You're looking to move up the ladder. How can you become a leader in your organization?

Too much of attention to succeed always ends up making one over cautious. Don’t celebrate too much when successful , don’t fuss when you don’t. Enjoy the process. Learn, enjoy and share. In this process learn some more. Don’t listen to self help podcasts and videos. Everyone’s journey is different. Not everything will fall in your lap. Trust that nothing is more important than your own happiness. Keep yourself first. You will realize that you are succeeding and also enjoying.

To ascend as a leader within the organization, focus on developing key leadership traits. Enhance communication skills, actively listen, and articulate ideas effectively. Seize opportunities to lead projects, demonstrating initiative and problem-solving prowess. Foster relationships and collaboration by building strong connections with colleagues and stakeholders. Embrace continuous learning, cultivating a growth mindset to adapt to challenges and changes. Lead by example, embodying the organization's values and inspiring others. By consistently exhibiting these qualities, you can establish yourself as a capable and respected leader, paving the way for career advancement.

The best way to become a good leader is to assess yourself and become more self aware. A leader is one who is willing to work on himself/ herself based on the feedback they receive or the way they perceive themselves. A leader who is aware of their strengths and weaknesses can drive better collaboration amongst teams and at the same time think of their team members as complementing their weaknesses rather than them being insecure about it.

To become a leader in my organization, I prioritize continuous learning, take initiative on projects, foster strong relationships, and consistently deliver results that drive the company's success.

To become a leader in your organization, focus on developing strong communication skills, building relationships with colleagues, taking on challenging projects, demonstrating a positive attitude, and continuously seeking opportunities for growth and learning. Additionally, showcase your leadership potential by being proactive, reliable, and willing to take on additional responsibilities.

Known your company's target goals and keep pushing everything to be in alignment with those goals. Become the person you want your team to be should you take on the responsibility of their leadership.

Take the initiative to seek mentorship from leaders you admire by expressing your interest in learning from their experience. Don't hesitate to ask questions about their career journey and leadership philosophies, and seek guidance on overcoming challenges you're facing. Additionally, shadowing a leader for a day, volunteering for challenging projects, and reading industry publications and books are effective ways to learn from their experiences and develop your own leadership skills.

The best way to become a good leader is to keep on learning from different leaders. The more variety/ diversity of leaders one studies, the more they can observe them and inculcate or avoid those behavioural patterns in their own leadership style. This in turn would help create a unique personality, which has been formed after a lot of research and feedback.

To start with, I would differentiate moving up the ladder and becoming a leader, since to be a leader you don't necessarily need to move up the ladder. Like in any other work domain, to move up the ladder you need to demonstrate, while in your current position, that you can successfully handle next level responsibilities. That can involve volunteering to lead projects, providing training or mentoring members. Particularly, in CX, this could mean increasing the scope of your work. For example, if your focus is to improve CX in Customer Support, an idea would be to expand your reach and lead initiatives to collaborate with Product or Marketing & Sales by sharing CS insights to improve other touch points in the customer journey.

In addition to learn from others which is helpful to an extent, but doing things personally gives you a hands on experience with real cases and situations and a chance to craft and sharpen your skills .

Taking on more responsibility will definitely signal your senior management team that you're keen and willing to do what it takes. Ensure you're taking on responsibilities that align with the role/s you want to move into. Be thoughtful about the things you put your hand up for so you don't fall into the trap of being the person that everything gets 'dumped' onto, because no one else volunteers. Couple this approach with an honest, open and concise discussion with your manager and/or manager's manager. Back yourself! Let them know the direction you want to go in, ask for constructive feedback and be clear about your intentions by taking on further responsibility. Be willing to do the work, be smart about what work and who you tell.

A leader can even be an associate who’s willing to drive more things and is capable enough to handle different tasks assigned to them like mentoring, training, etc. The more responsibilities one has on their shoulders, the more accountable they become to the business drivers. Specially in CX, it’s not only about the organisation one is working for, it boils down to how well they’re able to work with the customers to suggest them improvements or provide them with timely resolutions to their requests.

Developing emotional intelligence also entails moving from your comfort zone of being a subject matter expert to focusing on the “how’s” of achieving your goals as a leader. I have worked with leaders who believed the way to achieve results was through authoritarian/directive means, and have worked with leaders whose style was collaborative, communicative, motivational, and empathetic. Goals achieved by the authoritarian leader were clearly short term driven by fear of reprisal vs. the goals achieved by the motivational leader which were sustainable, motivational, instilling a passion to drive future results. A leader needs to embody the emotional Intelligence to meet directives on time and on plan in a way that motivates and empowers.

Emotional intelligence is a necessary element in every leader. The more they understand the other person, the better & openly they can communicate with them. A leader should always give constructive feedback to the colleagues/ team members to ensure that their efforts are appreciated and at the same time make them realise what can be improved further. This way the other person would have an open mindset and at the same time, they would be willing to go above & beyond their call of duty. A leader with emotional intelligence will always empathise with the customer and would look out for ways to ensure that the right solution is provided to the them. Thereby, developing a long lasting partnership with them & making them a return customer.

I think if you raise your hand to take on projects, mentor others to help them rise in ability, and are self-motivated to bring improvements to your team, you won't be a secret in your organization for long!! Just those three things bring attention to you as a role model and showcase your leadership abilities.

There are some things people don't talk about enough when it comes to growing as a leader. Here are a few from my list: 1) Show up on time, every time 2) Put your hand up for the projects nobody wants because the outcome is not guaranteed 3) Never give up on a team mate 4) Be consistently fair 5) Listen to understand and not merely to respond

Be sure you could answer the following very simple but difficult question about yourself:- Why would anyone want to be led by me?

If you are looking up to climb the corporate ladder, chances are quite likely that you have the leadership traits to quite an extent. you need to assess yourself honestly on critical traits to begin with and gradually expand to explore your leadership ability (not skill). A executive coach can be of great help in the leadership journey.

Remember: leadership is all about serving others. It's not just a fancy titel and position for yourself. Them, not you. Us, not me. Atleast modern leadership anyways.

Don't assume your leadership knows the full extent of your contributions. Always have a record detailing how you: You turned potential losses into wins. You bounced back from churn. You generated growth through expansions and upsells. You tapped into new opportunities through referrals Please present this report to the leadership whenever you get a chance because the more value you visibly bring to the company, the higher you move up the ladder.