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March 1 - March 31, 2023
Developing leaders is even harder. It’s like herding cats. That is why so many people who lead let themselves become comfortable attracting and leading followers instead of seeking out and developing leaders. Followers usually follow. Leaders, not so much.
Grow a leader—grow the organization. A company cannot grow throughout until its leaders grow within.
People too often overvalue their dream and undervalue their team. They think, If I believe it, I can achieve it. But that’s simply not true. Belief alone is not enough to achieve anything. It takes more than that. Your team will determine the reality of your dream. A big dream with a bad team is a nightmare.
Success for leaders can be defined as the maximum utilization of the abilities of those working with them. There’s only one way for a leader to help people maximize their abilities and reach their potential, and that’s to help them develop as leaders.
For a leader who develops leaders, there is something scarcer and much more important than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. One of the primary responsibilities of any successful leader is to identify potential leaders.
When you’re trying to identify potential leaders to develop, look for influence. It’s a qualification that must be present in someone you wish to develop as a leader, because leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. If people can’t influence others, they can’t lead.
Nothing erases self-doubt quicker than when a person of influence speaks belief into your life. No wonder Abraham Lincoln said, “I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
Encouragement is oxygen to the soul for the leader, and if you’re a leader who wants to develop other leaders, you need to encourage them and help them breathe.
While every company has a different culture, there are four questions that will help you identify if a candidate is a good culture fit, no matter where your company falls on the culture spectrum.” Here are his four questions: 1. How did the culture at your last company empower or disempower you? 2. What were the characteristics of the best boss you’ve ever had? 3. Describe how you handled a conflict with one of your coworkers. 4. What kind of feedback do you expect to receive in this role and how often do you expect to receive it?
I wrote about the expectations we set for people who join our team. We tell them: • “It’s not about me—it’s not about you—it’s about the big picture.” • “You are expected to keep growing.” • “You must value other people.” • “Always take responsibility.” • “We will not avoid tough conversations.”
Character keeps everything secure. Without it, things can break down fast. Character is about managing your life well, so you can lead others well. As Gayle Beebe said, “The formation of our character creates predictability to our leadership. Predictability, dependability and consistency: these three qualities ensure that our leadership is reliable and motivates people to place their confidence in us. Our effectiveness as leaders is built on trust.”
How do you know potential leaders are gifted in a particular area? • They will be good at it—that displays excellence. • They will have opportunities to use it—that creates expansion. • They will draw other people to them—that shows attraction. • They will enjoy doing it—that brings fulfillment.
“Talent is always conscious of its own abundance and does not object to sharing.”
THE VISION GAP IS THE SPACE BETWEEN WHAT WE ARE DOING AND WHAT WE COULD DO. BUILDERS ARE IMPATIENT TO CLOSE THAT GAP.
People often say, “I’ll know it when I see it.” That’s not a good strategy. I say, Know it and you’ll see it!
The weaker the culture, the more leaders must rely on policies and procedures to make people behave in a certain way. What you lack in culture, you must make up for in legislation.
A company’s culture is the expression of the values of the people within the organization. It is the sum of the behavior of the people, not a reflection of what you want it to be. People do what people see—and they keep doing it. What people do on an ongoing, habitual basis creates culture.
Leadership is more caught than taught. That’s why one of the best ways for potential leaders to learn how leaders think, problem-solve, and act is to spend time with them at the table. Getting the opportunity to be present in a strategy meeting is eye-opening. Listening to leaders wrestle through issues, seeing how they make choices, and watching how they interact with one another are some of the best gifts a potential leader can receive from you.
Before you lead and develop people, you need to connect with them. You need to find common ground with potential leaders, which is less about ability and more a function of attitude.
Why is it so important to touch a heart before you ask for a hand? Because people don’t automatically commit to you and follow you when they understand you. They commit to you and follow when they feel understood.
As I’ve asked more questions, I made an important discovery. Asking questions has the opposite effect of giving direction. When you give direction to your team, you often confine them. When you ask questions, you create discovery room for them—room for articulation, communication, innovation, and problem-solving.
