| MARCH 2021 |

AMY’S STORY

Amy’s story

Amy’s story

WRITTEN BY: MICHELLE WHITE

Over the years as a Leader, I have seen a number of people being employed. New employees were often a few years out of University and had a variety of different backgrounds, personalities and attributes. From early beginnings, I saw a number of people rise from Consultant to Senior Consultant, Team Leader through to Business Unit Manager. Many of those people shared the same characteristics of being open to challenging themselves and the status quo, of being keen to contribute their efforts to assisting others and performing really strongly in their roles.

“SHE WOULD ALWAYS PUT HER HAND UP”

I focus on one person in particular because she showed clear signs from an early stage of her career that she had leadership potential. She demonstrated that in a number of ways. It is often difficult to contribute at the beginning of a career when you are still learning but in the early days, she would offer to document a new process or to write training material or notes. She always put her hand up to help organise events or get togethers for the team and was respectful of the contributions of others.

As she became more knowledgeable and confident, she would volunteer to mentor or train people on one aspect of the role. She looked for opportunities to share information from her division to the rest of the company and was keen to contribute to discussions as they arose. She engaged with building relationships across the company, not just her team or her Manager, and thought about the bigger picture and the company.

“As she became more knowledgeable and confident, she would volunteer to mentor or train people on one aspect of the role”

So, what are the lessons from her?

  1. Contribute where you can – this might not be the most exciting things at the beginning, but they grow into working on those exciting things
  2. Don’t wait for a title but gently assume or contribute to the work of a Leader
  3. Be sure that the management / leadership team are aware that you would like to work towards a leadership team
  4. Be aware of others more senior / also on this path and build relationships with them – it’s a collective not a competition
  5. Become really good at the job you are in and then look at how learnings you make or systems you develop can benefit other teams / people