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If you are new to leadership, maybe you have just been appointed to a leadership position for the first time in your life or you are looking forward to being appointed to one sometime in the future, you must have a good understanding of what to do to continue to rise in leadership.

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There is a caveat to that, however, if you want to rise in leadership. The truth of the matter is that while leadership may look attractive and exciting to be in, not many want to have anything to do with leadership and not many want to rise beyond a certain level in leadership. There are reasons for this – some being fear, low self-esteem, past experiences and so on.

If however, you are as excited about leadership as I think and are open to growing your leadership, then you must take note of these 10 things that you must do when you first get into leadership. These 10 things were shared by John C. Maxwell in his book, The 5 Levels Of Leadership.

Thank The People Who Invited You Into Leadership

According to Maxwell, when you are invited into a leadership position, you have been invited to discover your leadership and continue growing. He, therefore, suggests that you should do a ‘thank you’ note to those who invited you into the position.

Dedicate Yourself To Leadership Growth

To become an effective leader, you must invest in growing yourself into one.

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Leadership as John C. Maxwell would say is not developed in a day but develops every day. Only those who see to their continuous growth in a leadership position ever rise beyond that position.

Define Your Leadership

To define your leadership means to decide on the kind of leader you want to be. Defining the kind of leader you would like to be would help you make the most of your leadership journey.

Here are three questions to help you determine this. Ask yourself:

Who am I?

What are my values?

What leadership practices do I want to put in place?

Shift From Position To Potential

If you must grow as a leader, you must be able to look beyond the position or title you hold and look to all that you can be. You have great potential within you and those potential is beyond the position you have just been invited into.

Focus On The Vision

While in a leadership position, it will serve you well and the organization you are in, for you to focus on the vision of the organization. Find ways to make contributions towards getting the organization towards its goals and find ways to help other team members within your organization do the same.

Shift From Rules To Relationships

My early days in leadership were days of reliance on rules. I held up the rules, I showed the rules to about everyone and I demanded that they follow and keep to the rules. That was the only way I knew then to get the people to follow as I did not have any form of influence on them and I was not sure I would ever have. I soon learnt that there was a better way – relationships.

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Build relationships with your people and they will willingly follow through with the rules. To be able to build a relationship with your people will require you to look out for value in them and treat them as being valuable.

Initiate Contact With Your Team Members

As a leader, you must go out of your way to seek out your people and help them. not one that sits behind your big mahogany desk and waits for them to come to you. Work on knowing your people and help them get to know you too.

Don’t Mention Your Title Or Position

I have a friend who is 5 years older than me and at every slight opportunity he gets, you will hear him reminding you that he is 5 years older than you and as such you are not his agemate. That always put me off and I will always wonder to myself how that makes him feel. As a leader, you don’t need to go telling people your position or title and screaming at them, “do you know who I am?”, “do you know my position?”, it puts people off when you do. They may not tell you, but it does.

Learn To Say, “I Don’t Know”

You cannot know everything. Be humble enough to realize and accept that. When you do not have an answer, admit to not having it, instead offer to work on getting it. On your team, there may be someone who possesses the answer, work with the person. People will come to admire your sincerity and will want to help you grow.

Find A Leadership Coach

You may need to get yourself a leadership coach or mentor who can help you continue to define and grow in your leadership. Pay for it if you need to, it is part of your investments in yourself and it is one that you will always reap the benefits from.

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This article was first published on 23rd May 2022

victor-ifegwu-mbonu

Ifegwu-Mbonu Victor is a Personal Growth and Leadership Trainer who provides training and coaching to individuals and organizations.

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