Plot your own path up the leadership ladder

Brian Sutton considers how to successfully make the transition from a technical to a leadership role.

As an IT professional climbing the career ladder, you will at some point reach a definitive rung where you must move from a technical to a leadership role.How do you make that transition?

First, remember that a leader is not born, but made. Second, leaders are never narrow in their perspective.

The ability to rapidly grasp the essentials of another's ideas and successfully build upon them is far more valuable, and rare, than the ability to apply your own specific area of excellence.

So if your aim is to move up the corporate ladder, you will need to develop and demonstrate skills and abilities valued at those higher levels.

Make it your personal priority to take charge of your own development.

Even committed organisations may not provide the environment allowing you to develop your skills in a way that sees you reach your management goal. So where do you begin?

The most important thing to understand about the corporate ladder is that management will not promote an individual for being an expert at doing what he or she does.

If you're very good at your current job, it's probably in the organisation's best interest to keep you doing it.

With this in mind, it's vital to remember that an organisation looking to promote will not simply assess how well you are performing in your current role. More important will be whether you demonstrate the qualities to succeed in your desired position.

If your target role is one of leadership, then the qualities you need to market will almost certainly be those termed soft skills. The reason soft skills are so important is that management and leadership are essentially team games.

Success in modern business will require you to show specific aptitudes.

You will need to be able to rapidly construct consensus, and to engage your workers' abilities towards common goals.

It's not every day you get an opportunity to demonstrate such skills.But potential leaders are not expected to spring fully formed from within the company.

What you can do is look out for, or create, opportunities to demonstrate some of the core skills of leadership. These tangible skills are verbal and written communication, relationship building, facilitation and negotiation.

These soft skills are imperative to the IT leader. Organisations need good management, and the opportunity exists for the budding leaders among you.

If you are daunted by some of the business skills described, don't be surprised. It's often the areas where we feel most uncomfortable that present the greatest opportunities for personal development.

But if you are serious about moving up the career ladder, make it your mission to develop and practise core management skills. You will be amazed how people who previously ignored you will slowly start to value your opinion and input.

Devote time and energy to developing and honing your leadership skills. It's worth it because you'll find they translate into hard currency.

Brian Sutton is chief educator at QA, a UK provider of IT and business skills training.
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