In an interview recently I was asked to provide the #1 practical skill for leaders. Without thinking I blurted:

ANTICIPATION!

The reason I can say this is that embedded in each of the 7 Essentials for Emerging Leaders is the ability to anticipate. To be able to look around the corner, to see the future.

Whoa, my job is hard enough. Now I have to also see the future?

Yes, but don’t panic. The best trend spotters simply are open to using their experience and their awareness to anticipate what likely will occur in the future. You do it all the time.

When your team is doing workflow design you can anticipate that we’ll want to identify all of the changes that the new workflow will bring about and communicate around those. Right?

When you assign your slowest talker to present to the hyper, Type A boss, you can predict that conversation in the hall the next time you see the boss. Right?

When you hear that the competitor is laying off customer service reps you can predict that your market share will go up. Right?

Anticipating really isn’t the hard part for an emerging leader. The hard part is doing something about it to head off the disaster or to take advantage of the opportunity. This is where you come in as a leader, offsetting the mindset of the worker.

When in worker mode, the worker is trying to get the task done. They aren’t necessarily worried about the downstream steps. Again, that’s where you come in. For example, your instructions to the workflow team, to catalog the changes separately is necessary or you will be doing rework in a few weeks. Seeing the tea leaves about the competitor possibly dropping the ball in service requires that you inform the sales team about this so they can leverage the information in the marketplace.

Offsetting the worker view (caused by busYness, multiple priorities, habit, etc.) and anticipating the downstream effects of all actions is your job.

LEAD!

Photo Credit: seanmcgrath

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