Sep 30 6 Ways to Expand Your Leadership & Experience Greater Career Velocity
Companies hate to see valuable human resources not being utilized to the optimum degree. So any organization will give extra leadership responsibility to anyone who demonstrates that they are ready to handle it.
#1 Expand Your Capability
That’s why the trick to ensuring your predictable promotion is to develop your leadership skills beyond your current pay grade. Start acting with the leadership required of the kind of role you want to be awarded with in the future.
Senior decision makers will recognize that your leadership is already outsized in relationship to your current level of responsibility, and they’ll recommend that you be moved up to the next level.
#2 Challenge Your Thinking
Practice analyzing every problem the way a top executive does, from all sorts of different angles. That will stimulate more innovative and creative problem-solving.
It will also have you seeing situations from a fresher perspective. That’s when you will become expert at spotting the leadership opportunities that fly right underneath the radar of less observant competitors.
#3 Rewrite & Refocus Your Mental Movie
What we do and how we act is a direct reflection of what goes on inside the theater of the mind, so leadership starts with mindset management. Change how you view yourself in positive ways and that will automatically upgrade your executive presence.
Meanwhile if you replace any self-doubting or negative commentary that plays in the soundtrack of your head with empowering self-affirmations, that will make you stronger, more confident, and more credible on the outside.
#4 Lead One Small Decision at a Time
Exceptional leaders weigh each and every decision, in business and in their personal life, against the goals they want to achieve both now and in the future. No decision is too small to neglect, because the journey to your ultimate legacy depends on the very next step you take.
Successful leaders also realize that indecision is a decision. Being indecisive can mean losing ground while others take action to overtake and pass you. View every decision, every choice you make, as a leadership opportunity to prove yourself and gain ground toward your dream destination.
#5 Leverage the Momentum-Multiplier Effect
Positive action amplifies and multiplies results. When you put that kind of momentum behind your career the successes automatically grow and multiply to expand your executive presence and leadership footprint.
Too many leaders think up excuses for why the timing isn’t right, instead of just working to expand their leadership development. An object in motion stays in motion and gains momentum, and isn’t that what you want your career to do?
#6 Communicate to Influence
Communication is a two-way street. You aren’t actually communicating until people really understand what you are trying to convey. Learning how to alter your communication style based on who you happen to be addressing is critical.
Particularly at the highest executive levels, that requires a concise and persuasive communication style. You also have to listen. That requires being fully present and deciphering all of the nonverbal messages someone is unconsciously telegraphing to you.
So which of these strategies do you already leverage as a strength and a unique attribute of your executive presence? Which ones have some room for development to further expand your leadership capability?
As a pioneering and visionary innovator, Sarah is a certified professional image consultant and brand strategist, speaker, trainer and author. Her company, Illustra Consulting, provides leading-edge image and brand management strategies for top leaders and high achievers who wish to take their career to the next level. She also delivers innovative and inspiring corporate workshops to assist large organizations in strengthening their corporate brand.
Illustra Consulting
Copyright © 2014, Sarah Hathorn, AICI CIP, CPBS
1-800-267-3245, [email protected]
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Sarah Hathorn, CEO of Hathorn Consulting Group, is the go-to-expert in working with leaders and companies to create successful corporate DNA. As an executive coach, consultant and speaker she collaborates globally with clients and brands such as Deloitte, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot and other leading organizations.
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