15 Leadership Practices to Help You Stand Out

You can be a leader no matter your role or paygrade.

By KATIE RIGSBY, CAPS, Katie Rigsby Inspires

Leadership does not come with title. Anyone can be a leader at any level. Leadership is a skill that is acquired, and therefore, should be constantly nurtured.

Are you looking for a promotion with no opportunities in sight? Do you want more responsibility but keep being overlooked? Is there a position available but the competition is pretty tough?

Proving yourself as an effective leader will help set you apart from the pack while establishing you as a valuable company asset. Leadership does not come with title. Anyone can be a leader at any level. Leadership is a skill that is acquired, and therefore, should be constantly nurtured. If you are looking to stand out as leader among your peers, these 15 easy practices will help get you noticed.

1. Be reliable.

A great leader says what she means and means what she says. Being reliable is not just about keeping your word, it is also about fulfilling your commitment as an employee. Your commitment to be at work on time. Your commitment to customer service. Your commitment to uphold the company mission and do the job you were hired to do. Your word is your bond and every time you accept a paycheck you are giving your word that you have fulfilled your duty as a company ambassador. If you want more responsibility, you must first prove you are reliable.

2. Know your strengths and play them up.

We are more productive and engaged when we are able to utilize our strengths and natural abilities. As a result, when seeking new challenges or asking for more responsibility, choose areas that will make you shine. Effective leaders know their strengths and utilize their team members in areas where they themselves are lacking. If you are a marketing genius and your supervisor seems to struggle creatively, ask if you can help by taking it off his plate. This gives you an opportunity to show off your talents and increase your unique value, while demonstrating you are a team player.

3. Seek education.

If you want to be seen as an emerging leader, you must continue to gain knowledge and generate new ideas. Being educated in the industry through obtaining credentials, attending local educational sessions or taking an active role with your local apartment association board will help establish yourself as an industry expert and it will keep you in touch with industry professionals outside of your organization.

4. Refine your emotional intelligence.

As our communication has become more digitized, emotional intelligence has taken a hit. The need for leaders to be aware and in control of their own emotions and the emotions of others while having strong interpersonal communication skills is vital to the success of an organization. Developing your own emotional intelligence occurs through practice, effective listening and requesting feedback from peers and supervisors. Join social groups or volunteer for a non-profit where you can practice these skills freely. Offer to take the lead on a project or team with the intention of practicing this specific skill.

5. Recognize others.

Showing humility and being truly excited when you see others succeed will help prepare you for a leadership role. Great leaders surround themselves with successful people and being able to recognize and reward the efforts of others will help keep them motivated and wanting to work hard for you. When you see someone doing something well, let them know that you noticed. It’s important to make recognition of others a part of your daily habits regardless of your position or pay grade.

6. Show appreciation.

Being grateful for every opportunity that comes your way and recognizing that even challenging situations and difficult people are character development opportunities. Be thankful when someone puts you in a challenging situation, be grateful when you are given more work, these are opportunities for you to learn and grow. Thank your supervisor for sending you to training or delegating a task to you. Thank your customers for bringing issues to your attention. Thank your coworker for giving you the opportunity to exhibit leadership skills when they drop the ball. The way you handle these small hiccups has a direct impact on how you are viewed as a leader.

7. Recognize that relationships are important.

You cannot be great at everything and you are never going to know it all, that’s why it is important to have good relationships with individuals both inside and outside of your organization. Building business relationships with others will help keep you in the forefront of people’s minds when an opportunity arises.

8. Shadow a leader you respect.

Surround yourself with leaders you admire. In the words of Jim Rohn, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” Find someone who is in the role that you aspire to have and begin spending time with them. Observe how they interact with others and ask them for advice regarding your own career path. Think about the five people you surround yourself with at work, the people you choose to be around when you attend meetings or networking events, company parties or industry training. Are the five people you choose to spend work time with persons you would want to emulate?

9. Request regular feedback.

This one is hard because sometimes the feedback may be difficult to hear. However, let your boss know what your career goals are and ask for feedback on what you could do to improve. Say something like, “I would like to be in a [enter your goal here] role, can you tell me what areas I need to improve upon to ensure I am considered the next time the position becomes available?”

10. Remain enthusiastic and positive.

I read posts, emails and hear conversations daily where team members are jaded, unappreciative and have bad attitudes, many of them in leadership roles. Teams feed off of the leader’s morale and an important part of a leader’s role is to help keep their team motivated. Remember that attitude reflects leadership, if you aren’t getting what you want from your team, start by looking in the mirror.

11. Become a solution provider.

Stop walking into your supervisor’s office with problems! Start walking in with challenges and offering your own solution. If he decides your solution is not one that is viable, rather than plopping yet another file on his desk for him to follow up with, discuss an alternative and ask if you can handle the issue. This will provide you with insight on how the situation should be handled in the future and help establish you as a pro-active leader.

12. Be supportive of the team.

Being supportive means you are genuinely happy for the successes of others. It means you avoid gossiping or talking poorly of others and you never ever speak negatively of a team member to a customer. A great leader knows that you always praise in public and correct in private.

13. Add value and take initiative.

Leaders do not sit around and wait for someone to tell them what to do, great leaders take initiative. When they see a need, they fill it. When they identify a problem, they solve it. Successful leaders contribute ideas and are constantly looking for ways to improve and be more efficient.

14. Mentor a team member.

Mentoring is seeing the potential in another person and providing guidance from your own experiences and skills to help someone else achieve their personal goals. Mentoring is a selfless and rewarding act and one that the mentor can learn just as much from as the mentee. Training a new hire does not count as mentoring, mentoring is not training.

15. Ask for more responsibility (without expecting more money or anything in return).

Start by asking to take on one of your supervisor’s tasks. Perhaps something that you know you would really enjoy and that you see they struggle with or do not have the time to give it their full attention. Then ask to take the lead on a special project or oversee a small team. Don’t expect a pat on the back, a bonus or a raise. As you begin to add value, others will begin to see your worth and more opportunities will present themselves. As opportunities and responsibilities increase so will your pocket book. Just remember practice number six!

Looking for more information on leadership? Katie suggests these three books: • Dare to Lead by Brené Brown • People Follow You by Jeb Blount • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Subscribe to Katie’s YouTube channel for more free tips and ideas! https://www.youtube.com/c/KatieRigsby. Katie is teaching a leadership class as part of HAA’s Avenues series. Join her for her session on “Leadership vs. Management” on Thursday, August 5. Register at www.haaonline.org/events