When I stepped into my first leadership role, as the leader of an adventure travel company, I thought I was doing pretty well for a little while.
Of course, it didn’t take long for me to realise I didn’t know what I was doing. I lasted six months in that role.
Later, when I did my MBA, I started piecing together why some things didn’t work (and why others did).
The problem is, too many new leaders find themselves in this situation, not equipped to do a good job, without any support to bridge that gap.
Leadership does NOT come naturally.
In one of the Grow Your Influence podcasts, Kristy-Lee Billett shares this analogy that I simply love:
We don’t expect someone to become a fantastic engineer just because they have a new job as an engineer.
The reality is, no matter how good someone is at their job, the skills needed to lead are entirely different.
Some people might have a natural predisposition towards leadership, which is nice, but not essential, but they’ll still need training.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why we can’t all be leaders and that’s ok
- How to prepare team members who are stepping up to lead, and how their work will change as a result
- How to give new leaders the opportunity to identify the support they’ll need
- How to establish different mechanisms of support for new leaders in your team
- How to find opportunities for new leaders
I truly believe that as leaders, one of our greatest responsibilities is to bring as many new leaders as we can up. Which is why I think this is a really important conversation. You can listen to the episode here. And once you do, hit reply and let me know what resonated with you, and what you do differently when it comes to supporting new leaders. I know there are so many creative ways to do this – I’d love to know what works for you
