By Chad Cook, Chief Catalyst, Cook Consulting Group LLC
Editors Note: Finding a job you love is the first step in a fulfilling career. The Interview Doctor is pleased to provide another perspective for growing in a job you love.
Job search is one thing. Succeeding at your job is another. You can be the best job seeker in the world but it does not matter a bit if you can’t hold the job. Everyone who is successful at their job, regardless of level has to be a leader in what they do. Leaders must do three things very well.
- Have a Vision for Change – Without a vision for how something could be different or better, there is no need for leadership. Leaders lead others into new and different futures. Management is all about efficiency, effectiveness, consistency and maximizing stasis. Leadership is all about experimentation, learning, risk and dynamism.
- Engage Followers – Without followers a leader is alone and stands little to no chance of making any changes that will stick. Some faux-leaders think they can make change happen by themselves and then realize the change only lasts as long as they are present because unengaged doers neglect and ignore the change when the faux-leader is not present.
- Create Focused Energy – When one or many followers are engaged and committed to achieving a vision for change they begin making things happen. The leader must harness and align this energy such that work and behaviors stay focused on the collective outcomes agreed to for the vision. Otherwise, chaos reigns and conflicts abound.
Everyone, whether you work on a production floor, in an executive suite, or even if you are still in school, has to find the way you will express these three important elements of leadership in your everyday work life. Think about what these elements mean to you and how you can make your personal leadership come alive in your job everyday!