"Leadership Potential" - the 🐣Chicken & the Egg

Last week I introduced you to my friend, communication expert Judith Humphrey. We focused on one of the biggest obstacles in our path to leadership: imposter syndrome, or what Judith describes as the crow on your shoulder, cackling away, and depleting your confidence.

I ❤️love this crow metaphor.

That crow is not you,
its message is not true,
and you can talk back to that crow!

This week we focus on what comes next…

Whether your boss made the suggestion or whether it’s your own initiative, you realize it’s time to start DEMONSTRATING LEADERSHIP.

Wait! Isn’t this a 🐣chicken-before-the-egg situation? How am I supposed to “demonstrate leadership potential” when I’m not in a “position of leadership”?

And what’s with all the bird metaphors?

Read on for some great tips for how you can demonstrate leadership starting right now!

How to DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL

First of all, Judith recommends that you determine whether your boss is genuinely interested in promoting you. This is critical! If you make the effort, will you be rewarded? Ask yourself:

Is my boss willing & able to elevate me?

If the answer is yes, then focus on these three ways to demonstrate your leadership potential:

1️⃣ Deliver quality work

Be reliable. Deliver everything on time, on budget, according to the terms of the project

2️⃣ Seek opportunities to shine

Ask for more responsibility, volunteer to lead a team or a meeting, take initiative.

3️⃣ Demonstrate strong communication skills

Strong leaders are effective communicators. Full stop.

This last point makes my heart sing! But how exactly can you “demonstrate strong communication skills”?

You’re in luck! Judith has a framework for that…

THE LEADERS’ SCRIPT

Whenever you communicate, you need to have a clear structure, message, and purpose – whether its written or spoken, formal or informal, planned or impromptu…

To address this, Judith developed THE LEADERS’ SCRIPT, a 4-step framework for communicating a clear message. (And you know how I love a good framework!)

Image Unsplash Marcus Winkler

The Four Dimensions of the Leaders’ Script:

1️⃣ THE GRABBER – Depending on the context, this could be something provocative. Grab the audience’s attention.

2️⃣ MAIN MESSAGE or VIEWPOINT – Be explicit about your main message. What is your point? You could say “my message is,” “my viewpoint is,” here’s how I feel,” “here’s what I believe,” or “here’s what I need.”

3️⃣ STRUCTURE – Remember the three “supporting paragraphs” in your high school English essays? You can structure this in various ways, including: