Somebody recently asked what are some leadership skills they could practice while they were still an individual contributor (IC). My answer was that when you are a leader, the job shifts from doing the work yourself to creating the conditions for others to do the work through skills such as:
— influence and alignment. You can’t ignore company politics any more – you have to navigate them and represent your team. You can practice now by observing your stakeholders and learning what they care about, because if you help them succeed, they are more likely to help you.
— building relationships – you can’t do it alone as a leader, so building trust with other leaders is critical to being effective. One of the biggest mistakes I see new leaders make is to not spend enough time on deepening relationships with other leaders across the organization, because they never had to as an IC.
— giving constructive feedback. Since leaders get work done through others, you have to guide and coach them to deliver better work. That happens through consistent and clear feedback on what good work looks like.
— setting clear expectations. Similar to the above. Nothing is more frustrating when somebody spends two weeks building something… and it’s the wrong thing. They feel like they wasted their time, you feel frustrated that they didn’t deliver what you wanted. Spend the extra time up front to clarify what is expected (this is something you can practice as an IC by clarifying what is expected of you).
Note that these are all skills you can practice as an IC. In fact, you can get work done through others without anybody reporting to you; I had to learn this influence without authority as an IC Chief of Staff.
Which of these do you see as the most important skill for leaders? What other skills am I missing from this list?