During the past few years, the economy most likely impacted your business in some way. And during this time, you may have noticed that your younger employees don’t always see themselves as “aspiring leaders.” It’s a shared frustration for many of us, the young and old alike. However, keep in mind that your younger employees are those who will carry the torch so to speak – in the years to come.
What better New Year’s Resolution, than to build the leadership ability of those around you. Leaders are needed in every field, inside and outside the workplace, to contemplate and resolve the tough issues of our time. In the end, serving society as a whole rather than simply focusing your life efforts on personal gain will give meaning to your life.
Leaders are well-rounded and well-grounded. Here are some tips to share and inspire in the “aspiring leaders” around you!
• Volunteer for a community organization. It’s amazingly rewarding, and you’ll learn about yourself by participating, listening and understanding others.
• Travel to learn how others live, work and play. Cultural sensitivity is critical for leadership, so the more you travel the more valuable you’ll be to yourself as well as the world around you.
• Learn with and from your peers — and learn to respect and support one another — by discussing leadership principles or world issues and sharing your insights.
• Bring people together to explore challenges and potential approaches for addressing them. Leadership often depends on teamwork, soliciting and sometimes deferring to input from others.
• Find a mentor, someone you admire who’s interested and willing to help you, someone whose values and character you want to emulate. Studies show aspiring leaders who have a mentor are more likely to do well professionally and feel more content.
• Let your curiosity take the lead, with global thinking and far-reaching questions. Ask “what if?”
Leadership requires effective personal presentation, too, so resolve to improve yourself in these areas:
• Personal identity – contemplate how you fit into your community, take responsibility, remain open to ongoing personal improvement.
• Professionalism – be positive and tactful, always submit quality work, and know when it’s important to dress or act to meet someone else’s protocols or standards.
• Communications – learn to speak persuasively and how to engage socially with others, in person.
• Project management – study how successful leaders set and reach goals.
Make this the year you resolve to deliberately work on increasing your leadership skill and building up the “aspiring leaders” around you! Remember that you needn’t be famous to be a contributor, and making a contribution to society is what ultimately defines leadership.
