Leading in a Non-Managerial Role: 6 Tips to Success

You don't need to manage a team, to become a leader. Enhancing your leadership skills not only helps you to grow personally and professionally, but it also allows you to be more effective and develop in your career. Good leadership inspires creativity, teamwork, and growth. Developing your leadership skills is a great way to further your career progression.

Be a helper

You are a human, and an individual contributor - which means you are more than your job description. Look for avenues in which you can share knowledge, teach, or build up your team members. Oftentimes, across departments, some information isn't always made clear.

Look for ways in which you can help or projects you can help out with if you have the time. Stepping out of your comfort zone is also a new way to build new skills, and improve the knowledge you have of your business, tasks, or operations. By helping others with projects you may have limited knowledge of, you'll learn new things - which also means, you'll become a more valuable team player for your organization as well.

Follow by example

We often have bosses or leaders that we've looked up to. Whether that's current or present, learn from their leadership. It's important to learn about positive leadership, and what it encompasses. Great leaders have an understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, and use that knowledge to help others succeed. What about them inspires you? What is it that they do that has had a positive impact in your life or your career? Following the examples of leaders that you respect can help you identify areas in which you may want to work on. What about them inspires you? What is it that they do that has had a positive impact in your life or your career? Following the examples of leaders that you respect can help you identify areas in which you may want to work on.

Take it a step further, and reach out to them. Ask if they would be willing to mentor you, or if they have any tips or advice they can offer you. They may even be able to provide some constructive feedback into areas in which they've identified you can improve. By reaching out to those whom you trust and respect, you can save yourself the time of re-inventing the leadership wheel and get more personalized action items.

Think outside the box

Are they ways you can contribute to your organization that maybe haven't been considered before? Are there new processes or ways you can organize your day-to-day work to become more efficient and effective? Could you benefit from a new project management system? Can you speed up a workflow?

Could you set up processes that would allow your department to be able to scale? When you come up with new ideas, jot them down - and you can work on them when you have some spare time.

Don't take on too much

One of the qualities of good leaders is knowing when to say no. This is important to remember when working on your leadership skills. While it's easy to want to please, by taking on too much you'll only spread yourself too thin. Learn what you can manage, and take on what you can handle.

Build rapport

Good leaders build relationships with their teams based on mutual respect, trust, and understanding. By working on being able to build rapport in your work environment, you are developing the qualities of a good leader. Go out to lunch with a coworker, bring in donuts, or just make it a point to say good morning to individuals and remember small things about their lives. By learning how to build rapport with team members, you'll become a more adept leader.

Practice makes perfect

Learning how to be an effective leader is an on-going process that will evolve throughout your personal and work goals as an adult. It's okay to mess up, it's okay to try new things, and it's okay to learn along the way. Don't be too hard on yourself. It's easier said than done, but applying these techniques will help you build your skills in time and progress in your development.

Are you working on your leadership, or have tips or tricks that have helped you develop your leadership abilities? We'd love to hear them. Send us a tweet or drop us a line for a chance to get your ideas featured on our blog. Looking for an all in one suite slack app? Sign up for an account today!