It’s Monday and you just arrived at the office. You’re going through your morning routine when you get called into a conference room. You see some familiar faces but no one you know personally. Your boss walks in, greets everyone, and starts going over a new project he’s assigning to you and the others in the room. This is a big one, and no one is afraid of voicing their concerns when the deadline is mentioned. The boss reassures the room he’s confident in everyone’s ability to get the job done as long as everyone works together.
Work together? But you guys don’t even know each other!
Let’s look at this hypothetical scenario, and how you could establish yourself in a leadership role here. This is important because if you want to be promoted or get that raise you deserve, stepping up to the plate of leadership is one of the key moves you can make.
“Start acting like you’re in the role you want next.” – Brad Lomenick
One of the popular misconceptions people have about leadership is that you can’t be a leader until you’re put in a leadership position—manager or team captain, for example.
This is a misconception for two reasons.
- Being placed in a leadership position doesn’t make you a leader. Just because someone above you promotes you to a leadership position doesn’t mean the people below you see you as a leader. You still need to earn the trust and respect of your team and prove to them you deserve to lead them.
- One of the critical aspects of effective leaders is the ability to step up to the responsibility and assume leadership. However, this is not to say you should demand that people “follow” you as a leader.
What does it mean to assume leadership? And what does it mean to be a leader if anyone can do it?
The first person to walk into a dark room to show the others it’s safe is a leader. The woman at work who stands up to the manager verbally abusing her coworkers is a leader. The boy on your kid’s basketball team cheering on his teammates from the sidelines is a leader.
What about that friend who makes a decision about where to meet for dinner when everyone else isn’t sure?
He is not only a leader, but a hero for the ages.
A leader is anyone people can rely on for guidance, inspiration, decisiveness, encouragement, and support.
In the initial example, the team for a big project is thrown together but your boss didn’t assign anyone to lead the team. This is your opportunity to step up to the plate.
What do you do first?
Well, since you don’t know anyone in the room personally, you can start by introducing yourself and asking others to do the same.
“Hey, everyone, I’ve seen a few of you around the office but I haven’t had the pleasure of working with you yet. What do you say we go around the room and introduce ourselves so we can start figuring out how we’re going…
