Moving towards leadership
Even if you’re in the early stages of your career, you can still start planning to be a leader. By Duncan Brodie FCMA, managing director of Goals and Achievements.
What does it take to reach the most senior levels of an organisation? Let me say right up front that to even get your foot on the ladder, you need to get through your CIMA exams.
After that, the important factors are:
- your desire to get ahead in your career
- your willingness to keep going when obstacles appear
- your own self confidence and self belief
- your ability to build relationships
- your ability to inspire and influence others
- your willingness and ability to innovate, adapt and take the initiative
- your effectiveness at bringing out the best in others and gaining respect.
In my experience, there are three key phases in your career. The things you do or don’t do at each stage have an important impact and implications.
Up to qualification
Your primary focus at this stage needs to be passing your exams, getting CIMA membership and gaining experience in the core areas of accounting. At this stage you can also attend relevant short courses or CPD events.
Five years post qualification
Once qualified and a CIMA member, you need to focus on building your management and interpersonal skills.
Taking courses is just one component. On the job experience in areas like selecting staff, appraising staff, handling performance problems, running meetings, presenting information and writing reports is important.
Transitioning from manager to leader
This is a big step. Pretty much everyone can do the technical element of the job – so at this stage of your career, employers are much more interested in things like what you are going to bring to the organisation, your fit with other senior people, and how you are going to help the organisation move forward.
You might participate in a leadership programme, take a masters level qualification or even work with an executive or leadership coach.
Becoming a leader
Here are some things to think about as you start to take on more responsible roles.
Focus on your role - when you make a change in your job, the temptation is to retain aspects of your previous role that you enjoyed. Avoid this if you can. Focus all of your attention on the new role.
Build a good team - your job as a leader is to provide direction and get results, so your success will have a lot to do with your team.
A support network - leadership roles can be lonely. Make sure you have a support network to help you through the challenging times.
Be visible - some leaders are criticised for spending too much time in their offices and losing sight of what is going on in the organisation, or even in their departments - so stay connected.
Responsibility - if you want to be a good leader, you need to be willing to take responsibility for results, good and bad.
Invest in your team - many leaders say that people are their greatest asset. Fewer translate the words into action and invest in a team.
Keep developing yourself - as a leader, you will face many new and different challenges, so keep investing in CPD.
Links
CIMA Leadership topic gateway
Search for 'leadership' in Mastercourses
Goals and Achievements
Contact us
You can contact us with your feedback and suggestions for Velocity at velocity@cimaglobal.com.