Secrets to Leadership Development
The more time you dedicate to developing leaders the more successful you’ll become.
Successful leaders develop leaders.
You may think your job is explained in a list of responsibilities that include oversee financials, cast vision, hire and fire, etc. That’s only half the picture. If you plan to do great things you must develop great leaders.
When you develop leaders you do less others do more.
Your work is working yourself out and working others in.
Five leadership development tips:
- Give access. Bring others when you travel, for example.
- Share how you think. Explain the reasons behind your behaviors.
- Learn how others think. Uncover untapped aptitudes and skills.
- Give new challenges. Stretch and test.
- Move high performers beyond individual contributors to team builders.
- Let others teach you. Ask for and listen to suggestions and advice.
Two leadership development essentials:
The number one thing that taps leadership potential is belief. Believe in them.
Belief fuels passion.
Belief gives people the courage to believe in themselves.
But, knowledge comes before belief. In order for you to believe in someone you must know who they are first.
When people feel you understand them
they open their hearts to you.
Leaders manipulate others when they develop people apart from understanding them. The problem is they expect others to be like them.
Leadership development apart from adapting to others becomes about strategies and techniques. It becomes about doing this or that. But, authenticity goes down the drain and with it goes passion.
As I write this, I realize I’ve embraced what I didn’t understand. Leadership is about becoming who you are. Developing leaders is helping people courageously bring themselves to challenges and opportunities.
My goal: spend half my time developing leaders.
What helped you develop your leadership?
How are you developing leaders?
I love that: working yourself out and working others in. Very nicely put!
Thanks Michael. Now, if we can just do that.. 🙂
What’s helped me develop my leadership is having it be more of who I am. It’s front and center, bigger and brighter on my radar screen. I’m always looking for glimpses of leadership. Where your focus goes your focus grows.
I develop leaders by bringing out their gifts and shining a spotlight on who they are.
It’s all about the who.
Hi Steve, I’m always thankful to see you’ve dropped in.
I love well turned phrases: “Where your focus goes your focus grows.” Pow!
I’ve found people really step up when they have permission to bring who they are with them…their gift, talent, and passion. The process of getting there can take time but it’s worth it.
Dan, you tipped my interest again !! I always find it is a funny old thing about leadership. I think that leadership happens naturally in the most unusual of circumstances as opportunities arise and if people are supported to rise to the surface. I think it is essential that we enable people with the right tools to manage their responsibilities and roles in life adequately to obtain the desired results first and that leads to a much greater belief in oneself.
Maybe being the mother to 5 kids and starting out in that position at a pretty young age,18 in 1984, further developed my natural skills such as empathy, experiential sharing of knowledge, playfulness, delegation of tasks in order to better enable my children to learn and manage their worlds more effectively and lead when situations arise. How I interacted at home, was how I learned and coached in the business world.
They say in life you are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with, well I don’t mind, being the average of that bunch of young adults, and much as physically we aren’t always together, mentally the connection never leaves. They are a constant inspiration which makes me play that little bit smarter to keep inspiring them and keep the belief cycle alive !
“Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit.” – Seamus Heaney
Might add on to your #5 point Dan. When transitioning from individual contributor to team builder, it is not necessarily intuitive. It takes information converted to knowledge converted to wisdom to convert to action. Be sure they have a dash of ongoing training, touches of mentor insight and a dollop or two of coaching periodically. And find what fuels their own individual passion, feed that in tandem with building team skills, which creates a win-win.
Great points or tips, but you list six tips, not five. Sorry to be a number cruncher here, but do not drop any, change the title.
I just want you to know that i think you are absolutely amazing and your posts so packed with wisdom… i hope you dont mind that i repost because everyone needs to learn how to be a better leader, not matter what they do in life. God bless you sir.
Reblogged this on Business about Business.
Great post. One technique that works well in the corporate world is “bring a friend” staff meetings. Each leader brings someone they are developing with them to the staff meeting and you all work together on strategic topics in full transparency. It helps in many ways, including an understanding of thought process, strategic thinking, but also dynamics and styles.
Excellent post! Very thought provoking about how am interacting with others, and how others interact with me as a leader.