Stepping Up: Preparing Yourself for Leadership

This week we are going to be focusing on you and your understanding of your leadership identity. We shall be asking you to reflect on who you are and to consider some of your strengths before exploring two of the biggest challenges for many leaders: imposter syndrome as you build your identity as a leader, and also the need to leverage your time by learning to let go and using delegation to “achieve through others”. We are going to encourage you to step outside your comfort zone, stretch your leadership potential, and consider the types of activity you need to be focussing on to become the leader you want to be.

This week we will be looking at how you can know when to “step in” as a leader and how to do this effectively. We shall explore some of the leadership tools and styles that are available to you and consider how you might adapt your approach in response to your context. We will also discuss boundaries and how you might go about setting these, as well as conflict, looking at how you can constructively respond to conflict and how to find the value in such interactions.

This week we shall be focussing on your boss’s or leader’s agenda and considering how you can best align yourself with it whilst also pursuing your own leadership goals. We look at how you can better understand your boss’s motives and aims, as well as how you can influence your boss. We will use the “Authority-Presence-Impact” frame of thinking to help you to further develop your ability to lead, and will take you through the process of having challenging, but invaluable, conversations with your leader or boss.