The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 1

Position Yourself for a New Role

There are three components to activating your leadership potential. The first is knowing your own leadership qualities and capacities. The second is building a career plan. The third is interacting effectively with others in such a way that this becomes a part of an organization's or a market's perception of you. Know yourself, create a plan, and then help others know you. We've mapped out three concrete steps you can take to position yourself for leadership roles and promotions.

1. Know your leadership potential.

   Begin with the first dimension—know yourself as a leader. A title or promotion does not make anyone a leader. Leadership emerges from the character, qualities, and capacities of the individual. Make no mistake about it, authentic leadership is personal. It starts with identifying the characteristics, values, attitudes, strengths, and preferences that you hold at your core that will be the foundation for your leadership style. Without knowing these it's possible that your leadership style will be ineffective or seem hollow. Knowing oneself is the foundation of all true leaders.

2. Build a career plan.

   Great leaders are not made in a day. Leadership is built over time. You start with your preferences, identify your strengths and opportunities for growth, reach down to your core values, and then build, methodically and intentionally, ...