Leaders Are Teachers

It might be possible to build or even exist as an organization, successfully, without developing leadership in others.   People who are great individual contributors can sometimes help their organizations get by with the sheer force of their own tenacity, intelligence, personality.   But the companies that win most often are the ones whose leaders invest the time and energy to develop a large team of leaders.

Similar to gifted athletes such as Michael Jordan or Sidney Crosby, who have plenty of natural ability—it takes a coach to develop these players to be leaders within their team.  That coach develops that talent beyond just being a great individual player, but teaches him/her to lead others going forward.

Like athletic teams with many strong players, organizations with a large group of leaders not only compete better today, but are better prepared to repeat that performance tomorrow.

Teaching others to be leaders requires that a leader have 2 things:

1)      A Serious Commitment to Teaching – which means that they make it a top priority in everything they do.
2)      Teachable Points of View

Successful leaders spend much time teaching, whether it’s in formal settings like workshops or a training session.  But if you watch these leaders you’ll note they are ALWAYS teaching, looking for opportunities with any interaction.  Leaders treat every face-to-face encounter as a teaching and learning opportunity.

 

Everyone Has Untapped Leadership Potential

Are people born with natural leadership ability?  Or is this developed?  Similar to athletes—are they born with this ability or can it be developed? 

Leadership potential exists within all of us.  There are clear differences amongst individuals due to nature and nurture, as to how much untapped potential there may be.  But no matter what level of leadership performance an individual currently exhibits, he or she can make incredible improvements.

Not everyone can be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, just as not everyone can be an Olympian, but with coaching and practice, we can all be  a lot better than we are.  The important teaching point is that Leadership is there in You.

It’s never too early to take on the challenge of improving your leadership abilities and developing them in others.  The scarcest resource in the world today is leadership talent capable of continuously transforming organizations that build leadership generators and that invest in ‘leaders developing leaders’ have a sustainable competitive advantage.

Here’s a quick exercise to help you get started:

1) At one point in time you made something happen through other people that never would have occurred without your leadership.   Think of a time in your life when you were most proud of yourself as a leader.  Write a brief description of that time.  Reflect on what made this leadership experience important to you.

2) What characteristics of effective leadership did you demonstrate during this experience?