Preparing for Next-Level Leadership Role
A simple, valuable approach to being additionally ready when hired for the role you eventually want to gain
People in the workplace, some of them aspiring leaders, notice and pay attention to how their superiors conduct themselves, in all ways. As it should. That’s not enough however, he contended, for their future goals.
If one is working to continue professionally learning and developing to advance their career and station, there is a little more that can be done to be a difference maker.
"Always pay attention," said Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, the now-retired chief of the National Guard Bureau, in an interview in 2018. "You should always look out and take notes as you watch senior leaders, decide if something they say or do is something you would say or do if you progress to that level."
Take notes. Decide if something leaders say or otherwise do aligns with what you believe would be strength or weakness of leadership if and when you ascend to the levels that you are pursuing.
Paying attention to these people, and for this conversation, senior ones, is valuable.
“Think of it this way: watching senior leaders in action is like getting a free leadership clinic,” proposes Natalie Bidnick Andreas, a professor in the Communication Studies department at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.
“You get to see how they handle the tough stuff — tricky decisions, difficult conversations, the whole nine yards. Even when they mess up, that's a lesson too.”
Processing those observations and thinking about how one feels about them is important work for the future.
“We start to build our own sense of what works, what doesn't, and what kind of leader we want to be,” Bidnick Andreas says. “It's like building your own leadership playbook, one observation at a time.”
This practice isn’t necessarily a given as an act of documentation and forward thinking.
“Honestly,” Bidnick Andreas says, “Probably not as common as it should be.
“We all notice things but how often do we actually stop and think about why something worked or didn't? It's easy to let those observations just fade away.”
That’s a missed opportunity because, as strong as a person’s memory may be, it will not always retain details, takeaways and important and critical conclusions.
“But if we really want to learn, we need to be more intentional,” Bidnick Andreas advises. “Even just jotting down a quick note, ‘Great way she handled that difficult question’ or ‘Didn't like how he dismissed that idea,’ can make a huge difference in what we actually remember and learn.”
A desire or personal statement to oneself not to repeat ourselves what we witnessed and didn't like or respect from senior leaders may be more challenging than expected.
“This is where the real work happens,” Bidnick Andreas frankly says. “It's not enough to just say, ‘I don't want to be like that.’ We need to dig deeper. Why didn't we like it? What was the impact? What could they have done differently?”
It is in that deep thinking that the clarity, answers and helpful decisions will evolve.
“By really analyzing those negative examples, we can figure out what not to do and start to develop our own better ways of leading,” Bidnick Andreas explains. “It's like learning from someone else's mistakes, so you don't have to make them yourself.”
Remembering to build oneself into the type of leader that we respect and admire and implementing the positives we appreciated and highly valued requires focus, commitment and consistency.
“Just like with the negative stuff, we need to be intentional about the positive,” Bidnick Andreas urges. “What did they do that impressed you? What qualities did they have that you admire?”
To accomplish what Lengyel offered as guidance, Bidnick Andreas offers a process.
“Think about how you can bring those same qualities into your own leadership. Maybe it's their knack for public speaking, their ability to build consensus or their genuine empathy. Start small, try it out and see what works for you.”
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