‘There’s a difference between assertive and aggressive’: How to prepare for leadership

Are you preparing to take the next step up the career ladder? If so, it is vital to have a plan and understand what a leadership role entails.

IMechE’s upcoming Aspiring Engineering Manager training course focuses on the essential behaviours and attitudes of effective managers, such as assertive communication and personal responsibility, while also covering practical skills like time management and active listening.

Last year, we spoke to course leader and coach Andy Webber. Here are four tips he gave for aspiring managers.

Use the time you have wisely

How do you use the time you have? In the course, we talk about things like personal effectiveness and making sure you’re effective in the way you manage your time.

It’s also about being proactive, taking responsibility – not sitting back and waiting for stuff to happen. If stuff does happen, you need to react, but it’s about being proactive as well and not just waiting for things to go wrong.  

Understand what’s important to you – and to other people

We also talk about your values, for two reasons.

One, to be an effective leader you need to understand who you are in the first place. What do you think is important? What are your values? You need to understand why you behave the way you do and how your values underpin that.

Two, as a leader you are going to be leading people who don’t have the same values as you, so how do we respect those people and how do we understand them? And how do an individual’s values sit alongside an organisation’s values?

Communicate both ways

You need to communicate both ways – listening and communicating in an assertive way. There is a difference between assertive and aggressive, and we make that clear. Most people don’t confuse them, but aggressive people do.

We also emphasise listening. When we think about leaders communicating, we think of big speeches. Sometimes that is necessary when we need to motivate people and fire them up, but probably more important is being a good listener, particularly if we’re taking the first step into leadership as a team leader. You’re not going to be inspiring armies to fight, but you will need to listen to the problems people have.

Manage your personal image

The other aspect is managing people’s perspective of you. For example, by being proactive, people will see you slightly differently than if you’re just reacting to things. They’ll see you as a bit more of a self-starter, all that good stuff. It’s about looking at yourself through other people’s eyes, in order to put yourself in a position to be ready for a leadership role.

IMechE’s Aspiring Engineering Manager course runs in Manchester on 14 November. Find out more and book.