Leadership is often associated with job titles. We think of managers, department heads and directors as leaders because they have formal responsibility for people and decisions. But leadership qualities aren’t contained to a badge or nameplate. There are plenty of ways to demonstrate leadership at work, and plenty of reasons to do so.
Showing too much leadership at work though can feel like you’re walking on eggshells. You want to show leadership capabilities, but not step on the toes of your manager or boss. So where is the line when it comes to showing leadership at work, and how can you do it in a way that boosts your chances of advancing within the company?
Why showing leadership can help your career
Many people hope that they’ll eventually move into management. While progressing through the leadership ranks can get easier later on, making that first step into a leadership position can be more challenging. You need to demonstrate leadership qualities that get you noticed before you can get that promotion.
A fairly fundamental aspect of this is taking initiative, and assuming additional responsibilities. These don’t have to be significantly outside of your usual remit; they could be as simple as offering help to a new hire, or finding a more efficient way to document your work. It’s those little things that show you can not only handle additional responsibilities, but have the right qualities for leadership.
It goes without saying that you should show some eagerness in your work, and a desire to help the business. But effort will only get you so far. The qualities people tend to look out for are things like communication skills, showing initiative, being reliable, and demonstrating good judgement. While you can evidence these things latently, it helps to be visible.
It’s the classic case of someone doing great work quietly being less heralded than someone who blows their own horn. Someone who consistently makes constructive contributions to meetings, supports colleagues, and looks for solutions is more likely to be noticed than someone who completes their assigned tasks and waits for instructions.
The line you have to walk is between demonstrating leadership potential and looking for authority. Your objective shouldn’t be to make colleagues think you’re their manager. It should be to make your manager think you could do the same job, perhaps if they themselves move up the ladder.
Taking responsibility for your own work
One of the simplest ways to demonstrate leadership is to be as reliable as you can in your existing role. Trying to influence other people and make a case for your own potential when you can’t manage your own responsibilities effectively isn’t going to work. You need to be meeting deadlines, acknowledging and tackling problems, and taking ownership of mistakes before you start to extend yourself.
While good work isn’t everything, credibility can go a long way. It will be difficult to persuade colleagues that you have leadership potential if your own work regularly needs chasing or correcting, and they will still matter even if you convince the one person who makes the call.
Taking responsibility doesn’t have to mean accepting blame for everything that goes wrong, either. What’s important is that you’re willing to acknowledge your part in a situation, and to focus on finding a solution. That kind of attitude is noticed by managers because it reduces the amount of supervision they need to provide.
Help colleagues (when you’re able to)
Supporting other people is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate leadership. What’s less helpful is trying to help even when you aren’t the best person to provide it. If a colleague is struggling with a task you understand well, that can be a great opportunity to share knowledge, explain how you approached a problem or point them towards useful resources.
What’s key is knowing when that help is needed and appreciated, and when it isn’t. If you have dealt with something similar before, you might be able to offer an approach or solution that would save the person time. That’s very different from imposing yourself where you aren’t needed, and telling someone to do something your way.
Experience within the organisation doesn’t have to be a limiting factor in this, but it certainly can be. Trying to help someone who has been with the organisation longer than you could be counter-productive, as could helping someone who reports to a different manager.
Ultimately, you should respect people’s autonomy, and allow them to decide whether they want your help or not. A hallmark of a good leader is that they don’t need to demonstrate that they know more than everyone else; they make other people better.
Be the person who looks for solutions
Another way to show leadership at work is to become someone who provides solutions. Identifying problems is its own skill too, and not an unimportant one. But there’s a world of difference between pointing out something that you feel doesn’t work, and presenting a solution that indisputably makes it better.
Every workplace has frustrations, whether that’s inefficient processes, awkward systems or breakdowns in communication. Pointing these things out is often much easier (and less valuable) than thinking constructively about how they could be improved.
If you notice a recurring problem, consider what might address it, and raise the idea with your manager. Try to cushion it by providing the solution alongside the observation, and making that a decision for your superior.
If you’ve noticed for instance that a manual process takes a lot of time, suggesting a way to automate it both presents a solution and a potential efficiency saving, a win for both you and the business. This leaves the ultimate decision with the person responsible, and shows that you can think beyond your immediate responsibilities without taking control of them.
Learn to influence without giving orders
Leadership involves influence, but influence isn’t the same as authority. You may have excellent ideas, but colleagues are unlikely to respond positively if you constantly tell them what they should be doing. People will only absorb the things you’re saying if you’ve built the credibility and trust needed to influence them.
A good way to achieve this is to work on your ability to explain ideas and find common ground. This is particularly useful in meetings: rather than dominating the discussion, try to ask useful questions, and absorb the suggestions and objections that other people have. If someone raises an idea, build upon it, rather than tearing it down.
If there’s disagreement over a topic, try to help clarify the underlying issue, rather than immediately taking a side. It’s also helpful to encourage quieter colleagues to contribute, particularly if a topic is being dominated by two or three voices. That isn’t you taking control of the meeting—almost the opposite—but you could help it become more productive.
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You don’t need a management title to demonstrate that you’re capable of leading, but there remains a fine line between demonstrating leadership and behaving like you have unearned authority. The most effective approach is to show leadership without trying to take charge: demonstrating initiative, reliability, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to support others.
If you want to make yourself visible as someone with leadership potential while respecting the responsibilities of existing managers, our leadership courses might be able to help you. Courses like our Introduction to First Line Management and Assertive Communication Skills help to instil the kind of qualities that will help you stand out, improving your own work and that of your colleagues in a way that will prepare you for a promotion to management.
