Recently, I was delighted to celebrate with a friend who has been waiting for some time for the right job opportunity to open up at his place of work.

It’s been a long wait.

He’s not alone.  Recently, I’ve noticed how many people I encounter who feel stuck in a rut as they try to open up their first opportunity to lead others.

You want to lead… but how do you secure your first leadership role?

Maybe you, too, have struggled on the road to leadership.  If you have, perhaps you’ve encountered some of the problems my clients are facing right now.  Perhaps, even, the memory alone is enough to make you wince.

Firstly, if your employer is up to scratch with modern methods of assessment and recruitment, they probably have a well-designed competency model and some ways to find out to what extent you have the competencies you need to lead others.

This is all very well, but as you seek to open up your first opportunity as a leader, this can leave you feeling concerned and anxious about the vicious circle that faces you.  How can you develop your competencies as a leader without having the opportunity to lead?  And how can you open up the opportunity to lead in a system which expects you to have the skills you need before you take on your first leadership post?  Already, you’re feeling frustrated.

Maybe, you’re working in an area where leadership roles are particularly hard to come by.  In one organisation I work for, for example, my clients in HR joke about just how senior they can become without ever having held a line management role.  But it’s a hollow joke.  It leaves people feeling very vulnerable when, already senior and highly visible, they suddenly become a line manager for the first time.

And you?  Maybe you’re working in a highly specialist area where teams are small and the opportunity to take on a line management – let alone leadership – role is rare.  You’re ready and eager, but you’re having to wait.

It doesn’t help that, in straitened times, the number of opportunities has reduced.  You have to wait longer for the next likely opportunity to open up.  You look around you and you realise that, well, everyone else is waiting, too.

You could look beyond your own organisation, though if you’re like the friend I mentioned right at the top of this posting, you may know you’re working in an organisation you really enjoy – you don’t want to move.  Or maybe (do not pass go, do not collect £200.00) you realise that if you can’t persuade your current employer you can lead, you’ll have even more difficulty persuading a bunch of total strangers.

As time goes on, you become more frustrated.  As time goes on, you become more disheartened.

Thank heavens you don’t need a job as a leader to learn to lead

Yes, that’s right.

Thank heavens you don’t need a job as a leader to learn to lead.

More than anything, I’ve noticed that people feel most disempowered on the road to leadership when they believe they have to be in some kind of leadership role in order to learn to lead.

It isn’t true.

Meditations on a butternut squash

If you’re a regular reader, you may recognise this photo.  You may even recognise the heading – back in October I wrote a blog posting entitled Meditations on a butternut squash at a time when I was feeling particularly exhausted.

The thing is, I’m not really a gardener, or at least, I didn’t think I was.  Even so, I did something this spring which – in a modest way, at least – turned out quite well.

Firstly, I had the idea that if the butternut squash I buy from my local market grow from seed and contain seed, perhaps I could grow a plant from the seed inside of one of those butternut squash.  I started my experiment by harvesting the seed (so many of them!) from a squash I bought and laying them out on a small cardboard tray to dry.

Do you remember how cold it was last winter?  I didn’t start planting until late in the season – it was too cold, I knew I would be away just after Easter, and besides, I was planning a *ahem* fiftieth birthday party in April.  Still, after my birthday, I planted a few of the seeds and, when they had grown into plants and were a few inches high,  planted them in my garden.

The butternut squash in the photo is the result of this experiment.

Leadership – growing from seed

Leadership is not like a butternut squash and still… if you’re feeling frustrated on the road to your first leadership role, it’s worth remembering that leadership does develop over time rather than overnight.  It’s also worth remembering that you don’t need to be in a leadership role to develop your competency as a leader.

Talking to some of the people I have been working with of late who want to turn high potential into evidence they can lead, we’ve talked about three ways they can begin to develop as leaders without any hint of a leadership role in sight:

• Use what opportunities you already have to develop as a leader:  If you’re good at delivering (it’s been your trade-mark, right?) you may be overlooking the opportunities to develop your leadership skills.  Remember that piece of work you did with your junior colleague when you had to dive in at the last minute and sort out the mess?  That happened because you didn’t stop to think, when you divvied out the work, what level of supervision you needed to give to help him (or her) so he could get the work right.  This is just one example of the kind of opportunity you may be overlooking;
• Increase your opportunities to develop as a leader:  As long as leadership equals the next promotion in your mind, you’ll miss any number of opportunities to develop your leadership skills.  Perhaps you could ask for the opportunity to lead a particular piece of work or project team.  Perhaps you can take on the role of interim manager to cover someone else in absentia.  Perhaps there are opportunities outside work for you to take on leadership responsibilities.  (If ever you meet my cousin James, for example, you can ask him about his time as Chairman of the London Symphony Chorus.)  Sports clubs, charities and other ventures need leaders.
• Learn from other leaders:  Of course, you are probably already learning about leadership (for better or for worse) from your line manager.  There are many more ways to learn about leadership from other leaders.  Look across your organisation, for example, as there anyone you admire as a leader?  Many mentors are chosen by the people they support because they embody the skills people want to develop.  There are, of course, biographies and autobiographies to read and films to watch.

Take a couple of minutes now – just two to five – and find yourself a piece of paper and a pencil (or your digital equivalent).  Start by listing any opportunities you already have and are overlooking to develop your leadership skills.  If you still have time, think about how you can increase your opportunity to develop as a leader.  And if all else fails, brainstorm ways you can learn from other leaders.

If you’re planning your development for the year ahead, you can use this five-minute brainstorm as the basis for a discussion with your line manager or even for drafting your developmental goals.

Leaders – made not born

As I draw to a close I find my long-standing resistance kicking in to the idea that leaders are born and not made.

What rubbish!

The recently-departed Nelson Mandela was 76 years old when he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president.  It’s not that this was his first leadership role – but he was, as president, a long time in the making!

My friend, recently, promoted, had to wait for a long time for the right role because, at his level of seniority, suitable opportunities are rare.  Still, I’ve watched him grow as a leader through a succession of roles in the fifteen years since I first assessed him on behalf of a client.

For you, too, your current challenges – with all their attendant frustrations – are just a beginning.  I wish you well.  Please stay tuned if you want to continue to learn.

I’d love to hear what challenges you face as your journey continues.