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Discovering your leadership potential

Guest post by: Kool Results

Article Overview: How do you stay on the front foot when managing your career today? It’s a problem faced by both men and women, but I want to address those issues facing women in particular.

Discovering your leadership potential

As a woman, why is it particularly important to manage your own career? Didn't the feminists give us equal pay and equal rights? What else do we have to do? Leonie is a very successful manager in a male dominated industry. When she announced to her boss that she was pregnant, his initial reaction was one of frustration and panic. But by the end of the meeting he was happy with the strategies Leonie suggested to deal with the situation and Leonie felt she had managed successfully the next stage in her career.

Leonie outlined not only the step by step process for her leave, but also designed a plan to cover her job while she was away.

She proposed the first twelve weeks off completely, with no telephone or email contact. For the next twelve weeks she offered half a day on site, with up to 15 hours work from home. For the next six months she outlined a return to full time employment, in a staged process. She also built in a degree of flexibility for contingencies on her return to full time work. Leonie's boss was happy to accommodate these proposals as long as she continued to deliver, as before.

Leonie also outlined how her job would be covered during her leave. She suggested the mentoring of key members of staff, promoting them to the role of supervisor to assume more responsibility. She also planned projects strategically, so they were not culminating at a critical time.

Leonie inspired confidence by a proven track record and a well- executed plan of action. Her creative handling of a potentially difficult situation headed off any reluctance and resistance from her boss.

The key points of her successful strategy were:

• excellent organisational skills
• a creative solution to the problem
• an ability to delegate
• effective staff training
• good communication, both upwards and downwards

And don't think you have to be in a managerial role to accomplish a similar package for yourself. When I conduct induction programmes I remind women that whatever their role, they are valuable to the organisation. If you believe in your worth you can change things, where ever you sit. Nowadays, business cultures can be adapted from the bottom up. Become engaged with strategic decisions, with the goals of the company, with its ethos. Your ideas are important and your contribution will be respected.

As women, we need to stand tall and proud of our value. Disengage with emotion and look at the business in a strategic way. By being more objective you will accomplish what is best for the organisation and produce a good result for yourself.

I'd call that a win-win situation, wouldn't you?

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Article Tags: leadership



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