Rachel Lefkowitz* says there are six traits that will help your co-workers see you as a leader regardless of your position.
You don’t need to be in management to be a leader within your organisation.
There are many ways to demonstrate leadership and potential for growth in your organisation.
Here are six ways to ensure people see you as a leader:
- Actively listen to colleagues
People tend to think leading means speaking out.
But sometimes, the opposite is true.
Author Elizabeth McLeod says: “If you focus on mindful listening, you can garner more authority without saying a word.”
Mindful listening is sometimes considered the “smile and nod” tactic, but it’s more than that.
It means focusing on what’s being communicated, reading body language, and maintaining eye contact.
Mindful listening requires conscious focus on what an individual is saying and how it’s being delivered.
“Mindful listening helps you sort and frame information and when you do speak, they listen because they know you’ve taken in everything including, most importantly, their point of view,” McLeod said.
“If you want to be seen as an authority figure, stop talking, take a break and just listen.”
- Make meetings count
A key to being seen as a leader is to make the most of your time in a meeting, whether you are leading or attending.
First, it means making the most out of meetings you call.
Call a meeting only when it’s absolutely necessary, have an agenda for the meeting, keeping people on topic during the meeting, and have clear action items after each meeting that you follow up on.
The second aspect is being active in meetings that you didn’t call or aren’t leading.
This means doing any pre-reading ahead of time, actively listening, asking relevant questions, sharing any relevant expertise, and following through on any action items afterwards.
- Identify and pursue mentorship
One trait all great leaders share is they focus on developing their own skills.
And one of the best ways to do that is to get a mentor, says author Lisa Earle McLeod.
The most obvious and easiest person to start with is your boss.
But perhaps your boss isn’t someone you’d pick to be your mentor or you want to expand your skillset and seek a mentor to help you do that.
But how?
It sounds daunting — how do you convince someone to be your mentor, particularly if they seem hard to approach due to your level of access to them or their seniority?
Start by asking this person a specific question.
Lisa Earle McLeod said early in her career she turned a high-profile executive into her mentor.
She started by sending the exec a specific question via email.
The exec responded with advice.
McLeod later followed up relaying how the situation played out after implementing the advice and asked the exec if she could continue to periodically ask questions.
The exec agreed and it led to a lasting relationship, including in-person meetings, and she became McLeod’s mentor.
Why not try a similar approach!
- Look for root causes, not quick fixes
When things go wrong, it can be tempting to either gloss over the problem or look for a quick fix.
But, if you want to be seen as a leader, it’s important to confront the situation directly and identify root causes.
This often starts by being confident enough to admit a failure, which can be tough.
Next, it means looking beyond how to fix that one situation and rethinking processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
- When things go wrong, speak the truth, without casting blame
Speaking the truth and casting blame can feel like close cousins.
It’s important to lean into fact finding and not place blame.
Speaking the truth means explaining what happened in an effort to fix it.
Casting blame is done to avoid responsibility, which only takes energy away from solving the problem.
To get to the truth, it’s important to actively listen, look to processes to see what led to the breakdown.
This can help you explain what happened factually, and then determine what to fix.
- You share your passion
Passion is contagious.
If you are passionate about your work, share it!
There are many ways to incorporate passion into the way you show up at work.
Having a passion for your job and then sharing that with your colleagues goes a long way to being seen as a leader.
* Rachel Lefkowitz is Brand and Content Marketing Manager, Learning Solutions at LinkedIn.
This article first appeared at learning.linkedin.com/blog/.
