Leadership Breakthrough: How Some Leaders Develop Significantly Over a Short Period

Monday, October 10th, 2011

There are periods in the lifecycle of most leaders when they achieve significant breakthroughs in their leadership effectiveness and performance over a relatively short timeframe.

While each leader is unique, these periods of significant leadership improvement often take a common approach. Below we explore that approach.

The pre-stage to significant leadership improvement is a genuine desire and reason to take your leadership to a new level. With this in place, and a willingness to be honest with yourself, the following approach can deliver major leadership breakthrough.

1. Understanding and managing self. Truly understanding who you are as an individual and leader, being able to manage your emotions and behaviours to best effect is crucial for sustained leadership improvement. Emotional intelligence is crucial in determining how you deal with stress, how you access confidence (etc) and it can’t be skipped.
2. Getting the best from and influencing others. A key leadership measurement is the ability to relate to others, understand and influence them, whether they be direct reports, colleagues, senior or external stakeholders. The interpersonal skills and behaviours need to be authentic with your personality and leadership profile.
3. Role effectiveness and career development. With steps 1 and 2 undertaken, you are in a position to identify exactly how to nail your current role, get beyond key challenges, maximise opportunities and where to focus any ongoing development. You will also have the clarity required to make the best decisions around your career.

Taking this approach will provide the opportunity for you to achieve a real breakthrough in your leadership performance.

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