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How To Level Up Your Leadership In 2020

Forbes Coaches Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Sinive Seely

2020 marks the start of a new decade and an opportunity to level up your leadership and become the leader you’ve always wanted to be. It’s a great time to pause and accurately assess where you are currently and how you are showing up as a leader.

What are some of the things you are doing right now that are working well, and what needs to change? Take an honest inventory of your leadership, and be prepared to ask for feedback to solidify ideas to inform how, what and where you can improve.

I’ve developed the following approach when coaching leaders to help them gain clarity around how to level up their leadership. By acting in the following areas, you can fine-tune and adjust your leadership style to ensure you are working at optimum effectiveness:

1. Define who you are as a leader by describing your leadership strengths, style and approach.

The best leaders can clearly articulate who they are as leaders. They describe their strengths in detail and can speak to how they leverage their strengths in their day-to-day work. In addition, you should be aware of the type of style you employ. While most leaders tend to shift among several different styles based on what is needed in the moment, you likely have a style preference that you lean heavily into. Finally, you need to be able to articulate how you approach both your work and the people you rely on to achieve results.

The most important measure in how you describe your leadership is whether the people you lead see and experience you the same way. There should be alignment between how you define who you are — how you describe your strengths, style and approach — and how others see you. If the two don’t align, there’s a problem.

2. Clearly articulate your leadership vision.

Leaders inspire others by how they paint the picture of, and then live out, their leadership vision. Your vision needs to capture both the hearts and minds of the people you work alongside. The vision should incorporate the ideas, views and opinions of those you serve. It should elevate individuals, teams and your organization to look toward the future and imagine what might be possible.

During times of change, it is even more important for you to be clear on your vision and bring your people on the journey toward making that vision a reality. While a vision might change over time, it is something that must be revisited and tweaked on a regular basis to ensure it continues to captivate others.

3. Develop strategies to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be as a leader.

Leaders must continually assess the gap between where they are in the present moment and where they want to be as a leader. It is important to be honest around how large that gap is and what type of effort will be required to close it. Without a strategy and subsequent action, your best intentions will still fail to emerge into something useful, tangible and concrete. Daily, consistent, committed action is required from you to continue to work toward your preferred future.

It is a privilege to lead others, and as such, leaders have a responsibility to constantly work toward being the best leaders they can be. People put their trust in you to support them, guide them and help them deliver results. This partnership is a sacred relationship that builds the foundation upon which strong organizational cultures are built. When you operate from your highest potential, the benefits are felt by all. Make 2020 the year you aspire to both be and do your best as a leader.

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?