Top 10 Golden Rules to Become a Successful Leader
Guide for New Grads, Millenials & Young Professionals
The age of social media has caused a culture of “instant gratification” and a rat race to reach success milestones in shorter time frames. Everyone wants to be a “thought leader” and “expert” in their niche as soon as they start out. So for the graduating class of 2020 and all young professionals out there (with less than 5 years experience), here is some solid advice on how to become a true “leader” that others look up to, not just by self-proclamation!
If you want to be an eminent leader that the world looks up to, you must acquire these 10 skills and traits:
- Core Expertise
- Confident Humility
- Comfort with Multi-generational Teams
- Take Charge!
- Public Speaking
- Achieve Results
- Mile-High View
- Mentoring
- Creativity
- Strong People Network
1] Gain Core Expertise
In order to be a good leader you must be an expert in your niche. Harvard Business research calls this “Leadership by Expertise”. When students graduate, they may have a lot of theoretical knowledge and latest tech know-how, but there are many skills that you learn only by trying, failing and listening to older employees. So keep an open mind, and absorb information like a sponge.
Once your are a master at your niche, look to evaluate what contributes to your company (or startup’s) financial goals. Irrespective of your business unit, seek to learn how to bring more clients and revenue to the company, think about creative ways to cut expenses and increase process efficiency without compromising on quality.
2] Confident Humility
Great leaders know they cannot have all the answers and that there will be times when things go absolutely haywire. But a majority show incredible grace under pressure. They surround themselves with people who complement their skills and smart folks who can help them turn things around.
When you are young, it is easy to equate leadership with dominance, arrogant behavior and the privilege to bark orders at everyone! Instead, the best leaders portray “confident humility”. This means having an unshakable confidence in yourself while acknowledging that you will have knowledge gaps where you need to rely on the help and collaboration of people around you.
3] Comfort in Multi-generational Teams
As the first batch of GenZ join the working world, companies are now in an era of multi-generational teams. Baby Boomers, GenY, Millenials and GenZ are all working in the same place and they all have different priorities, communication styles and expectations about financial and career success. To succeed in such a diverse environment, you need to be comfortable interacting and leading people of all ages and backgrounds.
If your juniors are 10 years older, do not let it faze you. On the contrary, if your peers are younger than your kids, do not assume you have lost the rat race, either! Different people take different career routes.
As a leader, you need to take advantage of a diverse workplace and perspectives and use it to steer your team to triumph!
4] Take Charge of Projects that Matter!
For new hires just out of college, some direction is needed. However, once you have the hang of things, do not wait for instructions from your seniors or managers. Own your projects. Be accountable. Learn to complete your tasks faster and anticipate your manager’s moves. You cannot move up the corporate ladder stuck doing the same job forever.
Find out the projects that matter and get onboard. Bozi Dar, ex-Global Lead of Novartis calls it working on your “One Big Thing”. This is listed in detail in his book “Promoted”.
Unfortunately, unless you are a maestro at your current level, you will not get to participate in the big leagues. So take charge of your current projects and complete it in a way that wows your managers and their peers. Do it for every project and task. Ask your manager for her Top 3 priorities and help her achieve those goals. Keep doing it (along with some tooting of your own horn) and you will eventually be given plum assignments of your own.
5] Speak Up!
Excellent Communication skills are key — can you present to someone 3 levels above you without stammering or losing your cool? This includes both written and verbal, as our world goes increasingly online with global reach.
6] Achieve Results
Everyone works well on their own tasks, but are you good at getting results from your team? If you do not have direct hierarchical influence over a cross-functional team, are you still able to lead projects successfully?
You do not need to be a tyrant or micro-manager, but you do need to be mindful of persuading your team to meet milestones and exceed expectations. It does not matter how much people like or respect you, or your past laurels. If company key metrics suffer under your leadership, then this will directly be attributed to you.
7] Mile-High View
Learn to see the big picture, not just within your company but also across the industry and global markets. Reading industry journals, Wall Street magazines and keeping abreast of disruptive trends and new technologies will help you connect the dots better.
You should also have a deep understanding of how your project/ team/role fits into the overall company structure? Is your team responsible for bringing new revenue or do you work in back-end processing (improve efficiency). How do audience consume your output? How can you do better?
If you are good at your job, you will already have the grassroots view. But extraordinary leaders are different because they can clearly see both grassroots and the mile-high view. Like eagles, they can zoom in and out of these two contrasting views as needed.
8] Mentoring
Mentoring is the easiest way to accelerate your learning curve. However, a lot of millenials tend to go overboard and over rely on formal programs.
Mentoring is useless unless you apply those skills, build your network and improve yourself. Plus, as you move up you need perspectives from different angles to build expertise. In fact, my favorite mentors have come outside of any formal programs.
Instead, seek out the folks who have the skills you want to emulate. Talk to them. Read their books. Watch their interviews on TV or YouTube.
On the flip side, do give back to the community too, and see how you can help others who can learn from your skills and experiences.
9] Creativity
In the knowledge economy, soft skills like creativity and innovation are key differentiation. You do not need to be a graphic designer or work in the entertainment industry in order to be creative. Creativity can help you solve problems in new ways, identify ways to disrupt the market, capture market share or turn an unprofitable business unit around.
To learn how to improve your creativity and innovation muscles, look at the article below:
10] Proactive Networking
A good leader surrounds himself with diverse people with skills that complement and supplement their own. So seek counsel from people outside your company, industry and backgrounds. This will help you learn new ideas that you can apply to your own field, identify blue ocean markets and pick up “marketable” skills that translate across different domains.
Also remember that event management is not leadership. It is a small subset, but not the end all. It is a great way of meeting new people from departments you would not otherwise see, but should not be the only avenue to build your network. Women, especially tend to spend too much time leading events and initiatives which are nice-to-haves and morale boosters, but rarely help the company achieve any financial milestones.
If you want ideas on how to broaden your people network, then read this article:
Thank you for reading this far! These techniques seem like common sense, but as you implement all of them, you will realize how powerful they become when they come together.
Wishing you the best in your career!