Suppose you had a department that was humming along, doing just great. Leader gets promoted and wouldn’t you know it, the minute they are gone, performance begins to fall off. They must have been one awesome leader, right?
All too many will say ‘Yes!’ obviously they were a terrific leader if the group can’t deliver without them.
Those of us who have been around the block a few times take a different point of view: A significant part of the job of a leader, if not the most important part, is to grow and develop people, to create self-directing teams capable of creative initiative, with a deep enough understanding of the goals and guidelines of the organization to be able to function independently at high levels of achievement. The ultimate goal of a leader is to render themselves unnecessary, to implement a leader-leader model, to have a team of 360-degree leaders.
Closing Quotes:
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader, b. 1934
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” – Harvey S. Firestone, 1868-1938
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch, 1935-2020, Chairman/CEO GE, 1981-2001
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
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