Learning to Lead: Where Do You Start?

Some themes refuse to go away. Across many organisations I work with — in sport, in the non-profit world, in the public sector — I keep meeting the same person: someone in their first real management role, with genuine ambition to grow as a leader, and almost no clear path for doing it. It's frustrating, but it isn't surprising. The same three barriers come up again and again.

3 - A Not-So-Magic Number

Skills. Nobody has shown them how to delegate in a way that actually frees up their time — the kind of delegation that lets you step back from the day-to-day and start thinking about direction, developing your team, and looking over the horizon.

Resources. There's rarely budget to invest in their own development, let alone their team's, so the space to properly explore what leadership means for them simply isn't there.

Direction. And often they just don't know where to begin. They have instincts about the kind of leader they want to be, but there's so much noise out there that the first step turns out to be the hardest one to take.

If that's you — a new manager with one eye on becoming a leader, and no obvious starting point — here are three places I'd suggest looking first. None of them require a budget. All of them you can start this week.

Who do you want to be?

Before any of the tactics, it's worth getting clear on the kind of leader you actually want to be — and on how you'll lead others through change, which turns out to be most of what leadership is. Authentic leadership, and a working understanding of the personal psychology of change, are the foundations everything else sits on.

Shaping the culture around you

Feedback and innovation are the two most practical levers a new manager has for influencing the culture of their team. Getting better at giving feedback — and, just as importantly, at receiving it — and learning how to shape the conditions in which people feel able to try new things: both are things you can put to work immediately, with the people you already manage.

Making yourself understood

Finally, communication: how you make sure the people following you, and your wider stakeholders, understand where you're heading and feel part of getting there. Clear, compelling communication is one of the most powerful tools a leader has. It's also worth knowing the flip side — the unintended fallout when you communicate brilliantly in service of the wrong message.

Finally

When I first started managing, I was lost — guessing my way through, trying to delegate well enough to lift my head up and think about what was coming next. There's so much I'd tell the version of me starting out on that journey.

But if I could say just one thing, it would be this:

Read. Listen. Learn. Try stuff.