When you are looking at landing a leadership role, you will want to consider many aspects. Getting the correct position for you and your future is crucial. Securing the right post is important, but it may not always be as straightforward as you would like it to be (or think it should be). Landing a leadership role might not be quick, but if you follow these top tips, you will find the process a lot easier and certainly less daunting.
Know What You Want to Achieve
As a leader, you know how important clarity and direction are. Knowing what you want to achieve and putting it into motion is crucial. If you are not sure about what you want to achieve, then take time out before you hit the ground with your search. Because, if you don’t, you could find that you end up simply going round in circles. When you are thinking about what you want to achieve, think about your immediate future, of course, but also think about the next few years too. Time can pass quickly when you are finding and applying for roles and to get a firm grip on time. You have to ascertain what timescale you are working to.
Have a Strong Vision
To land a role, you must have a strong vision, and you must be fully committed to what your vision is. If you do not have a vision, then how can you expect to persuade and lead others. A clear vision of what you want in a leadership role (and out of a leadership role) should be one of the first things you start working on. Sharing your vision with those that you are looking to work with, as well as those you are looking to work for, is important. When everyone is on the same page with you and with expectations, you will find that you stand out as a stronger candidate.
Remain Committed
There will be roles that you go for that will not end well. There will be occasions when you end up disheartened and frustrated. However, even when you are experiencing all of these emotions, you should always remain committed – no matter what!. Those that are looking to hire you will need to see your commitment, and they need to feel it tool. If you cannot show (or even share) your commitment, then how can you lead successfully through turbulent times? To ensure that you remain committed, you need to have focus, clarity, purpose, and of course, the right mindset. When all of these elements are used in combination, you are on to a winning formula.
Build Strong Networks
The people and professionals that you have around you matter. If you are not surrounding yourself with strong professionals that you can trust and depend on – then how can you begin to build your professional reputation. When you network through (and with) trusted professionals, you will find that there are more open doors and certainly more opportunities to be seized. If you are not focusing on building strong networks (then why not)? What is holding you back? You may need professionals for references for a role that you are interested in, or you may need to find the latest and best opportunities through your trusted contacts.
Remain Passionate and Dedicated
Dedication and passion do count for a lot. If you are not passionate and dedicated to finding the role for you, then you will simply settle, and this will never bring out the best in you. When you are fighting off other candidates for roles, you can sometimes find that your passion and dedication can wane (and this is perfectly normal). However, being able to overcome it is important. To overcome this, you need to always remember why you want to be a leader and what great leadership means to you. When you stay both passionate and dedicated to what leadership entails, and when you translate this to roles, prospective employees, and even interviews, you will see that it makes all of the difference.
Stay Alert and Active in Opportunities
New opportunities tend to hit the open jobs market regularly, and the best ones are always snapped up quickly. So, to be sure that you are in with a chance at seizing these great opportunities, you need to stay alert and stay active on job hunting pages and boards. If you are not being active or even proactive (where you can be), then how can you expect to be seen and noticed. If you are always one of the last to know about a position or role of interest, then how do you think this reflects on you? To stay alert, you must always stage a multi-pronged attack. This can include checking social media sites, checking emails periodically, networking (both online and offline) as well, s watching job boards regularly.
Find an Industry That Wants You and Needs You
You may be trying to land a role in a certain industry or sector – however, it may not be happening for you (for whatever reason). To ensure that this cycle breaks sooner rather than later, you need to focus on industries and sectors that need you and want you as a leadership professional. When you are both needed and wanted, you will find the demand is there, and this is what you need. For example, new leadership and leaders in nursing are required to bring about changes and development to the healthcare sector. If new leaders that care are not found, then standards will ultimately suffer – especially in the healthcare industry. So, when you find an industry that both needs you and wants you, then you can be sure that you are adding value and impact through everything that you do.
Embrace Networking
Not all leadership roles and opportunities get published for public knowledge, and this is what you need to be aware of. Quite a lot of the time, you will find that vacant leadership positions and roles will be spoken about in certain circles or networking groups – but they will never enter the public domain. Therefore, with this in mind, you should try and embrace networking wherever you can. When you can embrace networking, you can then go ahead and seize the opportunities for yourself – without waiting to hear about them in a second-hand manner. You may not always find networking useful or purposeful, but it does have its strengths. Within networking and networks, you can start building a professional name and reputation for yourself, and of course, this is something that can positively help you and improve your chances of getting the leadership role you are pushing towards.
Advance Yourself
If you do not focus on advancing yourself, you will ultimately find you will be left behind. You have competitors and other candidates that are investing in themselves and even advancing their education too. To be sure that you land a role, you need to always invest in advancing yourself. This may mean improving your skills and skillset, or it may mean going back to college and perhaps studying for an advanced degree. Whatever advancement looks and feels like to you. It is important to realize that it matters, and it counts. Of course, when it comes to advancing yourself, you need to look at what areas require the most aid or assistance. Because if you do not establish areas of weakness first, you will struggle to build and strengthen who you are – and what you have to offer.
Indulge in Periods of Reflection
Good leaders and even great leaders indulge in periods of reflection. To move forwards with a position, or even to get over not securing a position, you must reflect on what has happened and why. If you are not reflecting, then you are glossing over what has occurred, and this ultimately means that you are not learning. To secure a leadership role or position, you must be invested in growth and development just as much as anything else, and something the only way to do this is through self-reflection. So, if you do not feel like you are on your A game, or if you feel like you are losing more interviews than winning, then go ahead and enter a period of self-reflection and see what you can learn about yourself.
Build Your Resume
You can sell yourself well with your knowledge and experience, but a well-written resume will help you even more. When it comes to building a resume, you need to look at what is going to catch the recruiter’s eye. For example, are you highlighting your qualifications and your experience? Are you listing relevant advanced education? And, are you making sure that you are providing relevant examples of experience? If your resume is bland and short, or if it is over the top and content-heavy, then you will find that it will have an adverse effect on recruiters. To ensure that this does not happen, you must look at building a carefully worded and put together a resume that clearly highlights all of your positive aspects and elements.
