5 important lessons I learned from my company’s Professional Leadership Program
Early-career leadership development programs are all the rage among young professionals these days. Millennial workforce wants their careers to be accelerated. Concurrently, as companies struggle to retain young talents and build up organizations’ talent pipeline, more of such programs are popping up across large companies. Selected candidates typically go through intensive training and assessments to prepare them for future leadership roles.
Most people, especially young professionals, have a distorted view of their own abilities, interests and strengths.
I joined my company’s Leadership Development Program earlier this year. After multiple rounds of assessments, I was excited to start this journey. After nearly 10 months of classroom training, hands-on project management, and practical leadership exposure, I am finally graduating next week.
Here are 5 lessons I have learned over this intense course of time:
- Team playing Essentials: This was a big revelation for me: working in a team of leaders is a whole different ballgame than working in a typical team. All the participants in my program were divided into different teams and were handed a specific project to work on. In a typical team at the workplace, the majority of the members are not naturally inclined to assume leadership of the team. However, in a group that’s full of potential future leaders, the dynamics can be quite different. In typical teams, I often wore the leader's hat naturally and worked well with others. However, during this program, I realized everybody around me had amazing leadership skills and interests. This taught me how to let others lead certain tasks and work well under others’ leadership. I have learned that encouraging others to lead is a great trait of leadership itself.
2. Know Thyself: Most people, especially young professionals, have a distorted view of their own abilities, interests, and strengths. Fueled by the lack of exposure and experience, many form ideas of self that can often lead them to make unwise career decisions. For example, from the limited-scoped experience of organizing events at university and the workplace, I believed I was a natural at communicating with multiple stakeholders. During the tenure of this program, however, I realized how complex communication can be across different levels of management. This realization forced me to erase my slate of illusioned confidence, and humbly, I focused on improving my communication skills from the ground up.
Right after any scheduled feedback session, I witnessed the sharpest growth in me.
3. Feedback fuels self-growth: The program was not a buttery-smooth journey of growth for me. I struggled in certain areas and did not achieve the best results in every task. However, the most valuable part of the program was the feedback. Direct feedback from senior leaders pointed out my weaknesses, which I was unaware of. Right after any scheduled feedback session, I witnessed the sharpest growth in me. Identifying improvement areas is the first and perhaps, the most important step towards any sort of development. Many dread regular feedback, maintaining a somewhat negative vibe about it, but quality feedback only accelerates one’s personal growth.
4. Textbooks are cool: There is a growing perception in recent days that traditional, textbook knowledge is somewhat getting outdated compared to the hardcore, hands-on practical exposure. While we surely can’t downplay the importance of practical experience, I learned how relevant textbook knowledge can be. As part of the program, we had to complete numerous classroom courses on leadership and undergo soft skills training. Many may doubt the effectiveness of studying literature to improve your soft skills in the areas of negotiation, communication, etc as these are commonly perceived to be developed by practical experience only. However, as I studied our classroom materials, notes, and video resources, I quickly learned the important theories and practiced them right away. Acquiring and mastering these skills solely based on practical trial and error would have taken me years. However, as I built upon the theoretical knowledge I gained from study materials, I underwent a rapid development of my soft skills, bypassing a much longer route.
5. Project management is crazy: An early-career professional usually does not get the exposure to manage the full life cycle of a project. Generally, a new joiner like me is typically a part of the whole project and only has the full view of certain areas of the entire project. Fortunately, having owned and managed a project to its completion during this course of this program, I have learned the nuances of project management, the usual bottlenecks and most importantly, identified the areas where I need to improve myself upon to effectively lead in future management positions.
In the end, it was a meaningful journey for me. Undoubtedly, these programs can be extremely beneficial, especially for new joiners. In my case, coming fresh from the intense learning curve of the university, I could maintain the learning curve and energy; and channeled it towards developing my skillset. While these programs will not spoon feed and carve you into a complete leader, these certainly will provide a constant learning curve and exposure, which will accelerate a journey of self-discovery. And utilizing that, one can carve herself to become the leader that she wants to become.
