The Choice all Leaders Face
The future of organizations is in the growth of the people in them.
The more influence you have the more your growth is essential to the growth of your organization.
The choice all leaders face is grow or die.
The number one quality of a growing leader is
they know they have to grow.
5 characteristics of growing leaders:
- Trust others. Go with their gut, not yours. But, never violate your values. A team made a decision that I “went along with.” Today, I see their wisdom.
- Challenge and enable current leaders to expand their impact.
- Step aside so others can step in. The more essential you are the effective you’ve become. Successful leaders slip off center-stage and the show goes on.
- Identify and develop future leaders.
- Surround yourself with people smarter than you.
4 essentials of leadership growth:
- Endorsement: the team sees and celebrates who you are and where you’re growing. Endorsement is permission to grow.
- Skill: the people around you have skills you don’t and won’t have. You are becoming the dumbest person in the room.
- Vulnerability: people know you’re still on the journey. You haven’t arrived.
- Mentors: you have a growing number of people who participate in your leadership journey, both inside and outside your organization.
Openness comes from knowing and acknowledging you aren’t there yet.
4 attitudes of growing leaders:
- Confidence with openness. Confidence open minds; arrogance closes them.
- Compassion with high expectation.
- Curiosity and decisiveness. Curiosity goes too far when decisions aren’t made.
- Pursuit with celebration. It’s OK to celebrate success as long as it fuels pursuit. Celebration isn’t about lethargy or arrival.
4 behaviors of growing leaders:
- More lift-up and less put-down.
- Press for decisions that impact behavior today.
- Transform frustrations into progress.
- Enable others to take action sooner.
How do you know you’re a growing leader?
How are you helping others grow?
This is a great perspective. I challenged my division last week with thoughts about how to think creatively and then use critical thinking to grow. Tim Hurson’s work was foundational for the information I shared. You may enjoy this Dan: Dean’s Blog
Thanks Mike. Glad you found this useful and thanks for extending the conversation.
Another candidate for the RockWall. I may need a larger office, soon. 😃 Thanks, Dan.
Thanks Steven!! You sure know how to make a guy feel good.
Have a great week.
Thanks for this! It’s a good reminder to step back and make sure you’re on the right track.
Thanks Social. This post was the result of the question I asked myself today, “How do I know I’m a growing leader?”
I’m glad to be on the journey with you.
Well for starters knowing what I am up against helps.
Mastering my own mental state, till then nothing else matters.
The average person has their mental focus change 6 to 10 times every minute.
I only know this if I am intently focusing on me and what needs to work more efficiently in me. Then I know how tough it is.
Then I have a better idea of the challenges others face when I ask them to do things.
Read somewhere once, “blessed are the poor in spirit……”
Had no clue what that meant till Emmett Fox explained it to me.
Sermon on the Mount…….rocks!!
Means to me now that I must empty the mind before I can inherit cool new info.
As long as I am arrogantly stupid with a closed mind I cannot learn anything new.
And right now two things let me know I need to empty the cup between my shoulders!!!
The advances in understanding just how complex and maybe how to work better with my own mind and that 80% of employees are disengaged.
No better reason to have a huge bonfire and toss all the Leadership books into the flames.
With the new understanding of how we Human beings operate and an 80% failure rate what other conclusion makes any sense?
See folks just do not want to do that because they really do not want to be poor in spirit, they just read that and see words.
The front part of our brains deal with figuring out new stuff. The other two deal with making associations from the past to make sense if what we see in front of us. We need more Leaders looking forward to find better not looking back to pat themselves on the back.
If somebody does not forge ahead mentally to find what is better than what we got now, all we can do is keep using what we got now.
Sorry 80% failure just ain’t cutting it.
I choose to forge ahead into the road less traveled to find better instead of regurgitating stuff that obviously fails 8 out of 10 of the folks.
SP
EA
Thanks Scott. I’m glad someone is bringing self-reflection to this conversation.
Hi Dan, on a miserable Sunday evening you caught my attention.
To answer your questions – 1. They see me hurting! 2. They know I expect them to hurt to…. And together we celebrate the little steps along the way.
Very powerful post, condenses a lot of stuff in your usual impactful way.
Thanks again, as mentors go you’re right up there?
Richard
Thanks Richard. I love where you took this conversation. My experience validates the idea that sharing the struggle – the hurt – is essential to growth.
I recently had a team that faced their disappointments. The result was an enthusiastic change of direction.
Here’s to a great week!
Excellent post. Nothing to add. Thank you.
Thanks Marc. I’m both gratified and a bit disappointed. 🙂
Have a great week.
Top o duh mornin Dano
This is it in a nut shell you could be speaking to organizations , communities, churhes n families,reeach out to others in such a way as to enrich their lives. Give your people, your teams, the tools they’ll need to put their skills and talents to task. Then, like a father, step back and watch them learn to walk on their own. Help em if they ask, don’t if they don’t. But don’t 4get about yourself. I remember your comment about “what are what we were in our teens”, my life was filled by 3things during my teenage years, sports, sports, n sports. Esp Baseball, it wasn’t enough for me to just make the team, or to be a starter, I had to be ‘uh-Player”. You grow by learning from those better than you,I would look around the league, study others habits and routines, and incorporate new ideas into my current strtagies, “Back-2-Back State Runner-Up Trophies”. So comin around full circle, it’s people sharing to learn with people, and people learning to share with people. The world is always a better place when you put people first
Cheers Dan
“opp[‘s” sorry Dan , I meant to say (we are what we were when we were teenagers), don’t wana mis quote you,
Take care
What’s your number one tip for helping egotistical leaders let go of their ego long enough to see the potential in others?
A growing leader is one that is willing to stand aside and see others grow. All my life, I have seen many of my staffs and colleagues progress and bloom in their lives. When they succeed and give me a call either to thank me or are enthusiastically informing me about their progress ., I, too feel that I have achieved and am excited by it. The warmth and spark that is ignited , will spread to another, as these little ones bloom. I will always remember and am thankful to a man that I loved the most: my late dad. Never once had he ever discouraged me but have always uplifted me. Through his actions, words and deeds, he paved the way for others to succeed without expecting anything in return. I learnt through him, that if we help others to achieve without setting any conditions and help them to think how to progress and achieve, they will always be thankful for what you have done. One need not have to brag about one’s own achievements, , others will know and will always remember a growing leader like that. He/She will leave a good legacy.
I am so thankful for this post. It gave me something’s to think about and answered questions about others.
Sometimes as a leader, I’ve wanted to let go of reigns a bit so that someone else could step in, but I’ve wondered if it was time and if is be a good and effective leader if I did. After reading your post I realize that it’s ok to put confidence in my team. My hope is just that they understand that and desire to grow. I am growing and changing and I want the best for my organization and my team members.
Thanks again.