Part One

How Are You Showing Up as a Leader?

SO YOU’VE DECIDED to get serious about working on your leadership game. That’s great—given everything that’s going on in the world today, you’ve made a wise choice to continue developing your skills. But how should you begin this journey? Here’s a hint: How about finding out what others think of you as a leader? While you’re excited about your own development, the fact is there are lots of other people who have something to gain if you improve your leadership skills—people such as your peers, your boss, and most important, your team members. How about checking in with them to see how you’re showing up as a leader? Seems like a logical place to start, right? In fact, asking others for feedback is the “start” square on the game board of leadership development.

As you consider which areas to work on, ask the people around you for input. How are they experiencing your leadership? What’s working for them? What’s not working? How do they feel about your ability to guide the team in the right direction? What suggestions do they have for taking your skills to the next level? If you’re sincere about soliciting and listening to their feedback, they’ll tell you what you need to work on.

But it’s not just others that you need to consult—you need to have a few honest conversations with yourself, too. Where has your career taken you? What have you learned along the way? What opinions have you formed that are helping you to succeed or, maybe, setting you up for a fall? What do you do really well, and what do you know you still need to develop? Can you trust yourself to diligently work on new behaviors, or are you going to need some assistance? What about the quality of your relationships? Where do you have opportunities to leverage the people around you for support on this journey?

This section of the book helps you find the answers to these questions. Start by inviting others to give you feedback and by reflecting on your own leadership brand (i.e., how others perceive you as a leader). If you want to break out and take charge of your own leadership development, this is the place to start. Take a deep breath, keep an open mind, and start pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps!