Mapping out a path to business leadership takes perseverance, commitment, and dedication. Despite this, the rewards of leadership are often abundant, and not only in financial terms. Yes, of course, pursuing a career in management can elicit significant increases in our remuneration. However, this is not the only benefit.
Leading others doesn’t just help us grow
professionally; there is also an enormous amount of
personal growth that can occur when stepping up to manage a team. Developing the ability to lead others requires learning to communicate effectively, think critically, make strategic decisions, and, perhaps most importantly, motivate and inspire those around us.
If you’re interested in a career in business leadership, here’s our guide to mapping out your path.
Make a Plan: Carving Out Your Route to Leadership
The first step to mapping out your leadership career path is to set your ambitions. What are you aspiring to
do with your career? What are you hoping to achieve by becoming a leader? Set your sights high. Perhaps you’re aiming for a role in upper management. Or maybe, you’ve got your sights set on a C-suite role. But regardless of whether you want to become a CEO, upper manager, or work closely with your colleagues as their team leader, the key lies in first setting your intentions.
Once you have your intentions clearly established in relation to the leadership path you wish to take, the next step is to understand how you’re going to get there. Aspiring to leadership is one thing, but having the drive, determination, and, most importantly, the
action plan needed to land that promotion is ultimately what will help you achieve it.
According to many career advisors, formulating an action plan is key to helping us understand what’s required to reach a personal or professional goal, like landing that leadership role. It requires us to break down the steps we’ll need to take towards achieving that goal, as well as separating the plan into manageable tasks. For individuals aspiring to business leadership, this action plan provides the blueprint for the road ahead, the path to reaching lofty leadership goals.
Obtain Your Qualification: Studying Leadership Courses
Another aspect that can assist us in stepping up to business leadership is to gain a relevant qualification. Whether we’re interested in completing a
Masters in Australia or a different kind of degree, there are several types of leadership courses an aspiring leader can undertake, including;
Master’s of Business Administration (MBA)
Arguably the most commonly known leadership course, a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) can help ambitious individuals develop the skills required to lead in business. The coursework’s areas of focus often include finance, economics, marketing, and other aspects of business. As it’s a postgraduate degree, most often, MBA students will have already completed some form of undergraduate course.
Executive Development Courses
Although not strictly a university degree, an executive development course can provide an effective stepping stone into upper management or leadership roles. Often involving one-on-one mentorship and development, these types of courses allow up-and-coming managers to build on their existing skills, as well as identify any gaps in their knowledge.
Personal Development and Learning
As well as stretching ourselves professionally, aspiring leaders also need to develop their personal skills. Skills like effective communication, interpersonal and relationship-building capabilities are all central to success as a business leader.
The good news is that we don’t always need to study a course or degree to develop ourselves personally. Instead, we can tune in to personal development podcasts, for example, or read materials specifically written to help us become the best people – and leaders – we can be.
Keep Committed: Staying the Course of Your Leadership Pathway
On our journey towards leadership greatness, it can be easy to lose sight of our end goal. This is especially true if our actions to date haven’t propelled our careers forward as quickly as we would have hoped. In these moments, it’s critical to refer back to our original action plan, and just as importantly, to remember our ‘why’. We must use these moments to look back on the intentions we set at the beginning of our journey, and to remind ourselves of the reasons why we started.
As mentioned earlier, climbing the ladder towards leadership takes both drive
and dedication. As such, we must be determined to succeed. We need to have not only unwavering ambition but resilience as well. In reality, ambitious career
moves don’t always go to plan, and more often than not, roadblocks will pop up to ambush us along the way. It’s at times like these that sticking to our original plan is most important, as is staying committed to our end goal – even though the road ahead may be challenging.
Stay Sane: Supporting Your Mental Health Through the Journey
Finally, while staying committed to our end goal, it’s also just as important for us to stay sane. This means we need to take active steps to support our
mental health while also striving to be the best we can be professionally.
But the reality is that when we have ambitious goals, we tend to put ourselves under pressure to reach them. It’s no secret that developing high levels of
cortisol, the stress hormone, which can happen when we’re under pressure, can be damaging to our health. This means that to be able to perform at our optimal capacity professionally, we also need to be caring for our headspace. So, to combat excessive stress (and high cortisol levels), we should consider
implementing stress relief strategies, such as meditation, mindfulness, and even gentle exercise. Journaling or ‘brain-dumping’ our thoughts can also be an effective stress-relieving tool.
Ultimately, the journey to business leadership requires us to be the best version of ourselves, both personally and professionally. In this sense, embracing a holistic approach to wellness can help us succeed in our careers and reach the leadership goals we set for ourselves at the start of our journeys.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev; Unsplash
