5 Essential Elements for Finding Your Leadership Career Groove

Posted on November 03, 2021 by Carla Santamaria, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

When it comes to finding your leadership groove, one thing is for sure – there are many facets and nuances – and it is not always straightforward!

It is really exciting when you are offered a new leadership opportunity!

You are ready to make your unique mark on your new organization, and you look forward to making a difference as a leader.

You enjoy influencing and helping others to achieve results. And you love the strategy involved in making decisions to help your company succeed in its goals.

As a leader in a new role, you are more energized than ever!

But often, once you get started, you begin to realise that it is not perhaps as easy as it had seemed.

You may start to feel overwhelmed, uncertain, and you know that you should have a better work-life balance.

You’ve heard the old adage that you should learn to ‘work smarter, not harder’. But lately, it seems that all you are doing is working harder.

Like most worthwhile pursuits in life, there are no short-cuts, no ‘life-hacks’ that you can apply to the leadership journey.

However, you can learn the critical and most impactful skillsets of leadership.

Knowing these will provide you with clarity and focus. And you can stop wasting time ‘churning’ on activities that are not moving you forward.

The Magenta Roads Leadership Impact Framework defines five essential elements for every leader’s career roadmap.

No matter whether you are just starting out, a mid-level leader, or about to take on a senior role, these five elements remain critical.

They are:
- Establish your Vision: Start by exploring your values, dreams, hopes, and desires. Understand how your leadership vision fits into your life as a whole. Create clarity and purpose to give yourself the motivation and energy that will propel you forward.

- Set Your Strategy: With your vision in hand, develop detailed plans for making your dreams come true. Examine all of your choices and priorities and make deliberate decisions that will keep you moving toward your vision.

- Level-up in the critical skills you need: There are five key areas essential for effective and impactful leadership. These are the areas that can get you stuck if you have blind spots. Identify and close gaps in your blind spots, and discover your personal strength levers that you can rely on for higher levels of impact.

- Learn to Trust Yourself: As you put into practice what you are learning on your leadership journey, celebrate your wins & gain confidence as you find your authentic, leadership voice.

- Expand your Impact: Intentionally nurture your expanding leadership influence and impact by identifying the resources you need for ongoing support and that will sustain your newly found confidence. Look forward to increased recognition and that next promotion!

Too often, leaders think of personal development, or the mastery of any skill in life, as a ‘one-and-done’, ‘check-the-box’, and move onto the next item exercise.

When it comes to the practice of being a leader, nothing could be further from the truth.

Your leadership career will be a continuous learning journey, with lessons and skills strengthening and building with each new experience. You might like to read ‘The 5 Stages of the Leadership Journey’ which explores this idea further.

By applying the essential elements of the framework at whichever stage of the leadership journey you are on, you will continue to deepen your ability to see the paradoxes and subtleties in people’s behaviours and team dynamics, as well as business complexities.

With a continuous learning approach and a growth mindset, and by applying the Leadership Impact Framework at each stage of your journey, you will be able to achieve your career goals and vision with great impact, deliver superior business performance, and give a whole lot of heart to your people!