Summary: My Talk to Emerging Leaders

For the last few days, I have been writing about the things that I recall from my talk to emerging leaders in my organization (Citrix) as a part of 'Next Generation Leadership' program. It was a sort of 'limited time' mentor role (not sure why it was called mentor though) in which I, along with three accomplished peers of mine were a part of panel talk, with 35 plus emerging leaders in the audience.

It was a great experience for me overall and humbling one for sure. These are the occasions you feel lucky to have been chosen to talk when you know that there are more able people in the organization. I am thankful to the L&D team leaders to have given me this opportunity.

In this blog, I am summarizing the access to the key messages from this talk that I blogged about in detail.

Career paths exists as a guidelines, not as mandates
Key Idea: One of my beliefs have been that senior and leadership roles are open ended in nature. What I mean by this is, these roles are not tied just to job description but also has open ended element that should prompt leaders to find their own ways to make organization and products better.
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/06/talk-to-emerging-leaders-career-paths.html)

Be authentic to self, your team and your superiors
Key Idea: Authenticity is not something we have or don't have. It's a practice- a conscious choice of how we want to live.- Berne Brown
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/06/talk-to-emerging-leaders-be-authentic.html)

The concept of life-long careers is long gone
Key Idea: The careers of future are going to be ones in which one need to adapt at solving variety of problems. Once you show the necessary agility needed to solve myriad of problem, it opens up the unknown career paths. 
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/talk-to-emerging-leaders-concept-of.html)

Learn how to enjoy ambiguity
Key Idea: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/talk-to-emerging-leaders-learn-how-to.html)

Know how to handle increase in volume and complexity of work
Key Idea:  To reach senior leadership level roles, it is imperative to understand the changes that increase in volume and complexity of work will bring in. It's all about the balancing act between- doing the things right and doing the right things.
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-talk-to-emerging-leaders-know-how-to.html)

Learn how to manage upwards
Key Idea: The management world is replete with articles and books on how to succeed, how to get to the corner office fast and how to be a great leader. But the literature is thinner on how to be a great subordinate, how to deserve before desire, and how to regard understanding what your boss needs as an integral part of your job.
(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-talk-to-emerging-leaders-learn-how.html)

Embrace Situational Awareness
Key Idea: Gap opportunities often surface unannounced and people are able to take notice of these gaps are the ones who are most aware of context and the situations. Attending exec meetings is one way, other ways to be situationally aware is to dedicate time on your calendar to decipher what is happening in your organization, and in the industry. 

(More Info: http://anujmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-talk-to-emerging-leaders-embrace.html)