This post, “4 Steps To Help You Earn A Leadership Position”, is the second of a 3 part series based on a presentation I recently gave at a developer conference on the topic of “How to transition from a developer to a leader”. While my specific presentation was directed toward developers, it’s universal for anyone trying to move into a leadership role from a non-leadership role. I’ve removed the developer-specific content so it’s relevant to any profession.
Three Acts and Three Goals
My presentation (and now this blog post series) contains three parts, each with a specific goal:
- Act 1: 6 Facts To Overcome Your Fears Of Becoming A Leader
- My goal: Debunk common leadership fears and increase your leadership interest
- Act 2: 5 Steps To Help You Earn A Leadership Position
- My goal: Provide practical steps for you to successfully make the move to a leadership role
- Act 3: 3 Topics To Help A New Leader Become A Great Leader
- My goal: Provide practical tips for you to succeed in your new role and be a leader worth following
Let’s get started with the first act…
Act 1: 6 Facts to Overcome Your Fears of Becoming a Leader
In this act, my goal is to debunk some common leadership fears and increase your leadership interest. I’ve seen a lot of people, particularly developers and technical team members, consumed by fear when it comes to considering a leadership position and they let fear stop them from moving forward into what could be a great fit. This is a tragic outcome and I hope that highlighting 6 common fears and addressing each one will encourage more people to pursue a leadership path.
Let’s start with a story…
So you’re a developer (or any other non-leadership role)
You really like your job.
You’re happy, engaged, productive, in control, and content.
Life is good!
Then one day, something crazy happens…
You think about your future and where your career is going.
Is there something different you want to do? Is there something more? Something different? Something bigger?
And a crazy thought comes into your head…would you want to move into a leadership role???
All of a sudden fears start flashing through your head!
The 6 Leadership Fears
1. Change?!?!?
You’ve got a great thing going, why would you change? What if you don’t like it? Or you lose your technical skills? What if it’s the wrong path for you? What if ________?!?!?
Your instinct says to run!
This is Fear #1 – Fear of Change
2. It Doesn’t Look Appealing
You’ve seen Dilbert.
You’ve seen Office Space.
You’ve seen The Office.
And you’ve encountered some bad leaders in your life and career. Why would you want to be like them?!? They don’t make leadership look like an appealing job.
This is Fear #2 – Fear of The Leadership Role
3. It Looks Boring
People, Politics, Meetings, HR, Planning, Budgets…blah, blah, blah.
This is Fear #3 – Fear That It Won’t Be Fun
4. It Looks Hard
Leadership looks really hard! And frustrating, complicated, stressful, scary, and intimidating!
This is Fear #4 – Fear of the Leadership Challenge
5. You’re Not Qualified
You don’t think you have the experience, knowledge, or degrees. You’re not the best _____ on your team. You don’t think you’re tenured enough or the “right” age. You’re not on “the list” or in “the program”. You don’t think you’ll meet the requirements. You don’t know _______.
This is Fear #5 – Fear of Being Unqualified
6. What If You’re Not Good At It
You might make a mistake or fail. You have weaknesses. People might judge you for wanting to be a leader. You don’t know how to be a leader.
This is Fear #6 – Fear of Failure
Yikes!!! After all those thoughts, you decide you’re happy right where you are. And who can blame you!
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute!
Don’t Let Fear Sabotage You!
You could be AMAZING. You could truly HELP others. You could do something really IMPORTANT. You could LOVE it!
Feeling fear is totally normal. We all feel it. But don’t let fear control you.
6 Facts Over Fears
For every fear you have, there is a greater fact to help you overcome the fear and become a leader. Let me respond to and reframe your fears.
| Fears | Facts |
|---|---|
| Fear #1 – Fear of Change | Fact #1 – Change brings growth, adventure, and opportunity. It can be scary but change is the door that we walk through to get to something better. |
| Fear #2 – Fear of The Leadership Role | Fact #2 – Leadership is good, valuable, and important. True leadership is noble and great leaders positively impact people, teams, and the world in powerful ways. |
| Fear #3 – Fear That It Won’t Be Fun | Fact #3 – Leading a team is fun, exciting, and rewarding. It’s awesome! |
| Fear #4 – Fear of the Leadership Challenge | Fact #4 – Leadership is a challenging role but shying away from challenging work is not a good career or life path. The hardest things are typically the most worthwhile things and leadership is most definitely worth it. And as I tell my kids, you can do hard things. |
| Fear #5 – Fear of Being Unqualified | Fact #5 – Motivation is requirement #1 for any leadership position. You may have to put in some work (e.g. training, classes, experience) to set yourself up to get the job but the first thing you need is the motivation to do whatever it takes. At the end of the day, the job requirements are guidelines so don’t let them stop you. |
| Fear #6 – Fear of Failure | Fact #6 – Great leadership doesn’t require perfection. Great leadership requires you to serve others and you’re committed to growing yourself. You may have failures but they are learning opportunities on the path to future successes. |
Acknowledge and understand your fears in order to help you seek out and embrace the facts that empower you to move forward. You CAN overcome your fears to become a leader.
What are some other common fears (whether they are true or not) that people have about becoming a leader? Post them in the comments.
Overcome Your Fears, Become A Leader
Please don’t let fear stop you from becoming a leader!
Leadership is too important to let fear stop you. It impacts work, careers, teams, results, and lives. It enables teams to flourish and thrive. Great leaders are in high need and demand.
“If you devote yourself to more than yourself, you'll ultimately have more than yourself to show for yourself.” – Andy Stanley Share on XLeadership is too awesome to let fear stop you. It will give you a greater purpose. You will make a bigger difference. And you will gain growth, excitement, joy, pride, and love.
“We get meaning by moving beyond ourselves.” – Andy Stanley Share on XIt would be a tragedy for the world to lose out on you becoming a great leader and a tragedy for you to miss out on an opportunity to make a bigger difference in the world.
I leave you with a quote that has been a great encouragement to me in my life:
“Our deepest regrets will be the risks not taken. Over the short term we tend to regret our actions but over the long term we tend to regret inaction. Our greatest experiences will often double as the scariest.” – Unknown Share on XDon’t regret inaction. If you never try, you’ll never know. Take a worthy risk and give leadership a shot!
If you’re convinced and want to know where to start, we’ll cover that in the next post.
Featured Image Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash