Can we talk about the chronic issue of ill-prepared leaders?

I meet one every day.

For example, my client Andrea is a newly promoted manager in a technology firm.

Andrea is in her late twenties. She is extremely smart and hard-working. She is dedicated to her organization and wants to do a good job.

However, Andrea is struggling.

Why?

Well, like many leaders in the workforce, Andrea was promoted into a leadership position because she is a very strong individual contributor.

But she has never had any leadership training or development!

So, when Andrea inherited a team of five employees, she felt unprepared for her leadership journey.

The truth is that being a leader requires new skills and behaviours.

In fact, at every level of leadership, you need to learn and apply new skills and behaviours.

Here are some examples.

First time managers need learn to:

• Coach
• Develop the skills and competencies of their people
• Build a high performing team

Leaders managing other managers need to learn to:

• Build a senior team
• Lead and manage change
• Execute strategically

Leaders managing a function or organization need to learn to:

• Allocate both strategy and resources across teams
• Listen and make decisions
• Manage complexity and ambiguity

So, what’s your leadership gap right now?

What do you need to do to ensure that you are not an ill-prepared leader and have the right skills to do your best work at the right level of leadership?

For some of you, developing these new skills will be intuitive.

For most people, they will not be.

The good news is that leadership skills can be learned!

Create your development plan.

Get the support you need to implement it.

Then practice, practice, practice.

Meet Vanessa

Vanessa Judelman is an author, coach, and sought-after leadership expert.  Over the past 20 years, she has created a proven formula to develop results-oriented leaders who feel empowered and confident in their job. Vanessa is the author of Mastering Leadership: What It Takes to Lead in Today’s Fast Paced World. Order your copy here.