Developing Leaders

There is a saying that true leaders don’t create followers, but rather they develop leaders. They don’t add to the number of leaders, but multiply their constituents and are able to grow more leaders around them. Every company desires to have the formula to increase their leadership capabilities. I wish there were a secret solution. The reality is that growing leaders starts by showing people you care.

When people know you care about them, they tend to do their best and achieve greater things in life that they otherwise never thought they could do.

How do we truly develop leaders around us? In my many years of experience in developing leaders around me, here are some of the things I learned:

• Serve others – create a culture of serving others. When you serve your people, you aim to focus on the greater good to achieve the vision. By developing more people who focus on serving others, you will grow the firm’s overall capabilities. You need to lead by example and walk the walk.
• Resiliency – teaching people to be resilient is in itself a valuable characteristic. Teach people not to give up and continue to seek the solution for problems, because there is always a solution for every problem. You can create a community that thrives under pressure and rises to the occasion when the chips are down.
• Continuous growth and development – aim to grow from within. The more time you spend on the right people who are doing the right job, the more they will grow and increase their capabilities. Challenge them to take on more responsibilities and think outside the box. Empower them to make decisions and hold them accountable for it.
• Learn from failures – Learning from your failures and developing the ability to bounce back when things go wrong are important in developing leaders that are able to make it happen.
• Selfless – being selfless does not mean that we think less of ourselves, but rather we make sure we are adequately prepared to help and serve others. It is the ability to be unselfish and focus on others.

While it is nice to say that you are developing leaders around you, you need to give them a reason to stick around, because good leaders are a hot commodity and always in demand. Therefore, developing them is one thing, but giving them the reason to stick around is equally important, because to increase your firm’s capabilities you need to grow and keep them.