Leadership Lost

Have you ever been in a position where you feel lost? Where sometimes you are clueless to what is going on around you or worse clueless to the job you are supposed to do? Do you know of people, leaders or managers at your company who are in over their head?

Sometimes leadership is thrust upon people before they are ready and other times leaders are waiting too long to take over the reins. Today I am going to address the issue of those who have leadership thrust upon them. I have often wondered how people get put into roles of leadership when they aren’t ready.

I do believe that everyone has leadership potential but it just so happens that some aren’t ready for the responsibility of leadership until they have been trained or seasoned. Giving them smaller leadership roles is the ideal way to go instead of full responsibility. It might be that their leadership strength is in dealing with smaller roles or projects than overseeing a whole company or large group.

Leadership requires people skill and ability to do the small things while still focusing on the big picture. It is important for leaders or potential leaders to be ready for this. If you are in a position to create future leaders or mentor future leaders here are a few things to help you when working with those future leaders.

·         Work on their communication skills

·         Work on their people skills

·         Give them small opportunities to be a leader and expand as you go.

·         Give them responsibilities but not too much at first.

Over the next several days I will expand on each of these four items. Until the next time, “lead on”.