Developing the Leaders Around You

By John C. Maxwell

Developing other leaders is what great leaders do.  Every day you are having an impact on individuals, over time, will have an impact on thousands of others.  You will have the most impact if you have a plan and a framework for developing leaders.  Read John Maxwell’s book to spark your thinking and broaden your view of what developing leaders is all about.  It is easy and common sense reading.

The quotation that gets at what I found most important in this book is:  “People think that personal growth is a natural result of being alive.  Well it’s not.  Growth is not automatic; it does not necessarily come with experience, nor simply as a result of gathering information.  Personal growth must be deliberate, planned, and consistent” (p. 116).  One of the best things that you can do for your subordinates is to help them develop personal developmental plans.  Work with them to help identify their strengths and weaknesses, and put in writing what they plan on actually doing over the next six months to grow as a leader.  Provide them feedback and assessment along the way, and help create challenging experiences to help them develop.  Furthermore, take this concept all the way down to the team leader level in your team.  Your example along with a commitment to teaching your young leaders practical ways to develop others will make all the difference in the world.

The following are the key points that jumped out at me when I read the book. The bold text highlights my own thoughts and recommendations to company commanders.

• Coach Wooden (UCLA Basketball) believed that in order to develop leaders you must (p.1):

• Appreciate them for who they are.

• Believe that they will do their very best.

• Praise their accomplishments.

• Accept your personal responsibility to them as their leader.

• “The greatest leadership principle that I have learned in over twenty-five years of leadership is that those closest to the leader will determine the success level of that leader…Stop for a moment and think of the five or six people closest to you in your organization.  Are you developing them?  Do you have a game plan for them? Are they growing? Have they been able to lift your load?” (p.3).  These people are probably your supervisors – what are you actually doing to develop them?  What is the developmental plan for each of them?  Remember that it won’t magically happen!

• "The determination of the outcome depends upon my ability as a leader to develop those closest to me...Also depends upon my ability to recognize the value that others can give my organization" (p.3).

• "The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders.  Weak leaders equal weak organizations.  Strong leaders equal strong organizations.  Everything rises and falls on leadership" (p.6).

• "Leaders create and inspire new leaders by instilling faith in their leadership ability and helping them develop and hone leadership skills they don't know they possess" (p.11).

• "A leader's success can be defined as the maximum utilization of the abilities of those under him" (p.15).

• “The attitude of the leader, coupled with a positive atmosphere in the organization, can encourage people to accomplish great things.  And consistent accomplishment generates momentum.  Many times momentum is the only difference between a winning, positive growth climate and a losing, negative growth climate” (p. 18).  Momentum is a critical concept to understand.  You want to create momentum early (small wins) and then exploit it.  I heard one leader describe it like an infectious disease that builds into an epidemic.  Although this is a negative example, it can also work in the positive direction.

• Focus on the potential of the leader.  “Find the one thing that you believe is the potential leader’s greatest asset, and then give 100 percent encouragement in that area.  Focusing on a person’s strengths promotes positive growth, confidence, and success as a potential leader” (p. 21).

• “Great leaders know the desires of the people they lead…people don’t care how much their leaders know until they know how much they care…about their needs, their dreams, their desires.  Once a leader is genuinely interested in the well-being of those around him, the determination and drive of the people in that group are activated in a remarkable way” (p. 22).  If you want to really impact your leaders, you must get to know what makes them tick.  Instead of figuring out what you want and getting your leaders to get it, how about figuring out what they want and doing everything you can to help them get it.  Although you might think this sounds contrary to normal operations, I ask you to think about how much more motivated to work and accomplish great things you would be if you had a boss who did this.  Why don’t you be that boss?

• “Create opportunities for growth” (p.25).  Once you start thinking about leader development, you will see many developmental opportunities that are available for your subordinate leaders.  In order to develop, your leaders need challenging experiences where they are required to lead.  Help create these situations for them.

• Do big things!  Winston Churchill said: “If you are doing big things, you attract big men.  If you are doing little things, you attract little men.  Little men usually cause trouble” (p. 28).  Dream and envision a bold and exciting future for your team.  Share your thoughts with your leaders and challenge them to be a part of creating a great team.  What is your dream for the team?

• On Character flaws:  “Character flaws cannot be ignored.  They will eventually make a leader ineffective…warning signs of a character flaw (p. 48):

• I recommend putting these warning signs on a PowerPoint slide and displaying them in your office.  Refer to it when you counsel team members.

• “You can tell much about a person’s ability to lead others from how well he manages his own life” (p. 48).

• “A leader who decides not to allow other people’s actions to dictate his reactions experiences an empowering freedom” (p.56).  You can decide how you feel, regardless of external circumstances.  Remember that your positive attitude in all types of situations will breed a positive and confident team. 

• Nurturing potential leaders (BEST):

• Although this sounds very basic, I challenge you to evaluate whether you are doing this with your key team members.  Furthermore, share the concept with your leaders and challenge them to do the same with their subordinates.

• “I have learned that trust is the single most important factor in building personal and professional relationships…Followers want to be able to say, ‘Someday I want to be like him or her.’  If they don’t trust you, they cannot say it.  People first must believe in you before they will follow your leadership” (p. 67).

• How to break trust (p. 67):

• A key feature of solid developmental plans are goals.  “A set of goals can become a map that a potential leader follows in order to grow…It is the goal that shapes the plan; it is the plan that sets the action; it is the action that achieves the result; and it is the result that brings the success.  And it all begins with the simple word goal.  We, as equipping leaders, must introduce our people to the practice of setting and achieving goals” (p. 95). 

•  “Leaders who are equipping others have the greatest possibility of success, no matter what type of organization they’re in.  When a leader is dedicated to the equipping process, the whole level of performance within the organization rises dramatically” (p. 110).

• “The success of any organization will not reach beyond the character of its leaders.  Excellence breeds character, and character breeds excellence.  Demand excellence from our people, and they will develop into people who also demand excellence of themselves and the people they lead” (p.124).