I recently had the opportunity to go back to school and attend a professional development course at Harvard University’s Extension School. The specific course I participated in was Managing Yourself and Leading Others and entailed two full days on Harvard’s campus with a very diverse group of about 50 individuals.
The course was incredibly valuable, incorporating case studies, small group activities, class discussions, lectures and self-reflection. As someone just beginning to take on more management responsibility, this course was helpful in building foundational skills that I will be able to leverage for years to come. I want to share some of the most beneficial lessons I took away from the course.
Anyone Can Lead
One of the first things the Professor Jennifer Stine shared with the class was, “anyone can lead.” She went on to further explain that management and leadership are not one in the same, stating, “people can demonstrate leadership in a variety of situations.” As a young professional, this statement struck me. While I am beginning to gain more management responsibilities, both
internally and externally, I felt this was an important distinction. Just because I didn’t manage entire accounts or a large team of people, didn’t mean that I couldn’t act as a leader.
Soft Skill Make a Difference
One of the first exercises we did was reflect on managers we had admired and respected. We then wrote down the qualities that had led to the admiration and wrote each one down on individual Post-It notes. Once we had about five items written down, we stuck each quality to a board, labeling it as either a soft skill or a technical skill. The qualities on the soft skills board overwhelmingly outnumbered the qualities on the technical skills board. It was clear that the managers who had had the biggest impact on people didn’t just have the expertise required to execute tasks, they had displayed respect, empathy and trust to cultivate meaningful relationships.
Professor Stine went on to explain that emotional intelligence becomes one of the best ways to differentiate yourself. Everyone will have a certain level of technical expertise—it’s required to obtain the position. However, after that, the ability to demonstrate leadership skills and build admiration amongst your colleagues will become an important skill that will help you get ahead.
Advocacy and Inquiry
Understanding others’ perspectives is crucial to a collaborative and cohesive team. Being able to voice your opinion is also vital to playing an active role on a team. So how do you ensure you’ve shared your perspective as well as listened to others? Learn to balance advocacy and inquiry.
It’s important to make and active effort to listen to others’ opinions and do your best to understand their point of view and the reasoning behind it. However, it is equally important to share your perspective, especially when you feel strongly about an issue. A team with no conflict (I don’t mean, yelling and throwing things across the room conflict), is a complacent team.
While this is a lesson that can be easily applied to your teams internally, it also seems to be incredibly applicable to relationships with clients. It is important that we do all we can to understand our clients’ objectives, wants and ideas, but as their consultants, they are relying on us to provide counsel around what we think will be most effective for them, even if it isn’t in alignment with what they’re proposing.
The Growth Mindset
We started on this topic by watching a TEDx talk called, The Power of Believing that You Can Improve, by Carol Dweck. In this talk, Dweck refers to a study done by the University of Washington, in which they monitored results from elementary and middle school classrooms that applied the growth mindset to grading. Rather than failing students on tests or assignments, teachers would write, “not yet.” Instead of positioning students as failures, it positioned students as novices with the potential to acquire the skills needed to succeed. This repositioning led classrooms that once struggled to keep up, to become some of the top performing classes in the nation.
Throughout a career, there are tests and challenges that may leave individuals feeling disheartened or frustrated, but maintaining a growth mindset can allow for a more positive perspective on failure and ultimately lead to growth.
The course offered by Harvard has already proved to be useful and applicable to my routine—I’ve already leveraged multiple lessons from the training. If you have the opportunity to attend this training, or another with positive reviews, I highly recommend it. It can be challenging to step out of the office for trainings when your to-do list never seems to get shorter. But taking time to reflect on your leadership style and focus on developing new skills can be an incredibly valuable experience that can ultimately make you more effective.