Are You Focused on Your Own Personal Leadership Development?
The daily focus of a leader is to make sure that things are getting done, developing their team and aligning with the clients/management. They may not think about spending time on their own development. This needs to be a focus area and a priority. What development goals do you have and what actions are you taking towards achieving those goals?
Break down your development goals into a quarterly set of actions. The easiest way to focus on these actions is to schedule time on your calendar to accomplish them. Without doing that, it will always get pushed off because of other priorities that happen. You will get to the end of the year without making any progress on your own development. Give yourself the time to focus on your own development. This is not only good for you, but also for your team.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?
Have you ever taken music lessons as a kid or as an adult? Did you only take one lesson? Were you so great that you never needed another one? In most cases the answer is no. You need many more lessons and lots of practice to get really good. Leadership is the same way. You don’t just magically know everything because someone gave you the title of leader. So, what should you do to become a better leader?
First look at what is important to you and what kind of leader you want to be. Think about the leaders you admire and what you can learn from them to incorporate into your own leadership. Talk to other leaders about their experiences and how they develop themselves. Read books, articles, listen to podcasts, watch Ted Talks and find a mentor or coach to help you. There are so many resources available to you now that you can leverage.
Focusing on your own development helps you learn new things, but it also helps you to be motivated and excited to share with others. Your team benefits by learning from you and you will learn from them as well. You will build confidence and people will want to come work for you. Your management will see that you are a great people developer and give you more opportunities to lead.
You may feel that you have no time to spend on your own development. You do have time, but it may take some re-prioritization of other things to make it happen. Do not put yourself last on your to do list. You need to evolve and grow through learning and practicing new skills. Try new things out and see if they make a difference. If they do, then keep doing them and if they don’t, then you don’t have to do them anymore. No one has to know that you are experimenting with these changes unless you want to tell them. Ask for feedback along the way to see if anyone is noticing anything different in your leadership. Focus on doing small things every day to intentionally grow your leadership and you will soon see the leader that you envisioned appear.
How Can You Prioritize More Time for Your Own Development?
When you look at how busy your day is and the back to back meeting schedule, how would you fit it in? Stephen Covey said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” This is where you have to take control of your calendar vs. letting it take control of you.
The easiest thing to do is to block out time each day for you to do what you want to do. Block out time first thing in the morning to look at what is ahead in your day. Are there meetings that should be delegated to someone else? Are there meetings that really aren’t adding any value and should be cancelled? Plan out what you want to accomplish that day to develop yourself.
Block out your lunch time and choose to spend that time on your development. You can choose to have a networking lunch, eat your lunch with a friend, eat your lunch and listen to a podcast or read an article. Look for ways to spend that time ensuring that you are getting recharged and working on some personal development at the same time.
Block out time on Friday afternoons or at 4pm each day. You can look at what you want to accomplish the next day or the next week. You can also use it as a time to look back on the day or the week and see what you have accomplished. Did you do the things that helped you move forward on your development goals? If not, be sure to schedule those things into your calendar for next week. For many people if it isn’t on their calendar, it doesn’t get done. Other things get in the way and they get the priority instead.
Greg McKeown said, “Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” Don’t let other people dictate how you spend your time. The time is always there, it is just a matter of how you use it. In order to really control your time, you have to start looking at things differently. Think about the best way to schedule your priorities and give yourself some free time in your calendar to proactively develop yourself. Be intentional with the priorities that you schedule, and you will see how much more time you have to make real progress on your own development.
Susan M Barber is President of Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC. She works with individuals, teams and organizations to build skills that leaders need to attain breakthrough results. Her passion for coaching and leadership development is driven by seeing the transformation of leaders as they reach far beyond their own ideas of success. She continues to drive custom programs for groups that want to make changes in their careers to become more powerful leaders. For more information or to follow her leadership blog, visit www.susanmbarber.com.
