A Creative Approach to Your Professional Growth in 2024 How to Become a Leader …by Not Being a Leader

Do you want to grow in your professional responsibilities in 2024?

If one of your goals is to take on more leadership responsibilities, then here are some tips to think about the position yourself for that kind of promotion. It is the opposite of what you might think.

The first question is, what qualities should you possess to be a leader?

That's what I asked myself when I transitioned from being a lawyer to the CEO of a major financial institution with major challenges.

I remember reading a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, where the reporter interviewed Nissan's new CEO. He was Japanese, and the company had just built its first auto manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. The reporter became frustrated because he felt he wasn't getting answers to his questions.

The CEO asked him what it was he was looking to learn. ?The reporter said, “he wanted to know how you build your cars?”

The CEO then asked him, and I quote: "Why are you talking to me? I'm just the president; if you want to know how the cars are built, go to the assembly line and talk to the people who are building the cars."

After touring that plant, I wrote an article in the University of Michigan's HR Journal, predicting it was all over for the American auto industry. GM eventually had to file for bankruptcy!

How do you compete with the company's leadership that views its workforce with almost sacred respect?

We live in an age where geniuses like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk have changed our world and created a paradigm of leadership that seems enviable.

But for the rest of us, mortals were not endowed with super creative genius; there is a better paradigm that if you follow, you will become the leader you aspire to be.

According to a recent survey conducted by Peter Cappelli, Prof. of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, whose findings were published in the Wall Street Journal, it helps to:

• be a lawyer as they’re getting more of the top jobs
• be a woman as their careers are advancing faster than men
• come from another company

But now, let’s get creative about the things you can control.

Think about what you value in good leadership. I’m certain we can all agree on things like respect for other people, a willingness to listen, and, of course, solid ethics.

It’s easy to say, but the question is how you demonstrate those qualities and position yourself for advancement as a leader.

1. Practice humility. We all know about Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, and we would not characterize them as very humble. As Elon Musk said on Saturday Night Live: “I launched a dominant electric car company and rockets that can go to Mars, so do you expect me to be normal?”

Unless you are blessed with their creative brilliance, you should aspire to be humble because it’s an important quality in great leaders. It can’t be false humility but rather a genuine belief that you can learn from others, including your subordinates. Prove it by asking sincere questions about why people offer their solutions.

1. Embrace uncertainty. In organizational meetings, Americans tend to “shoot ready aim” to solve problems quickly. Great leaders admit they don’t know the answers and reach out to team members to help ascertain the causes of a given problem or challenge. It takes some deliberative thinking, and, of course, it is contrary to the American leadership paradigm. Still, in the long run, people value that and appreciate being asked to help solve the challenge. You can read Bob DeKoch, the President of the Boldt Co., book entitled Embrace Uncertainty. It requires a willingness to live with some confusion as your team seeks solutions to challenges.

1. Respect introverts. More than 50% of the American population are introverts. In meetings, they rarely speak up. The Harvard Business School did a mock exercise when students were asked to envision being in a plane crash in a remote area of Alaska and depict what they needed to survive. During the debriefing, they noticed in the meeting video that one of the students needed to speak up. When asked why, he said he was very introverted. He pointed out he was raised in the backwoods, and the items they selected to survive would have given them a chance to live only a short time! So engage every team member, even going so far as asking them to submit ideas in an email so all voices are heard.

Create a personal leadership scorecard for yourself and rate whether you practice the suggested behaviors while in meetings. Then, ask fellow associates to rate you for those qualities, proving you genuinely want to improve.

It will not guarantee that promotion, but it will increase your odds. You can take that to the bank!