Someone else got picked for captain instead of you? Here's how to be a better leader and leave the follower era behind.

Sometimes there are those canon events that still kind of get on our nerves even though we’re well and truly out of high school. As much as we joke about them, they can actually be pretty powerful events when we’re telling our own story inside our heads. Something like losing the school election to make captain can seem frivolous but could turn away a generation of would-be amazing leaders from ever trying their hands at heading up a group or a project. Besides, what did your school captains ever do apart from writing a cliché filled graduation speech and unsuccessfully adding junk food back in the tuckshop menu?

Here’s our tips on being a better leader:

1. Be a better supporter

Didn’t expect that, did you? The truth about management or leadership is that while it might seem like they’re the ones pulling all this weight, the true leader’s role is to get the best out of the people around them. Imagine that you’re a superstar sales person, and you’re the head of your team. You can sell 8 phones a day, while your three team members can sell 3 phones a day each (don’t worry about the maths, I’m going somewhere with this). You decide that leadership’s about being the superstar and carrying the team, so your team consistently sells about 14 phones a day. But what if you focused on selling just 6 phones a day, and spent the extra time developing your other team members? Even if they sell one extra phone each, as a team, you’re already performing above your previous best.

2. Keep your ears open

You’re probably noticing a theme here, but a leader who’s a better listener trumps a big mouth any day (you hear that, my high school captain?). Great leaders are ones who have great problem-solving skills, and a big part of being able to solve problems is having the right information on hand. And how do you get that information? By listening, of course! Listen to your customers, listen to your managers, listen to your coworkers, even listen to people who aren’t in your team! You never know when you’ll be able to draw the dots between a problem that a customer’s having, and a side project that your co-worker happens to be working on right now. Or, a team member comes to you with a problem, and you know the best person for them to talk to.

3. Lead by example

Remember when you saw your school captain give a big lecture at assembly about littering, but then you saw them peg an apple at the fence to make it explode that very lunch time? Or was that just me? The point is that I wasn’t feeling very motivated to pick up 3 pieces of rubbish every morning tea after that display. Over your working life you’ll see many such cases of people saying one thing then doing the other, and then seemingly being surprised when people aren’t eager to march on their orders. Be that guy – the one who stacks the dishwasher, who respectfully calls people out when they say something unacceptable, and who delivers what they say they will, when it’s due. That doesn’t mean that you need to take it all on and suffer in silence, but by rolling your sleeves up you show what being a good team member looks like.

4. Try to prove yourself wrong

As the old cliché goes: you’re your own worst critic – and while this is normally a force for destruction, there’s a way to harness it for good in order to become an A-1 problem solver. Let’s say you come up with a new idea.

Trying to prove yourself wrong at this stage is about help you fail quickly, and come back better before investing heaps of time and money into the project. With a little extra preparation, you can create something called a minimum viable product, or MVP for short – which allows you to get more constructive feedback.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to see if you’re on the right track:

• Am I making this decision because I know something for a fact, or is it on gut instinct? Am I clear on what problem I am trying to solve?
• Does everyone believe the same thing as me? Take the time to be curious and ask them and / or use technology to test it.
• What am I nervous about people pointing out about my solution?
• If someone asked me a follow up question, do I have the data ready to go to demonstrate my analytical thinking and explain my choices?

5. Be flexible

Yes, we just told you that you can make your ideas bulletproof, but sometimes, your idea just isn’t what we need at that time, and that’s okay too! We can only prepare for what we can see coming, and our unique perspectives also come with unique shortcomings and blind spots. Guess what though – that’s yet another opportunity to be a great leader and problem solver. Great leaders aren’t the ones who get set in their ways and never change course.

The best leaders are the ones who weigh up their plans against the evidence and the obstacles as they arise. Don’t be afraid to say that you were wrong, or show vulnerability and get solutions from your peers. After all, that’s the benefit of creating something like an MVP – to find out where your ideas fall short so you can come back better next time. Keeping yourself accountable also means that people are more likely to come to you when they’ve made a mistake, rather than hiding it away until it gets too big or bad to ignore.

If you’ve made it to the end of this article, honestly you care enough about being a leader that without meeting you at all, you have the right stuff to make it big. While you can’t go back to high school to prove that school captain wrong, you can prove your younger self wrong and get started on your leadership journey right now. No matter what job or industry you end up in, you’ll find opportunities to take the lead on a project, job, or even a business of your own one day, so remember: support others, keep an open mind, be brave, be reflective and be flexible!