour \u201cpeople\u201d skills.<\/strong> Effective leaders know how to engage and motivate\ntheir team, work collaboratively with their peers, and influence the leaders\nabove them. Being empathic, listening for understanding, communicating\neffectively, and handling difficult conversations are baseline skills that\nevery leader needs.<\/li>
  5. Be a\nproblem solver.<\/strong> Rather than complaining about issues you see (or ignoring\nthem), develop and share ideas for addressing them. Ask good questions and get\ninput from others who are involved and impacted as you attempt to identify\npossible solutions. Even if your ideas aren\u2019t implemented, you build your\ncapacity to solve problems and demonstrate that you are capable and proactive.<\/li>
  6. Understand\nyour biases and demonstrate inclusion.<\/strong> It is easy to always turn to our \u201cgo\nto\u201d people who think like we do, but that isn\u2019t generally the best approach. We\nall have biases, but once we understand them we can consciously work to include\nothers who might offer valuable, different perspectives.<\/li>
  7. Model\nprofessionalism.<\/strong> Dress in appropriate attire for the role you would like to\nsecure, handle problems and disappointments with grace and maturity, move\nquickly from venting to sound action, keep up on skills necessary for your\nrole, avoid engaging in gossip and redirect others who do, consistently follow\nthrough on commitments, be respectful of the others\u2019 time and opinions, be\nactively supportive and helpful to your colleagues and leaders.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Talk with your supervisor to get their perspective on how you are doing in the above areas. HR Organization and Professional Development offers several instructor-led courses that can help you strengthen capacity in these areas. Find all current courses on the HR website<\/a> and consider taking the following courses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n