Mastering the Art of Leadership

Author: Vicky Pope

How Can You Tap into Your Latent Leadership Potential?

The answer to this is simple. Through leadership development. Why? Because good leaders are made and the process itself is a continuous process of improvement. Here are seven ways to begin developing your leadership right away. Develop your hard skills through formal education. A master's degree can be very helpful or at least try some schools of continuing education provided by your local university. Read -- aim to read a wide array of books, constantly, and attend management seminars and workshops. Take a formal leadership development program. If your organization is offering one in-house, I advise that you take this route because the design is likely to have been customized for your leadership environment. If your organization does not offer one, check out the Center for Creative Leadership (www.ccl.org) and VIPCG, Inc. ( http://www.thevipcg.com ) Get an executive coach. A good executive coach can ensure that you are on your game as a leader. Executive coaches provide situation-specific guidance and are really useful for when you have to deal with the challenges that present themselves in your day to day functioning. Perhaps the most important skill that you must have as a leader is emotional competence. This skill helps you to achieve maximum results by working effectively with people (superiors, peers, and subordinates). You develop awareness of your personality and the personality of others, learn to manage your behavior and attitude, and develop a habit of taking intentional action. You need the help of a professional to assess your emotional competency levels and provide the guidance for development. Because of some confusion around the boundaries between management and leadership, we have some mental constructs that can affect our effectiveness as leaders. One such issue is confusing formal positions with leadership. The way this affects us is that we get stuck in formal authority roles which we call leadership. This is neither good for you nor the organization. Take a look at your life plans and make sure that you have a ""next station"" plan built in. Put a boundary on how long you will be in your current leadership role, and what you hope to have achieved by the expiration of the period. You can do this by yourself or with your executive coach. Take control of your potential as a leader by engaging your personal leadership. Despite your present external circumstances, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams because of the potential you have. But you will need to ascertain what your life purpose is, develop a vision of what your life can become, and take action on your strategies. Remember you can't lead others without first leading yourself. Conquer the demon of inappropriate attitude that leads to unproductive behavior that leads to undesired results. Remember you carry with you the environment in which you live, so begin to build positive attitudes for good results. Take responsibility for the leader that you are today and take charge of the leader you can become tomorrow.

©2006 VIPCG, Inc.

VIPCG, Inc. We Transform the Way Leaders Lead.™ http://www.thevipcg.com

About the author: Vicky is the President and CEO of VIPCG, Inc. http://www.thevipcg.com

Specialization

She specializes in leadership development, executive coaching, and using innovative technologies to transform entire systems in organizations. Vicky also specializes in emotional competence, and developing collaborative work cultures and is an expert in cross-cultural development.