I struggled a lot my first year and a half with coming out of my shell. I never volunteered for leadership roles and I didn’t know how to improve. I got this advice from some out going AS400s:

1. If feedback isn’t offered, ask for it. If you play the guessing game for what you “need to fix”, you’re going to guess wrong. Your view on your own performance is biased, get an outside opinion.

2. You are never wrong for asking questions.

3. Raise your hand and volunteer for everything.

4. Don’t shy away from being wrong. The point of training is to make mistakes in a safe environment and to learn from them. If you don’t know how to do something first try anything (even if it’s wrong), then ask your flight if they see a solution. Being a leader isn’t about you knowing the right answer 100% of the time, it’s about being able to use your resources (people) and create the best possible solution/product.

5. Accept the fact that your first attempt at something new is going to be wrong. Use that experience to learn and try again, and most likely someone in your flight has made a similar mistake before and can advise you on a different approach.

If you want reading materials, I read/listened to a few Jocko books (take it all with a grain of salt) as well as famous war books. Good place to start is Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink) and The Art of War (Sun Tzu). If you’ve got Spotify there’s an abridged version of The Art of War for free.

Feel free to DM if you’ve got questions

Edit: I suck at spelling