Not everyone is born to be a leader, and that’s OK! Your career path doesn’t always have to end in a leadership position. Honestly, not every professional has the desire to take on a leadership role in their career. Our career coaching process is client-based, meaning as career coaches we focus on helping professionals find what they are passionate about, which isn’t always leadership. Many are happy to thrive in their role under the guidance of another leader.
If this sounds like you, we want you consider that you can benefit from cultivating leadership skills even if you don’t want to be a leader. Here are some of the all-important skills on the leadership wheel that are beneficial for any professional to cultivate:
- Communicate and interact with others
- Introduce and manage change
- Foster creativity and innovation
These are things that all mid-career professionals can cultivate, no matter what their role or career aspirations. If you are mid-career and no longer feel challenged, perhaps even a little stagnant, this could be a great way to find greater purpose and meaning in your position. Let’s take a deeper look at how you could develop these leadership skills.
Communicate and interact with others. Take the initiative to communicate with your co-workers and team. This is a little more challenging working remotely, but communication skills can still be cultivated! Schedule a Zoom or Teams break with a few of your co-workers and stay up to date with their latest news. Practice your listening skills and work on your written communication skills as well when writing emails or messages to your co-workers.
Introduce and manage change. Do you have a great idea? Don’t keep it to yourself, share it with your team. You can also discover new ideas by staying on top of current industry trends. Spend some time each week reading articles about your industry or schedule time monthly to attend virtual industry events. This will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Not every idea requires a complex implementation plan, sometimes small tweaks to a system or process are enough to make a change. And if you have a bigger idea that would require greater overhaul, present it to your boss and they can take it from there.
Foster creativity and innovation. You don’t have to be a leader to help your co-workers be more creative. You can practice asking them open-ended questions that invite them to imagine something new. For example, “How would you solve this problem?” or “What do you think is the best way to handle X?”
Talk to us to find out more about how we can help you with your career goals, whatever they might be. Schedule your free consult here.
