How to position yourself for the next step in your career

How to position yourself for the next step in your careerHow to position yourself for the next step in your careerWhat does it take to break through to a higher level of leadership, to move from being an individual contributor to a team leader, or to advance from being a manager who takes direction to a leader that devises the right direction to go? Its the fundamental career question for aspiring leaders or mid-level managers who want to grow their responsibility and take on the bigger challenges of real leadership.Answering that question will typically raise others for you. Does success simply require being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people- a matter of luck or circumstance? Is it a matter of natural talent, available only to some gifted few? Or are there steps that anyone can take to strengthen leadership skills, and actively create your own transition to the bigger challenges and responsibilities you want to have?Over the past two years, as parte o f our research for developing the Harvard Business Review Leaders Handbook, we talked with over 40 senior leaders about these questions, combed through dozens of HBR articles about career success, and reflected on our own decades of experience in helping leaders advance.Based on what we learned, were convinced that any successful manager, with the right ambition and commitment to self-improvement, can step up to greater leadership. Yes, luck and talent will always play some role, but if youre willing to face the challenges, accept and learn from inevitable failures, and keep practicing to get better, more leadership will almost certainly be in your future.Becoming a leader however is leid a sudden transformation, but rather a life-long and ongoing project. That said, our research and experience suggest that growing your leadership will always benefit from four specific and practical steps. Pursue them intentionally and you will surely accelerate the trajectory.1. Be clear about what it means to be a leaderBegin by understanding what leadership means. Leader has come to mean too many things- perhaps someone who simply has a C-suite title or a higher paygrade maybe one of your unconventional colleagues who makes a point of boasting about out-of-the-box approaches the person who gives the best presentation or speech in front of the boss or your eager-beaver colleagues who are always raising their hands for an extra assignment. Yes, perhaps, maybe - but cut to the coreThe real definition of a leader is someone who creates asignificant impact by building an organization of people working together towards a big common goal. As management guru Peter printer wrote many years ago, Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked. Leadership is defined by results, not attributes. Leadership doesnt happen however only in traditional corporate hierarchical structures but wherever there is a shared human endeavor that brings people together.Leaders are nee ded in teams (consider any good one youve been part of), networks, movements (think Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi), religious and social service agencies, political entities, or alliances such as what Amazon or Walmart have created with their thousands of retail and supplier partners. What matters is how leaders bring together talent, foster inspiration, and facilitate coordination so they and their followers achieve major goals together.2. Identify the core practices that you need to masterYou might have to get good at a lot of things to be a successful leader - but theres real value to prioritizing your development around six absolutely fundamental practices. In the HBR Leaders Handbook, we detail these six fundamental practices that are always part of creating impact through collective effort. We call them practices because you build the critical knowledge and skills of these by hands-on experience, learning and improving over time and then reflecting about how to get bet ter. behauptung practices includeBuilding a unifying vorstellung setting out broad goals and an inspiring picture of future success to provide a sense of purpose, motivation, and ownership for the people of the organization (or network, association, team, etc.)Translating that vision into strategy working through choices about where and how to move the organization towards shared goals, what to do and not do, how to deploy resources, and how to create distinctive value and then planning and coordinating action to make that happenGetting great people on board to execute the strategy recruiting, engaging and developing the best possible talent through a social contract that promises growth, reward, and relationships in exchange for peoples work and achievementAchieving results in the context of the strategy establishing and following disciplines and accountabilities to ensure continual high performance by all members of the organization, leading to tangible progress towards the goalsI nnovating for the future maintaining a dual focus on present performance and future trends and opportunities, to keep the organization adapting to change and ahead of competitors and Leading yourself developing self-understanding, ongoing renewal, and self- preservation in order to keep improving as a leader.To reach the next level of leadership in your own career, take stock of your own capability in each of these areas. Then construct your own personal development agenda. Where have you had some experience and success with these, either on your own or as part of working with others? Where do you need considerably more practice and opportunity in order to hone your skills and increase your confidence? Which leadership practices come naturally, and which will require conscious effort or external coaching?3. Take the initiative and find your own opportunities to practice leadership practicesOnce youre clear about your leadership learning priorities, look for situations where youll be able to get real experience and learn by doing, reflecting, possibly failing, and trying again. But dont wait for these opportunities to be handed to you go out and find them. You might begin by helping your boss or another more accomplished leader in doing some of the practices, for example by supporting some aspects of strategic planning or recruiting or market innovation. As you get more confident, you might volunteer for a project that gives you an opportunity to take on one or more of the practices on your own.At the same time, take a hard look at your current responsibilities and think about whether you can exert more leadership there. Can you create a unifying, inspiring vision for what your unit or team will try to accomplish in the next two years that supports the broader vision of your department or division or company?What steps can you take to strengthen your current team to upgrade talent, raise the bar on performance, or increase teamwork? Remember that leadership e merges out of good management, so you need to demonstrate that you can get results as a manager first before jumping to broader leadership.Finally, if you dont see opportunities within your own organization, consider volunteering in a local non-profit, a religious organization, an election campaign, a professional association, or even a neighbor association or club you belong to.All organizations are hungry for leaders and can provide potentially significant (and often lower-risk) opportunities to hone your skills and build experience. And the more you practice, no matter where, the more youll learn, grow, and build the kind of confidence that employers look for in leaders.4. Pay attention to the needs of others so that they will follow youFinally, remember that leadership is ultimately not about you its about bringing people together to achieve common goals. To do that, people have to trust that you are not in it only for yourself and for your own advancement, but that you also wi ll help them to be successful, both professionally and personally.So, while it may seem counter-intuitive, one of the best ways of building your own leadership trajectory is to help your colleagues, teammates, and other co-workers to advance in their careers. You can do this by collaborating on joint projects, sharing credit for accomplishments, giving them assistance on their assignments, and helping them think through their own aspirations and plans.In essence, remember that leadership is not a zero-sum game of winners and losers. The real leaders are those who make everyone around them successful as well.