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Leadership development is first and foremost self development, because before you can lead others you have to be able to lead yourself...and we need to be able to do this well!
That said I find a lot of people seem to want to skip this step. They want to jump into positions of team or organisational leadership without mastering the critical skill of self leadership. So when and how should we be learning self-leadership?
A common question I have asked when on interview panels for various level management positions is "what have you done to prepare yourself for the leadership aspects of this role...and sadly the answer I so often hear is “ah nothing yet, I was waiting till I got a position and then I was going to focus on developing these skills.” But that's too late!
The other comment I often hear on our leadership programme is "I've been in a leadership / management role for five (or 10 or 15..) years - my organisation should have sent me to this programme when I first became a leader.” When I hear a comment like this, what goes through my mind is....why is the organisation responsible for developing your leadership skills? Surely if you pursue a position that requires leadership skills shouldn't you at least take some of the responsibility for developing your leadership skills!
Stephen R. Covey's 2008 book The Leader in Me tells of primary schools making leadership training part of their core curriculum and makes the point that we should be developing leadership skills early, not waiting until people move into management roles.
So ask yourself....
- when did you start developing your leadership skills?
- what are you doing to develop the leadership skills of those around you?
- at what age/stage do you think we should be developing leadership skills?
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
But the second best time is today”
Chinese Proverb
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