Mastering Leadership: My Three Simple Steps to Evolve and Grow as a Leader

Becoming a leader is step one. Constantly growing in your leadership journey is paramount to being successful in our ever-changing world. My approach is pretty simple – watch, practice, repeat.

Mostly I watch and I listen.

I watch and listen to my team, my peers, and my sphere of influence to see and hear clues about what works, what doesn’t. I watch their leadership styles and where I see issues, I look inward to identify if I am role-modeling the same behavior. I watch leaders I respect to learn new skills and to validate approaches I take. I talk to a LOT of women and ask questions about their career, their barriers, their leadership. I invest in my leadership skills continually through attending leadership conferences, working with an Executive Coach, reading selected blogs, and listening to selected podcasts on leadership.

For my whole career I’ve paid very close attention to leaders I do not respect to note what they do that is not positive or productive. In fact, in an early job I kept an actual rolodex card of “Don’t Do These Things”…big and small behaviors I saw my boss doing that were harmful and dysfunctional. And I point out dysfunctional leadership to my team when I witness it.

And, then I practice.

Reading, watching, listening are of course important ways to consume information. But, without practice it’s all for naught. I test leadership approaches and continually refine them with feedback. I make mistakes and learn from them. I share my approaches with others.

Lastly, I repeat.

Basically, I often fall and skin my knees, but get back on the bike and keep riding and keep learning!

Some (not all!) leadership resources I lean on are: Leadercast, The L Group, Brene Brown, Andy Stanley, Randy Hain, and Gary Burnison/Korn Ferry.