By
Stephanie Tuia
Reflect back to your education and to as recent
as the previous job you held. Ask yourself how you have reached your
current level of leadership and how your skills have developed over
time. During this time, you were most likely exposed to a number of
activities and experiences that evolved into your own personal
leadership development program. Many of these skills and learning
developed over time can be applied to your current workplace. Let’s
look at how you can make the most out of past experiences and apply
them to your current work situation.
PAST
- BEING A PART OF A TEAM
You
may have been a part of a basketball team, a support group, or a
local community effort. This type of active involvement helps to
fine tune leadership skills such as delegating, empowering team
members, and learning to communicate effectively. Being associated
with ‘teams’ gives an individual a chance to be a part of something,
work together among counterparts, and contribute to a shared
interest.
CURRENT
– APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
By
experiencing a team environment outside of work, you have the
opportunity to share many skills and capabilities that will take
your people and organization to the next level. As other team
members become leaders within your organizations, they will also
recall past experiences and what it means to fulfill a selfless work
ethic and build healthy relations among work associates. Good
leaders will not segregate themselves away from their subordinates,
but involve themselves fairly among a workload, and help lead and
guide others from their personal leadership development
program.
PAST
- TAKING OWNERSHIP
Deciding
what we want to do with our life (continue school, find a career, or
start a business) is when many of us first experienced a true sense
of ownership. At some point there was a discovery that really piqued
your potential interest. Through a variety of educational classes,
job searching, or through trial and error, you narrowed your focus
to the best fit or option; then came learning for the experience of
others.
CURRENT
– APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
As
an apprentice we learned many tricks of the trade by shadowing our
mentors or being observant or passionate about their work. Now as
mentors, we need to focus on instructing or guiding others to learn
effective and efficient work skills to provide credible and
productive results for the organization. Law, medical and business
schools are prime examples of educating students so that they can
take ownership of their profession and eventually contribute to
their field.
PAST
- STAYING AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION
After
formal education, many people are optimistic and confident that they
will get the “dream job” fresh out of college. Like hundreds of
thousands of students graduating at the same time, you compete
against qualifying candidates as well as experienced professionals
vying for the same job. The job outlook at the time was probably
overwhelming and sometimes frustrating, but your competitive
circumstances kept you driven to contend among your counterparts and
stay ahead of the competition.
CURRENT
– APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
In
our day-to-day work environment, we must also be competitive to stay
ahead of the competition. Through positive encouragement, thinking
strategically, and feeling the drive to compete will help us stay
ahead. For some it may be of value to provide a leadership
development program that will increase an individual’s work
potential. This will keep them ahead of the game and help them to be
on top of the competition.
Every
team provides leadership opportunities for the individuals. By being
cognizant of how personal leadership development programs the above
three benefits, it will give us the opportunity to help individuals
develop leadership qualities essential to beating the competition in
our fierce business environment.
About the author - Stephanie Tuia – If you would like more
information about a leadership development program for your
organization, visit http://www.cmoe.com/leadership-development-program.htm