10 Tips on Learning to Lead

Leadership is an apprentice trade. In most apprentice trades, you
learn about 20 percent in the classroom and from books. The rest, 80
percent, you learn on the job. Here are ten tips on how to do master
your own apprenticeship.

Pick good role models. Pick out some great leaders to emulate. Then,
when you’re faced with a leadership problem, ask yourself how your
role models would handle the situation.

Find a mentor or two or three. Mentors are people who provide wisdom
and guidance. Mentors are the masters in your personal leadership
apprentice program. A good mentor will enjoy helping you sort out
your career and leadership challenges. You may have many mentors
during your career.

Ask how you’re doing. Good feedback is essential to efficient and
effective growth. Ask your boss, your peers and the people who work
for you how you’re doing. Ask how you might do better.

Critique your own performance. Every time you take a significant
leadership action, make sure you also do an after-action critique.
Ask yourself what you wanted to accomplish, what you did, and how
things came out. Decide what you’ll do the same and differently next
time.

Talk to other leaders. People who have been bosses for a while have
had to deal with many leadership situations. Talk over your problems
with them. Adapt their advice to your situation and your personal
style.

Seek development opportunities. Development opportunities are
assignments where you get to stretch yourself, learn new skills,
gain new perspective and increase your visibility.

Take classes. Classes can give you new ideas or help you develop
specific skills. Pick classes that give you solid take-away value.
Sometimes you’ll find that the take-away value lies in the
relationships you establish or build with other class participants.

Read books. There are a lot of good ones out there, but there are a
lot more that don’t have much to say. Consider reading history and
the biographies of leaders to see how they did things. Read business
books for content or because “everybody” is reading it. If you’re
not getting value from a book, stop reading.

Have a plan. You don’t need a super-detailed, step-by-step, three-
binder-filling plan. But you do need an idea of the direction you
want to go and what your development priorities are.

Review regularly. That means review your plan and review your
development. I suggest taking a little time every week to review how
you’re doing and growing. Take a little time at least every month to
check your plan make sure it’s still want you need.

You are the person who will determine what kind of leader you
become. You are the person who will set direction, gather feedback
and make course corrections. You are the person who will choose
books and courses that will help you grow, and try to line up
assignments that will help improve your skills, perspective,
relationships, and visibility. And, you are the person who will reap
the rewards.