5 Ways to Develop Leadership Abilities from Day One in the Workplace  

When I first entered the workplace eight months ago as a new hire out of college, I was the least experienced of my coworkers. However, that didn’t mean that I was always destined to be a follower. Starting on day one, I focused on developing my leadership capabilities to help me become a strong leader.

Then, recently, I had the opportunity to reflect on the development of my leadership ability as a panelist for Princeton University entrepreneurship professor Derek Lidow’s talk at SXSW 2016 entitled “Startup Leadership as a Ticket to Success.” The process that I had learned in his class is the same no matter your role — you just have to be willing to take a fresh look at yourself and your workplace. These are the strategies that I’m using to put myself on the path to effective leadership.

Understand Yourself
Before I could even think about developing relationships with others, I had to first understand myself and my role in the workplace. This consists of knowing one’s goals and motivations. If you’re not sure, take a few minutes to figure out yours. While you’re at it, take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. What are you good at? What could you improve at?

Cultivate Relationships with Coworkers
Strong relationships are the foundation of leadership. Whether you’re new to your workplace or have been working with the same people for years, remember to constantly reflect on and improve your relationships. It’s up to you to make the observations and changes. When I started working, I immediately tried to prove my prowess as an engineer, and drove to make contributions to the products we developed. Even though I worked hard to overcome my introversion and contribute to discussions, I wasn’t clicking with my teammates and couldn’t figure out why. I finally realized that I had overcompensated for my shyness and insecurity by becoming a know-it-all who speaks over others and came across as overly competitive to my teammates. It wasn’t until my boss pulled me aside that I began to recognize this behavior and could begin to change it.  He wasn’t asking me to reduce my contributions in discussions; rather, he pointed out that he hired me for my ability to learn, not my prior knowledge of engineering.

After that, my new course of action consisted of relaxing, listening, and observing more in meetings. I still spoke up and shared my ideas, but I replaced quantity of remarks with quality, and spent the rest of the time learning more about how my teammates acted in meetings. This simple change in mental attitude immediately improved my relationships with coworkers and put me on the right track to becoming an effective leader in the workplace.

Understand the Motivations of Others
To further improve interactions with everyone from coworkers to clients to vendors, there is another key step: it’s important to know what motivates you, but it’s what motivates your colleagues! What drives them to succeed? Important to note: what motivates you may not be the same thing that motivates someone else.

How do you determine what motivates your coworkers? Aside from asking them point-blank, spend some time observing them and learning more about how they act in meetings and make decisions. Do they tend to prefer certain work techniques? Figure out why. Maybe they’re scared of trying a new technique they’re not familiar with. Once you know this, you can work with them to encourage a new  course of action or compromise on solutions instead of arguing without understanding the reason for the tension.

Become Your Own Leader
One big surprise about entering the workplace was the reduction in feedback that I was used to in college. Instead of receiving weekly comments on structured assignments, I am expected to figure out how to improve and proceed on my own.

This led me to two realizations: firstly, unlike a professor, my boss might not realize I need feedback or direction, so it is my responsibility to ask for help. Secondly, since my boss and coworkers don’t have time to answer every question, I need to answer them for myself.

So I decided that it was time to take ownership of my work. I took a step back, looked at my work, and asked myself, “What would my boss think if I showed him this? What would he tell me to do?” I had already learned about my boss’s motivations and developed a strong working relationship, so I had an idea of how he thought. The result: I saved time, smoothed out my daily workflow, and increased my independence as a professional. Plus, I developed powerful stepping-stones for effective leadership, simply  by “leading myself.”

Anyone Can Become a Leader
Remember, anyone has the ability can become a leader in the workplace even if you’re not a manager or executive. Use these steps:

• Start by figuring out your signature strengths.
• Develop your role in the workplace and cultivate your relationships with coworkers.
• Take some time to understand the motivations of those around you.
• Lastly, take every opportunity you can to practice leadership skills within your own work.

Written by: Annie Cardinal, Prod Design Engineer at Produktworks Design