{"id":51723,"date":"2021-04-26T06:39:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/how-to-be-a-leader-at-work-even-when-youre-still-not-at-work\/"},"modified":"2021-04-26T06:39:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T13:39:08","slug":"how-to-be-a-leader-at-work-even-when-youre-still-not-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-be-a-leader-at-work-even-when-youre-still-not-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Leader at Work, Even When You\u2019re (Still) Not \u201cAt Work\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated 4.21.21<\/em><\/p>\n

Every MBA hopeful is, or should be, considering how he or she can step up and lead at work, no matter their title or role. Highlighting an array of times you\u2019ve led is an essential differentiator for those hoping to demonstrate what many b-schools, notably Harvard Business School, call a \u201chabit of leadership<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

But in the current work from home environment, which many companies are expecting to extend until the fall<\/a>, some of the traditional ways that early career professionals found coveted leadership opportunities are harder to come by. It\u2019s not as easy to get pulled into a meeting, be at the right place at the right time, or use your elevator pitch (in an actual elevator) to network.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With what looks to be another competitive application cycle<\/a> on the horizon, this is not the time to wait for things to go back to normal. Whether or not you are applying, this is likely a time that your team and organization needs people to step up, so much so that senior leadership may not even have time to ask.<\/p>\n

So, here are a few ways that you can step-up as a leader at work\u2026from home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Raise Your Hand.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

An old boss once said that, if you\u2019re a junior person at your firm, you shouldn\u2019t leave work until you\u2019ve asked each senior person if they need anything else. Maybe that system is antiquated (I\u2019m not that old, by the way), but it\u2019s a good practice in the current environment. A director on your team can\u2019t step outside of his or her office and physically see you to remember that you do good work, so you should reach out to them. Ask if there\u2019s anything you can do to help. Ask if there are special projects you can lead a part of or help with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Be Visible and Vocal<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

Most likely, the senior leaders on your team are in Zoom meetings all\u2026day\u2026long. Stay in front of them with status updates, which means frequently sending emails giving overviews of what you\u2019re doing and where it stands. Make sure the senior people on your team are hearing from you every day if that\u2019s appropriate for your team\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in an industry that\u2019s turning on a dime right now, stay on top of developments and share them with your team. Continue to offer to take on more and be proactive. Be specific if you have a recommendation for something you can do like \u201cI saw that we\u2019ll need x analysis \u2013 I was going to start working on that \u2013 does that work for you?\u201d Offers like this are gold to a senior leader right now.<\/p>\n

3. Be Positive<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

I know that the work from home situation has gotten old. Trust me, you\u2019re not the only one losing motivation now that the weather is getting nicer and it\u2019s becoming acceptable to socialize in person again. However, try not to let this attitude pervade your team. Be the person who helps redirect people into a positive, productive space as often as possible. The people who can do this well are the leaders everyone wants and needs, in a crisis or otherwise.<\/p>\n

4. Be a Doer. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Maybe you\u2019re the youngest, most junior person on your team and you\u2019re not used to making decisions or running with an idea. Well, this is your moment because there are a lot of seemingly little ways you can act right now that may help everyone around you.<\/p>\n

If appropriate, this a good time to decide to do something that you know is productive, even if no one told you to. Create a trivia question of the week, send your hilarious jokes every Monday to your team, create a Google sheet to help people get organized \u2013 whatever you see that could be helpful, if appropriate within your organization and team (or with appropriate approval if needed), make your bias towards action.<\/p>\n

5. Harness the Lessons Learned<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/h4>\n

Among many things COVID taught us as a society, it demonstrated the power of communities coming together to help those in need. Just because some of the pandemic panic has waned, it doesn\u2019t mean that there aren\u2019t organizations in dire need of assistance.<\/p>\n

Young students who have been out of the classroom for a year are likely in need of some summer tutoring to catch up. The restaurant industry is still struggling to make ends meet and recoup some of the devastation it experienced during the shutdowns.<\/p>\n

Find and share opportunities with your colleagues. Remind them that, even if things are looking brighter in their small universe, the same is not necessarily true for others. Even if in a small way, it is possible to make a difference in this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, these suggestions aren\u2019t isolated to those applying to b-school; but for those MBA hopefuls who are reading this, being able to describe how you acted and led during this time will be very important to your applications. Consider what you\u2019d be proud to tell the admissions committee you were doing to step-up during this time and make that a reality. Turbulent times are where real leaders emerge.<\/p>\n

The post How to Be a Leader at Work, Even When You\u2019re (Still) Not \u201cAt Work\u201d<\/a> appeared first on Vantage Point MBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated 4.21.21 Every MBA hopeful is, or should be, considering how he or she can step up and lead at work, no matter their title or role. Highlighting an array…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1955,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-vantage-point-mba","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}