Television host Larry King said, “I remind myself every morning: nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So, if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.”22 When we fail to listen, we shut off much of our learning potential.
Listening draws people to you, which works much better than trying to push your leadership on them. Empathy builds trust.
Good leaders inspire others only to the extent that they inspire themselves. After they’ve discovered their own internal motivations, I encourage them to fan that spark into a roaring fire.
When your talent, desire, recognition, and growth all line up, and it’s affirmed and recognized by others, you’re probably doing what you were created to do. Otherwise, you need to keep searching.
“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”
As you develop leaders, you need to learn what motivates them and tap into that motivation. Focus first on what motivates them the most, but also inspire them in every area you can. Help them discover their purpose. Give them as much autonomy as you can. Build strong relationships with them and help them to foster good relationships with others. Provide them with opportunities and resources to grow. Encourage and incentivize them to strive toward mastery of their skills. Praise them. And reward them financially.
You are not their dreams, you are only the steward of those dreams. And leaders often get it backwards and start thinking they not only hold the best of others, but they are the best. . . . The moment you start thinking it’s all about you, that you’re the deal, is the moment you begin losing your capacity to positively influence others’ lives.
Secure leaders who value relationships think of others first. They don’t remove themselves from the big picture; they just take on a less obvious role. They help others become more prominent because they recognize that those “others” are the key to the success of the organization.
“NEVER TELL PEOPLE HOW TO DO THINGS. TELL THEM WHAT TO DO AND THEY WILL SURPRISE YOU WITH THEIR INGENUITY.” —GEORGE S. PATTON
“IN TEAMWORK, SILENCE ISN’T GOLDEN, IT’S DEADLY.” —MARK SANBORN
“There is nothing you know that you haven’t learned from someone else.” Everything in the world has been passed down. Every piece of knowledge is something that has already been shared by someone else. If you understand it as I do, mentoring becomes your true legacy. It is the greatest inheritance you can give to others. It is why you get up every day—to teach and be taught.
“THE UNDERLYING PURPOSE OF MENTORING IS NOT FOR PEOPLE TO ACT DIFFERENTLY, RATHER TO BECOME DIFFERENT.” —DALE BRONNER
When you engage in a crucial conversation, you need to be willing to tell the other person what she needs to hear—for her benefit, not yours. Yes, you should express it in a way that will be best received by the person. But the message needs to really help them.
The leader being mentored should move up to a higher level of leadership. The ultimate step in mentoring ends with the leader being mentored taking the baton from his mentor and surpassing him.
We want success without sacrifice, but life doesn’t work that way. Success will not be shortchanged. You have to pay the price, and it never goes on sale. The best decision you can make for yourself is making decisions against yourself. You have to discipline yourself to do the right things day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out. And if you do, the payoff is far greater than the price you paid. . . .
Humility, teachability, authenticity, maturity, and integrity provide a solidly grounded foundation upon which to build strong leadership. When leadership development focuses too much on the how-tos of leadership and not enough on the solid core of who the person is, the results can be shallow and short-lived.
Don’t let your leaders sell themselves short—or sell short the leaders they’re developing. People usually rise to the level of expectations of a leader who believes in them. Show your leaders how much you believe in them, and push them to invest their belief in those they are leading and developing. When it comes to belief, a rising tide lifts all boats.
No matter how high a leader climbs, no matter how heavy their responsibilities become, no matter how big their organization gets, no matter how much success they achieve, people always matter. Good leaders continuously think about people and how to add value to them.
ACCUMULATIVE ADVANTAGE: “WHAT BEGINS AS A SMALL ADVANTAGE GETS BIGGER OVER TIME.” —JAMES CLEAR
I guess the bottom line is that to succeed a leader, you must fall in love with that leader’s vision and agenda, so much so that there comes a point in the partnership where people can no longer tell whose agenda is whose. The two become so interwoven that they merge and become our agenda.
