Being a Leader Without a Title by @SMHuntington

I love connecting and meeting new people through social media. I was thrilled when Scott Huntington reached out to me after I shared his Talent Culture blog post entitled “6 Small Change You Can Do Today To Improve Your Career.” The following is a guest post from Scott.

President, manager, director – you don’t need the title in order to be a leader at work. All you need, in fact, are skills related to mindset, work ethic and attitude. Your title (or lack thereof) is irrelevant. Forget what people are calling you and practice these workplace tips in order to be the best leader you can be, regardless of your position:

Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Everybody has unique strengths and weaknesses. Be aware of yours. Are you an excellent planner? Communicator? Analyst? Regardless of what you do best, knowing your strengths will allow you to contribute most effectively to group projects. Plus, you’ll know which tasks will best show off your superior skills.

When you are aware of your weaknesses, which you should be, you’ll know where to improve and seek support. Do you need a boost when it comes to time management? Research strategies and invest in a calendar. Don’t try to hide your weaknesses – try to better them instead.

Seek Opportunities

Being a leader requires finding new opportunities. In order to do this, you’ll need to understand how your business works and be able to recognize worthwhile opportunities from the useless ones.

Believe it or not, there will almost always be chances to create new developments and take advantage of trends in your market. Be the first to notice these opportunities, place yourself at the forefront of the movement and exhibit your strengths to push it forward. This will show initiative, an undeniably important leadership quality.

Practice Communication

Good communication and good leadership go hand in hand. Think about group projects you used to do in school, for example. The ‘leader” was always the individual who verbally took charge and distributed assignments to fellow group members. He or she was probably the one who sent out the most emails or said the most during in-class group time. The same goes for the workplace. When you can effectively share your point with others, you are acting as a leader.

Another aspect of being a good communicator, though, is the ability to pull ideas from others. You don’t want to be the only verbal individual, as your coworkers’ input is just as valuable as your own input. Bring others into the conversation and spread the dialogue to make it as useful as possible.

Take on Extra Work

Seek and create opportunities to take on extra work. I’m not talking about busy work; I’m talking about worthwhile projects that will make a difference in your company. Put your heart into them. Exhibit passion and don’t quit until the job is done. When I first started at Envisupply, they needed someone to update the website. I jumped at the chance, even though it wasn’t in my job description. After a few updates to the site, people started to take notice and ask who was now in charge of it. Your hard work may not be noticed immediately, but stick to it and eventually you’ll be rewarded for going above and beyond.

Practicing these leadership skills will not only make you a greater asset at work, but it will also make you more eligible for titled leadership roles within your company. With a promotion like that, you can expect things like greater pay and overall work benefits, so why not put them into effect today? Get started now and be the best leader you can be.

About the Author: Scott Huntington is a career specialist, writer, and blogger from Central Pennsylvania. He writes for Careerealism, Brazen Careerist, and The Oxford University Press. Check out his blog, blogspike.com or follow him on Twitter @SMHuntington.

Image courtesy of Pixabay