Hi Shailee,

Leadership role requires spending more effort on coaching people and supporting them, removing roadblocks, setting goals that produce positive change - all of this requires conscious practice and is a much more interpersonal role than a technical one. In most cases, leaders are hired for their personalities, their achievements, the way they present themselves, and their thinking patterns - not necessarily for their certificates or background.

The best advice I can give is to start where you currently are and build from there. It's much more sustainable to grow into a leadership/management position instead of looking to get accepted for one. This approach will include developing the necessary skills & mindset and actively practicing being a leader already now. Taking ownership of what you're currently doing as if you're already in charge, speaking up, proposing and driving initiatives, networking with people, and finding possibilities for improvements.

A great way to speed up the process would be to find someone who already went from a technical background into a leadership role and ask him to mentor you. Find what's similar between you, what you're missing (skills, capabilities, network, etc.), and make a plan on how to develop what's missing.

As long as you put your heart and soul into it and have a plan, you'll get there. Best of luck!

06 October, 2020 09:19