
He offers the following roadmap to future leaders looking to change their organizations right now.
1. Lead from where you are. If you work for an organization, no matter your role, you already have all the clout you need to begin leading, Kraemer says.
“When I bring up this topic, very often younger people will say, ‘I really want to be a leader, but I’ve got this one slight problem: I don’t have anybody reporting to me. When I get the phone call that I’ve now got a couple of people reporting to me, I’m going to shove this thing into fifth gear and start leading.’”
But leadership doesn’t require direct reports, or a long tenure at an organization, says Kraemer. You are equally capable of leading “whether you’ve got 50,000 people reporting to you or nobody.”
Read more: Don’t Wait to Be Asked: Lead – A roadmap for increasing your influence at work.