Back again with part 7. Part 6 here with links to parts 1 through 5 at the top.
7 – Develop the leadership potential of your followers.
This – sorta, but not this…
Since you can’t be everywhere all the time, you can’t always rely on your personal influence to ensure mission success. Thus, you need more leaders on your team to get things done.
THIS DOESN’T MEAN MORE BOSSES!!
There is an important distinction here. Someone can lead by setting a positive example, by being responsible for a small part of the mission or task, or by helping reinforce the mission (i.e. what needs to get done) by re-communicating what is important. This doesn’t mean you need more people in charge. There are many ways to lead and influence success beyond barking out orders.
The other aspect of this is that you owe it to your team to develop their leadership potential. As a leader, it is necessary to develop the next generation of leaders. In a military context, those 2Lts / Cpls will get promoted and be Captains, Majors or Sergeants. When they reach those ranks, they will be in positions of authority, and it will be better for everyone if they know how to lead.
In a business context, succession planning is a problem for almost all businesses. The best solution? Recruit and create your next generation of leaders from within. That’s what my business does, and that’s why our CFO is someone who started out answering phones and processing the mail. We developed their leadership potential, and now they are one of the key contributors to the success of our business, and a major shareholder.
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