If you’re an emerging or early career leader, you might be unclear about where to focus your leadership development effort and activities. Here is a starting process.

  1. Identify the traits and qualities that you aspire to have and the type of leader you’d like to be.

Think about some of the leaders you’ve had (or have heard about) and write down the behaviours or qualities that you felt were either ‘good’ or ‘not so good’.  What was it about those things that you believe made them ‘good’ or ‘not so good’?  Being clear on the behaviours that you are wanting to emulate or avoid is a helpful first step; and it’s especially helpful if you understand why you do or don’t want them.

  1. Ask for (or review) recent feedback from your team members, your boss, and/or peers about how you present to others and the impact you have.

Be open to views different to your own and remember that feedback is just one piece of information that you can choose to use (or not).  The aim is to increase your self-awareness of how you are perceived, so that you can take action to change the things that are not effective or don’t fit with your aspirations.

  1. Identify a specific situation in which you feel you could learn new skills.

It could be a one-off behaviour (e.g., an upcoming presentation to the senior leadership team), something that requires ongoing practice through a process (e.g., having a difficult conversation with a team member, or learning to delegate more effectively), or it may be an approach (e.g., making more effort to find the positive rather than focusing on the holes). Proactively research some techniques or seek support, choose one to try, and focus on developing just that one skill or behaviour.

Developing our skills and our leadership style is an ongoing work-in-progress.

Experienced leaders continue to make mistakes and to learn and evolve – they’re just different mistakes to those an emerging leader might make.

The key is to be open to feedback, cultivate a learning approach, and to take the small steps consistently that lead to change.