Professional Development series from the Education Committee

Developing the Leader Within You

If cultivating leadership abilities is on your list of resolutions for 2022, Professor Jennifer Nahrgang from UI’s Tippie College of Business suggests a resource that may surprise you. Rather than building those skills in a classroom or from a management text, she  proposes that the best teacher may be your own experiences.

“Think about a key event that occurred in your working career,” she encourages. “One that was a really strong learning and development opportunity for you.”

In reflecting on those workplace milestones, it’s likely those experiences have fallen into one of five groups:

• Transitioning into a new job: job tasks that are new (and possibly overwhelming) also have inherent great potential for development;
• Creating changes: moving a work group into a new direction or solving inherited problems coexists with an environment ripe for leadership learning;
• Coping with high stakes: when the level of responsibility, dollars, manpower, or need for future direction is great, leaders are motivated to dig deep;
• Navigating boundaries: working with those outside direct authority has the capacity to broaden new sets of skills;
• Negotiating diversity: colleagues may have their own (and differing) perspectives arising from their specific work tasks or from cultural differences.

In addition to pondering past experiences that shaped the leader you are today, Nahrgang recommends seeking new opportunities to become a better leader tomorrow. Places to grow these abilities may be in your current workplace by volunteering for additional duties or taking on a temporary project. Outside of work, leadership prowess can be strengthened by heading professional, social or benevolent organizations.

Is it always a good idea to dive head-first into potentially enriching opportunities? Questions to ask yourself first might include: is this opportunity likely to build the competencies I wish to gain? Is it risky for the organization for me to take this on? Is it a match with my natural strengths?

Do you want to polish your leadership skills? CLAS Staff Council is a great way to do just that. Nominations open February 4, and elections are in March.

Are you interested in developing your leadership or other skills? Read more on the CLAS Staff Council’s Professional Development webpage. It contains the section entitled, “Leader of the pack: how to acquire/update supervision skills.”