Article summary
As a leader, it can be hard to take a step back when entering new spaces where you aren’t the person designated to lead. Here are some tips to take ownership, leverage your leadership skill set, and be a leader in the room when you aren’t the leader of the room.
Know your personnel.
My college basketball coach used to say this regularly. Everyone around you has a personality, strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies. Take time to understand what that looks like for each person in the room. Little things like this matter for building a sense of trust and comfort. Spend time getting to know who people are outside of the work context. Ask about what they look forward to every day and what they dread.
Be present in these conversations and gather information. Build a mental model of your environment and how people tend to interact with it. This mental model will aid you in understanding and identifying what value is missing from the space. You won’t always be equipped to provide what is needed, but you might be able to facilitate the process instead. That’s just as important.
Only when you know your personnel can you offer true value. Others are most likely to take you seriously when you’re a person who makes them feel heard, validated, and understood. Good leaders can identify where they fit best with those around them.
Read the room.
Knowing your personnel allows you to take a more active role in reading the room. No environment is perfect, but you can use what you’ve learned to create opportunities for improvement in areas that team leads may not be aware of or may not have the capacity to handle.
When you understand those around you, you’ll be more equipped to recognize shifts in activity and atmosphere. Leverage that recognition. Maybe you notice that your team has been rather quiet and people are working in isolation. Suggest a team lunch, dedicate some time for collaborating on relevant tasks, or add some wacky twist or an icebreaker in your next team meeting.
Regardless of the scenario, when you identify value or momentum that is lacking in the space, be creative in finding a way to capture or develop it. It takes effort, but take ownership and put yourself in the best position to make a positive impact. Even the smallest efforts bring about meaningful changes.
Shut up sometimes.
So, you know how to learn about people and how to read your environment. Now it’s time to learn one thing about yourself – how to shut up. Good leaders know when to be quiet.
Learning to operate without speaking or dominating a conversation opens up opportunities to build more context. Context is the fuel for meaningful action. In meetings or conversations with your coworkers, try to speak less and listen more. Prompt others for their thoughts and input. Ask more questions. Find ways to show and deepen your investment that are not speaking.
Being creative here will help you learn ways to empower others on your teams while also continuing to develop your personal knowledge base.
Step Up
The one prerequisite to all of this is taking ownership. It’s easy to fall in the trap of “Oh that’s not my job, somebody else can do it.” Maybe that’s true, but maybe it isn’t. What really matters is that SOMEONE does it.
The truth is, it could be anyone’s hand that waves the wand. Why shouldn’t it be you?