Why education & work experiences are an effective leadership
development program
Reflect back to your education and to as recent as the previous
job you held. Ask yourself how you have reached your current
level of leadership and how your skills have developed over
time. During this time, you were most likely exposed to a number
of activities and experiences that evolved into your own
personal lea
dership development program. Many of these skills and
learning developed over time can be applied to your current
workplace. Let's look at how you can make the most out of past
experiences and apply them to your current work situation.
PAST - BEING A PART OF A TEAM
You may have been a part of a basketball team, a support group,
or a local community effort. This type of active involvement
helps to fine tune leadership skills such as delegating,
empowering team members, and learning to communicate
effectively. Being associated with 'teams' gives an individual a
chance to be a part of something, work together among
counterparts, and contribute to a shared interest.
CURRENT - APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
By experiencing a team environment outside of work, you have the
opportunity to share many skills and capabilities that will take
your people and organization to the next level. As other team
members become leaders within your organizations, they will also
recall past experiences and what it means to fulfill a selfless
work ethic and build healthy relations among work associates.
Good leaders will not segregate themselves away from their
subordinates, but involve themselves fairly among a workload,
and help lead and guide others from their personal leadership
development program.
PAST - TAKING OWNERSHIP
Deciding what we want to do with our life (continue school, find
a career, or start a business) is when many of us first
experienced a true sense of ownership. At some point there was a
discovery that really piqued your potential interest. Through a
variety of educational classes, job searching, or through trial
and error, you narrowed your focus to the best fit or option;
then came learning for the experience of others.
CURRENT - APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
As an apprentice we learned many tricks of the trade by
shadowing our mentors or being observant or passionate about
their work. Now as mentors, we need to focus on instructing or
guiding others to learn effective and efficient work skills to
provide credible and productive results for the organization.
Law, medical and business schools are prime examples of
educating students so that they can take ownership of their
profession and eventually contribute to their field.
PAST - STAYING AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION
After formal education, many people are optimistic and confident
that they will get the "dream job" fresh out of college. Like
hundreds of thousands of students graduating at the same time,
you compete against qualifying candidates as well as experienced
professionals vying for the same job. The job outlook at the
time was probably overwhelming and sometimes frustrating, but
your competitive circumstances kept you driven to contend among
your counterparts and stay ahead of the competition.
CURRENT - APPLYING EXPERIENCES TO WORK
In our day to day work environment, we must also be competitive
to stay ahead of the competition. Through positive
encouragement, thinking strategically, and feeling the drive to
compete will help us stay ahead. For some it may be of value to
provide a lea
dership development program that will increase an
individual's work potential. This will keep them ahead of the
game and help them to be on top of the competition.
Every team provides leadership opportunities for the
individuals. By being cognizant of how personal leadership
development programs the above three benefits, it will give us
the opportunity to help individuals develop leadership qualities
essential to beating the competition in our fierce business
environment.