Because you can contribute more, I would focus on Leadership rather than Management
Here is an excerpt on Leadership from my book www.pugasankara.com
Leadership is people stepping up and doing things that none of the others in their level have done before. In the process they inspire others to do the same, then one more person looks at this guy and does that, then the next person, then the next person and so on, the whole organization gets transformed. So everybody in the organization feels empowered, imagine what happens when everyone of your employee feels empowered and acts with such empowerment.
It is critical to start with what leadership really is. There are plenty of misconceptions aboutwhat leadership is.
Let's start with what leadership isn't.
True leaders are not:
• Dominating -Leaders don't talk in loud voices with intent to dominate and suppress others.
• Controlling -Leaders don't feel the need to control everything & influence others through that control
• Colluding and Manipulating- Leaders don't let a core group hijack things and force everyone else to dowhat they want
• Preferential -Leaders don't allow nepotism or show favoritism to friends
• Humiliating -Leaders don't shame people in front of the group or try to suppress them by bringing up a personal quality in a negative way
Leadership is not about:
• Knowing everything
• Answering every single question correctly
• Coming across as an expert in your field
• Solving every single problem accurately and/or quickly
• Being the smartestone in the room
Real leadership goes beyond a personality type or a set of attitudes. Real leaders help the organization accomplish something positive that produces a significant benefit to the organization or community. It should be something that your organization has never done, and it should be done in a way that will inspire others.
These people get noticed, and start influencing others. These are the people who get promoted. So you step up and do something that none of the people at your level has done before, step up and show what you can do, inspire people to do something like what you have done, that shows that you are a leader, make a difference. It could be executing aproject that nobody wanted to pick up, lean in a little bit, take up tough assignments that nobody wanted, be the hardest working in the room, stay late,arrive early, go the extra mile, help your boss in a genuine caring way, be apatient listener and work with the difficult to work colleague.
Turn a tough project around with your empathyand emotional intelligence. It is noteasy but figure it out. It might involve reaching out to your mentors, reaching out to your professors, reaching out toyour friends or consulting in Quora. You will probably stumble a few times before you find that solution, but even if you fail a few times you will make it happen if you keep on trying. Soon you will be a role model, your enthusiasm will spread because enthusiasm is contagious, even others will start acting like you, your boss will start seeing the difference, he will know you are the reason for it and you will get that coveted promotion.
Once you become a boss, a designated leader, then the leadership role morphs. Then,leadership is about helping those in your organization, creating open lines of communication, inspiring them to get out of their comfort zone, and sharing your vision with them. Leaders empower their people to take decisive action and calculated risks. Leaders foster personal connections that build trust to allow them to be empathetic to challenges and help them move ahead. Leaders are truly vested in the progress and well-being of their people. Leaders also create accountability
All of this takes hard work, but the results are powerful. With this kind of leader, employees proactively volunteer information when trouble arises or when they need to figure out a problem. Organizations are inspired to build great products, and execute in new ways. Further, excellent employees seek this kind of leader out,wanting to work with them again and again. All of that benefits the organization. It also starts molding the leaders that will lead the next generation. Leadership driven organizations highlight the importance of broad and deep diversity. These organizations welcome a variety of personalities,ideas, and experiences.
Leaders also need emotional intelligence.
The other key ingredient is enthusiasm. Real leaders love what they do and have fun doing it.Excitement is contagious and creates teams that are ready to tackle anything.Once, I had a challenging program of rolling out a warehouse management system in seven distribution centers in ten months. The project had a million-dollarbudget. Our team worked fast, creating a common design and configuration, and deploying very quickly. After the first deployment, the team felt confidant and built on that to do the rest quickly. We succeeded on enthusiasm from the first deployment
This is very important, if you have everything but no leadership then all those you have don’t matter, you would never grow from where you are. Whereas you had leadership but nothing else then you will still go places, because along the way you will figure out to use the things you find in your way to your advantage as long as you have the boldness and attempt to do great things.
Here are a few tips on leadership:
· A very renowned Leadership expert is Jack Welch – Watch videos of Jack Welch on YouTube
· Always have the courage to do things – Courage to get out of comfort zone and take that leap
· Women are better leaders than men for the reasons below
a. The motherly nature of women brings out the nurturing quality in them
b. Women are good at reading people than men
c. Myers Brigg says that there are two types of the people that are most successful
i. Men with a lot of touchy feely quality and
ii. Women those are ruthless