Whether you think that leaders are born or made, you can position yourself to be ready to take on leadership opportunities that may come your way. Planning for a leadership role does not mean you aspire to run the company, but if you look ahead to see where you might like to be, you will usually find that getting there requires some preparation. Even if you don’t know exactly how much responsibility you want to have, your preparation will not go to waste.
Be a student. College or other post-secondary training is a given in most professions, but for good leaders, the interest in learning never stops. This may take the form of continuing education coursework or having an inquiring mind that leads you to read and ask questions. Even if you will never have to do certain jobs, knowledge that you acquire along the way will help you learn how processes fit together or some other insights that will useful.
Find a mentor. No matter where you want to go, latching on to someone who has experience who can guide you can be helpful. A mentor may help you with the self-assessment mentioned below and be a sounding board for your ideas. You may even have “serial mentors” who help you throughout your career.
Learn your own strengths, then fill in the gaps. You may be a friendly, outgoing person that others flock to or a great intellect who knows how to sell ideas, but you may need to be more well rounded to be considered a leader. Even if your boss or other colleagues don’t offer you direction, you need to assess you own skills and seek assessment from others so you can work on other skills to help you. For example, you might find yourself a bit unorganizated, not good at making decisions, or need help with conflict resolution – things usually in the leader’s bag of tricks. You can develop in these areas.
Be a good worker. Chances to move up seldom come to slackards who do a poor job, bad mouth the company, or come late and leave early. Having poor work habits, a poor attitude, or poor performance usually disqualifies you even if you are brilliant and talented.
Be the go-to person. Aspiring to leadership is not about self-promotion. While you want the higher-ups to hears good things about you, you can build strength among your peer by being willing to help. Analyze why they need help and offer them solutions in a helpful, low key way. You willingness to help will gain you supporters that stick with you long after you have moved up the ladder.
Follow a map. Not that only one road leads to your destination, but ideally you should plan your career and seeks out jobs with higher responsibilities. If you have accepted random jobs, may even lateral ones, you may not appear as ready as if you were clearly climbing a ladder.
If you position yourself for leadership, you will be ready to take advantages of opportunities for advancement that come your way.