Senior leaders and HR professionals are always on the lookout for employees that exhibit leadership skills and qualities. Succession planning is a constant conversation that happens within companies, especially now with a skills shortage in Australia.
When filling leadership positions, HR companies will often look internally before going out to market for an external hire. To be considered for these roles, you don’t need to wait for an opening before you put your hand up. The next capable candidate could be you.
In this blog, we’ll talk about how to start demonstrating your leadership capabilities now so that you are top of mind when recruitment happens.
Be visible
For many finance professionals, it is easy to remain in your department, not interacting unless necessary. Being visible, especially to other parts of the business, means effectively communicating between different departments and teams. When submitting a financial report to another group, for example, you can try offering to go through it together. This helps ensure they have a good understanding and appreciation of your work. While you may be well versed in crunching and analysing numbers, not everyone is. So taking some time to help others make sense of the numbers would be appreciated by your colleagues, and also shows how much value you bring to the company.
Be open and willing to try new things
Onboarding people to a new process or system can be one of the most difficult things about being a team leader. Often, employees are asked to learn something new, be it a software or reporting protocol. These can be challenging tasks for leaders because they have to convince the team of the value of this new program. Showing your willingness to take on something new and getting involved in its implementation will be seen as a demonstration of leadership skills and desire to be a leader in the company.
Be able to communicate and influence
When implementing something new, some may be resistant to change. For some, change may trigger fear and stress. Being a good leader means knowing how to help others adapt instead of seeing them as barriers to change. Listen with empathy and seek to understand them so that you can help them on their learning journey. Find out what might be causing the fear or stress and use that to inform your judgement on how best to roll out the change. The key to influencing people is your ability to listen, so they can weigh in and feel heard. It then becomes a shared decision rather than something being imposed on them. These are the kind of qualities that people look for in a leader so use this as an opportunity to practice motivating and inspiring others.
Be a people person
Often, the higher your position is in a company, the more you will be faced with managing people. Use your time as a team member to learn about the different personalities in your office. Be curious and learn about their working style and who they are outside of the work context. This enables you to find opportunities to support them or simply relate better. Team building doesn’t need to happen as a scheduled office activity, there are many informal ways to do this. It can happen during your morning coffee, lunch break, or after work drinks. These casual yet crucial moments where you get to socialise with your colleagues pave the way for meaningful conversations, building trust and rapport.
Be positive
A positive attitude goes a long way. With the pressure and challenges that businesses face today, the ability to diffuse high stress situations or to troubleshoot errors quickly instead of worrying about them, allows you to stand out. Having a general positive presence keeps the work environment healthy. Staying friendly, encouraging and keeping a good sense of humour are qualities that are important in building a positive office culture.
Final thought
Don’t be afraid to be transparent about your goals. Start a conversation about your career trajectory with a supervisor you trust. A willingness to learn and being open to feedback weigh much more than getting it right all the time. Leadership styles differ – it takes time for people to develop an effective one. Start building your leadership qualities now, and you will be amazed at the success it could bring to your career later on.
As a specialist finance, accounting and ESG recruitment and learning organisation; Moir Group covers temporary and permanent roles from Assistant Accountant to CFO level. We also recruit Sustainability / ESG Manager roles to Chief Sustainability Officer roles across all industry sectors. If you’re looking to step up in your career, we would be delighted to assist. Please feel free to get in touch.