In this article you’ll learn:

What you need instead of the manager title in order to grow your career

What can effective leadership without the formal title look like

Many people perceive leadership as “being a manager” or “being a Head of”. And while formal leadership and authority help structure an organisation, and are of course formal roles with very specific expectations, true leadership is more than just a Manager or Director title.

Skills that are crucial for aspiring leaders

And no, being an expert in a field is not something I’ll put on this list!

You see, a move from a specialist to a leader mindset is quite a significant one. If you’re still in a specialist or individual contributor role, you need to complete your job’s relevant tasks. But in order to lead, you’ll need to develop a slightly different skillset.

The good news is that you can absolutely learn leadership skills!

Here are a few that you can already start developing without a formal leadership role or title:

Building relationships and trust as a non-manager

Each of us builds relationships in a certain way, and we all have slightly different preferences on this. Some of us may prefer big open networking events, while others may need calmer settings. Some people will enjoy high level chit chat to start with, for others that will be draining and they prefer deeper conversations. There is no good or bad way. But there are more and less effective ways to build relationships with various colleagues.

At the start of your leadership journey the key will be to become really self-aware of your own preferences, how you approach others, and what’s the most natural way for you. From there, you can build your metaphorical trust muscles around that! This approach will ensure you’re able to adjust your style to meet the other person’s needs.

You may also like to read: Professionalism and trust differ across the world

Influencing up and down

Influencing has a bad reputation given the thin line between influencing and manipulation. What I see here as key leadership competency is the ability to identify other person’s needs and respond to them. For example, imagine you’re presenting an idea to someone (say, your manager or team). Do you just go with how you think the presentation should be structured? Or do you adjust your natural way to account for the fact that your manager likes to go straight to the point and have detailed supporting data in the appendix?

That ability to flex what you present and how you present it is going to serve you in your current role. It will become even more crucial when you need to influence up and down as a leader.

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Growth Mindset is your best bet

A great book to recommend if you haven’t read it is “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. It’s just what you need to know about the growth mindset concept, including practical examples that can help you really embrace it.

In short, it’s an approach to life and learning that we’re not a fixed being that only has a certain amount of traits we’re born with and that’s it, or certain amount of talents and we can’t develop beyond those. Sure, there are genetic predispositions toward certain things, but these typically lose meaning and power after a particular point in adolescence. Instead, practice, willingness to learn, make mistakes and improve take over as an advantage and gain better results than just the pure unpracticed ‘talent’.

People with Growth mindset:

approach challenges with curiosity,
see learning opportunities in multiple places (even in failures), want to keep discovering new things (tools, skills, experiences), and they know that their success in a particular activity does not define them as a human being entirely.

I also recommend: Embracing change – how to do it well?

Self-leadership and self-efficacy

Finally, self-leadership is another skill that you can practice regardless of your job title. It’s related to self-efficacy which is the belief in one’s capacity to act in the ways necessary to reach specific goals. It really impacts the power you have to face challenges and the choices you are most likely to make, also in your career.

If you’re in the leader seat of your career growth, the development doesn’t just “happen to you” through others reading your mind and giving you an opportunity. Of course, it is still also companies’ responsibility to develop their people and create those growth opportunities! But in reality, you have control over much more than you realise in order to plan your work, deliver your results and plan your professional development.

What can leadership without a formal manager title look like?

It could be taking ownership of structuring a complex problem and getting people inspired to take action on it.

Or not taking that one comment too personally by regulating your emotions, and instead treating it as a data point to learn from and to improve.

Or perhaps influencing-up on a topic that matters to you by building relationships that allow you to express your opinion and contribute to decisions.

And finally, maybe putting your hand up for a project manager role in a project your team is working on to practice leadership without formal authority by keeping people on track to achieve common goals.

None of these skills are built in a day. But taking lead on what is within your area of control and influence, and investing in building the right relationships, can really help you establish a solid position in your company. And also set a good foundation for your career progression if that’s one of your goals to reach.

If you’d like to explore how you can show case your impact and become more visible to the decision makers in your company, schedule your 30-minute free consultation with me. In that conversation we will chat through one topic that’s presently on your mind. There will also be time to explore how a more structured coaching schedule could help you work towards your goals.