I started my company a few years back from scratch, and I can proudly say that developing a leadership mentality is easier than you think. At the beginning of my career, the last thing I ever thought I could ever become is a leader. All I knew is that I enjoyed listening to leaders in different fields talking about their achievements, and what they had to do to get at the top. I did this on a daily basis. I didn’t know how much those talks influenced my mindset on leadership. At 25, I was already sitting at the high table together with the CEOs and directors of other businesses.
Here are eight simple tips that made it easy for me to develop a leadership mentality.
Overcome self-doubt and affirm yourself
Leadership is overwhelming even to the strongest of personalities. For this reason, self-doubt is a common issue among leaders, as well as those who aspire to be in the future. How you deal with self-doubt is what makes you either a leader or holds you back from chasing your dreams. I experienced the same lack of confidence in my abilities at the beginning too. The more I spent time listening to some of the people in leadership positions, the more I doubted if I could make it. To overcome it, I created a mantra that I used every time I felt self-doubt. I would say to myself, ‘Others have done it, why not me!’ It made me feel stronger and capable of doing anything I set to do.
Hold high power non-verbal postures
You can trigger a leadership mentality by holding high power standing, or sitting postures when you need to project power and authority. These positions make you tolerate stress and feel more powerful. I would use the power pose many times especially before a challenging presentation, difficult business conversations, or intimidating business meetings. It worked perfectly well.
Commit yourself to learn and grow
Not everyone is born a leader, but anybody can learn to be one. You can develop a leadership mentality by investing in skills training, attending seminars offered by your company, or enrolling in an online course. These help you to gain further insight into leadership, learn about powerful body language postures, and non-verbal communication. Even naturally-born leaders have at some point polished their skills by attending leadership training and programs. Why shouldn’t you?
Hold yourself accountable and responsible
Accountability helps to maintain the focus on what needs to be done. It cultivates your leadership mentality by ensuring you are responsible for your success or failure. When I started rising in the ranks, being accountable for the success of my position was challenging. I shared my goals with my assistants and approached other leaders for mentorship. It was helpful in building personal connections that encouraged me to stay accountable for my actions, hence instilling a leadership mentality.
Question everything
A leadership mentality is derived from knowledge, skills, and understanding. Knowledge is power, they say. You can cultivate it by being curious and asking your mentors questions, clarifications, or by challenging yourself. The more you ask, the more you learn. This puts you in a position to stand up and challenge bad company decisions, hence increasing your ability to become a better leader.
Care about your co-workers
Compassion and empathy are usually at the core of most great leaders. Regardless of what level you are in the hierarchy, you should aim to stay connected to your humanity. You could do this by helping a co-worker out in your spare time or finding opportunities to spend time with your colleagues even in non-work related situations. It improves your interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills. Your coworkers will like you more and respect you as a leader.
Ambition
Leadership ability is not about wealth and education. It is a matter of personal conviction to a particular cause. For most people, leadership mentality is derived from a strong desire to improve their careers more than the previous day. They can be driven by the need to achieve the goals of your company, wanting to participate in activities that promote organizational growth. Your ability to act even before being asked makes you trustworthy, thus developing a leadership mentality.
Delegate duties
Many people prefer doing everything by themselves, even when they get higher in the ranks, due to the belief that they are the only ones who can deliver the tasks efficiently. It happened to me. I would push myself to do everything instead of delegating to my assistants. That was until the day I got burnout. Develop a leadership mentality by assigning tasks to your subordinates and learning to trust them to get the tasks done.
Final thoughts
Having a leadership mentality is what resulted in some of the most powerful leaders we have in the world today. This mentality not only helps your potential in a chosen field to get recognized but also makes it easy for you to excel even on your own. Although leadership mentality comes naturally to some, for others, it is something they have to work on to develop. Use the above tips to develop a leadership mentality. They worked for me! Stop waiting for others to lead you. Get the confidence to make your dream of becoming a leader true today!
Herbert Sward is an experienced copywriter, entrepreneur and a co-editor at Skin Answer blog. He is also very enthusiastic about digital marketing and aims to become a well-known expert in this niche.
Image courtesy of Rebrand Cities.
