A Learning Path For First-Time Leaders

There is no generic leadership learning path, and there’s no substitute for experience on the job. The purpose of a learning path is to help leaders discover the different styles, approaches, sources of authority, and traits. Leaders apply that knowledge and develop a unique style. There isn’t a book or workshop that will choose an effective style for the leader.

We are never fully developed, either. Learning is continuous, and each leadership level requires different capabilities. We constantly adapt to new team members, business conditions, and feedback. We are also growing and changing, which impacts our leadership style. A different learning path or change could make sense at every stage.

Finally, most leadership training is useless. There are two reasons. First, there is very little research into effective leadership. Surveys and case studies are the most common supporting evidence for a school of leadership. Anyone can develop a leadership style and find evidence to support its effectiveness. Second, what’s an effective style of leadership for me and a dozen others might not work for you.

How Do You Begin Learning Leadership?

Experience and mentorship are the most effective leadership learning tools. The best option is to find 2-3 leaders in the business and schedule an hour per month with them. Few companies have a structured leadership mentoring program, so you may have to build these relationships yourself. Mentors also serve as allies, advisors, and advocates. If you can access high-quality mentors, stop reading and cultivate that learning path.

Most people, especially in technology and data organizations, do not have access to mentorship. This learning path will get your journey started, but it’s non-traditional. You will abandon branches that don’t make sense or don’t fit your personality. If you feel uncomfortable implementing what you’re learning, don’t go any further in that direction.

Everything is adaptable. You can mix styles and borrow elements from several schools of thought. That’s how most leaders develop their capabilities. Some of what you’ll learn will not apply to you until years down the road. Learning takes a toolkit approach. Each new style adds to your toolkit, and you never know what something will become helpful.

The Learning Path

As an early career leader, the range of situations you can find yourself in is vast. That’s why the first place I recommend you start is Situational Leadership. As the name implies, this framework provides tools to customize your leadership style to individual team members’ needs. It balances 4 styles: delegating, supporting, coaching, and directing.

It fits into my toolkit theory of early leadership. From my experience mentoring early leaders, this is a quick way to ramp up. The downside is the lack of guidance on when to use each style or how to discover what each team member needs.

One thing every leader struggles with early on is delegation. ‘Let It Go’ is a new book that I enjoyed and is getting good reviews from others.

Early career leadership is focused on productivity, and leaders must start with themselves. You’ll get pulled in dozens of directions, so prioritization and focus are critical success factors. I recommend ‘The One Thing.’ Once you’ve learned and practiced these tools, you’ll start teaching them to the team.

Leadership also requires negotiation and conflict management capabilities. I teach strategic leadership and evaluate negotiations as a search for alignment and common ground. Discovering small areas of agreement takes the conversation forward. The most important negotiation component for strategic leaders is getting the other person to agree with something.

There are many other schools of thought. ‘Negotiating the Impossible’ does a great job covering negotiation tactics through storytelling and actionable advice.

Mindset is where every leadership style flows from. That makes ‘Mindset’ a must-read. You will hear many of Dweck’s thinking echoed in how I talk about the innovator’s mindset and disruptive thinking.

Most people advise you to develop grit, but I think most data scientists and engineers already have it. Sometimes we have a bit too much. Annie Duke released a book very recently that opens a different perspective on the downsides of grit and determination called, ‘Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away.’ A different perspective on grit reveals how much we lose with blind persistence.

In the same spirit is a more traditional management book, ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.’ One of my favorite mentoring lines is, “The capabilities that got you to this point and made your career a success until now are not the same as the capabilities that will take you to the next level.” That’s an excellent summary of the book.

‘The First 90 Days’ is a roadmap for success in a new leadership role. Coming up with a 90-day plan is an essential leadership skill. I teach a different framework, but the construct is similar. The first 90 days in any role sets the leader up for success or struggle. Without a plan, struggle becomes the most likely outcome.

I am a strategic leadership advocate and have practiced that leadership style for over 15 years. If you’re in the data field and want to learn strategic leadership, take my course, either live or self-paced. I spent 4 years developing and improving it for data team and organizational leaders.

Especially in the current economic environment, ‘Extreme Ownership’ will help leaders navigate high-stakes situational leadership. This book is intense and teaches a leadership style that isn’t for everyone.

That’s enough to fill 12-18 months of reading and put you on the path to developing your leadership style. Each resource starts a learning journey and will introduce you to a critical aspect of leadership. However, not all will become part of your current leadership style. You’ll find a use for some of these later in your career. Others, you’ll never revisit.

As I said, there’s no generic leadership learning path. It’s up to you to see what fits best.