How To Know You're Ready To Lead

Are You Ready to Lead?

There’s a leadership game at hand and everyone is invited.

That’s because, leadership isn’t just about a fancy title or managing a huge team. It starts with how you see yourself and how you show up every day. Think about it – leadership starts from within, with self-awareness and self-confidence in how you view your own capabilities and your chances of successfully pursuing the possibilities. Let's dive-in to what it means to be ready as a leader and how you can embrace this role with confidence and a powerful, purposeful, playful spirit.

Imagine this: You're standing on the edge of a new adventure, a game where the only way to win is to simply play. The game is leadership. It’s not about waiting for the right moment, getting a promotion or a new bigger role. It’s about recognizing that you’re already in the game. You’ve got the skills, the experience, the vision, and now it’s time to level up.

Leadership Is Where Vision Meets Influence

Have you ever thought about your vision for the future? It’s like setting your sights on the horizon and charting your course. Your vision is your guiding star. But it’s not just about having a vision; it’s also about having influence. Influence isn’t about being bossy; it’s about inspiring and motivating others to join you on your journey.

Think about it this way: If your vision is a treasure map, your influence is the compass that guides your team to the treasure. Without a clear vision, your team might wander aimlessly. Without influence, even the clearest map won’t get you anywhere. You need both to lead effectively.

An article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2022 highlighted that leaders with a clear vision are more likely to engage their teams and achieve higher performance levels. The study showed that top-performing leaders hold a long-term vision and actively bring their teams on board, translating their vision into a structured plan that they keep in focus over time. So, having a clear vision isn't just a feel-good exercise; it's a strategic necessity.

Fun Fact: You Were Born Ready

Guess what? You’re already a leader. Yes, you! There, I said it. Every decision you make, every step you take towards your personal and professional goals is an act of leadership. There’s no need to wait for the perfect moment to feel ready. How you feel right now is ready enough. Let’s embrace the journey of evolving and growing from where you are today.

It’s easy to doubt yourself and think, "Am I really a leader?", especially if the people in your career so far haven’t seemed to see you that way. But think about the times you’ve taken initiative, solved a problem, or supported a teammate. Those are all acts of leadership. The key is to recognize these moments, believe in your impact, and build from there.

I know I’m not the only one who sees leader development this way. Coming from a game-based mindset though- a self-adopted Ready Player One mentality, if you will- I see self-leadership as such a critical component of effective leadership. A review of four decades of studies emphasized that self-leadership involves self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation, and gathered findings into a new, Meta Performance Model for leadership. When it comes to the self-motivation aspect of leadership, there is no methodology more effective than adopting a game-based mindset and incorporating the spirit of play as you pursue your vision.

Your Vision Is The Catalyst

Take a moment to think about what you want your future to be. Maybe before that, pause and remember that YOU hold the vision. Not your current job or title, not your alma mater’s motto, not your parents’ big dreams for you when you were a kid.

Stop and take stock of who you are today, right now, in this precise moment and reflect on the fact that what YOU want is what matters most. So when you dream about what’s ahead, I hope you’ll feel uplifted by all the bright possibilities.

By thinking about the future while staying positive and open to the possibilities, you activate the same neural networks that will later help you achieve those goals.

Finally, to make your vision even more actionable, try creating a vision board. Gather images, quotes, and symbols that represent your goals and aspirations. This visual representation can serve as a daily reminder of where you’re headed and keep you motivated. If this is seems too creative for you (it’s not, but okay), try a simple word grid. Any action that gets these ideas out of your head and written down in the physical world will make your visualization all the more real.

Okay, Let’s Play!

Alright, here’s where the fun begins. Let’s approach controlling your leadership energy through this simple mindset game. We’ll use this 3-step framework to help you decide your own pathway, write your own story, and a map out your own priorities…

You’ve got three steps ahead of you – think, decide, or do. Pick one that resonates with you or try all three if you’re up for the challenge. Ready? Set? Let’s Go!

Ready: Dream About A Bright Future

• Take the time to daydream about vision for the next year. For bonus points, try 10 years too.

Set: Define Who’ll Be By Your Side

• No one grows alone: Consider how your vision includes, relies on, and uplifts others

Go: Write It Down To Make It Real

• Put 5-15 minutes on the clock and use that time to write an affirmative vision for your future.
• Dream big dreams! Don’t limit your imagination, write what it would be like if everything fell perfectly into place.
• Look at your note each day before work this week and remember you’re working toward it.
• A good way to know you’re winning is if you can consistently keep your bigger picture in mind.

Let’s Take Inspired Action: Play Your Way To Better Leadership

Remember, leadership is a journey not a destination. Truly positive and influential leaders consider their impact like it’s an on-going practice. Practice means it won’t be perfect, and it’s therefore important to remember that it doesn’t have to be all serious business. Adopting a playful, game-based mindset can make the journey of learning new leadership skills more fun and less daunting.

Play is an uplifted and inspiring pathway toward practice. It’s a perpetual feeling of ready, set, go. Think of your growth as a leader like leveling up in a game. The spirit of play reminds you to celebrate your wins, learn from your challenges, and always look for new ways to improve as you work on making your vision a reality.

I’ve spent the last 20 years discovering and sharing this game-based approach, and today I’m so glad to say that the power of play in leadership development is gaining traction. Gamification, which incorporates game elements into non-game contexts, is already being used to enhance engagement in the tech space but it is even more powerful and effective when applied to workplace culture and L&D.

According to a 2022 report by Deloitte, organizations that use gamification in their training programs see a 60%+ increase in employee engagement and a 50% increase in knowledge retention.

Those numbers are wildly hopeful for the future of buy-in at work, and if you have a background in game design you know that it’s a sustainable impact, too.

That is to say, don’t sleep on gamification as the fix for your employee engagement challenges. And don’t miss out on the incredible power of a game-based mindset to achieve your leadership vision faster. This stuff works.

So, how do you know you’re ready as a leader? You just are. You’re already ready. You were born ready. You are a leader in your own life at this very moment, so start by remembering which leadership game you’re in, and play according to the rules and vision YOU create.

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Hey there! I’m Blair Bloomston, the creative mind behind the Play Uplifted blog, fueled by my 20+ years of experience as a game-based learning designer. The ideas and content? All mine. But I have to give a shoutout to my amazing assistant, ChatGPT, who swoops in to fix my typos and smooth out the grammar. Together, we’re here to elevate your leadership game. Cheers for collaborAItion at work!