Making Others Successful: Investing in Leaders
Leadership is more than setting a course and making plans for your team to achieve the mission. Leadership involves the leading of people, of individuals. To accomplish a lofty vision and implement strategies and plans, the team of individuals who follow you must be given your attention and consideration.
We work with individuals of diverse backgrounds, experiences, abilities, work styles, and motivations. With such an array of variables, there is no “magic formula” or universal solution to helping them achieve organizational goals. There exist, however, universal principles that, when implemented with fidelity, are certain to produce results that will motivate and stimulate further success.
One such principle is what I call “Making Others Successful.” I desire to aid you to deal with diverse people on your team, as INDIVIDUALS, while assisting in their growth and development in such a way that results in a net win for the team. One key element in successfully developing others is our responsibility as leaders for constant self-assessment and individual development. Yes! Before looking outward for change, we must first look inward.
Ask yourself this question: What am I doing internally, and how is that impacting people externally? As a leader, how would you say that others describe you? You may recall the actions and behaviors exhibited by the person(s) who helped you be successful. Reflect for a moment on how their behaviors compare to your own. Furthermore, how would you like to be described? What changes do you need to make to come closer to that ideal? Take a few moments to reflect on this…
What does success look like as a leader?
Think about someone in your organization or church that you consider to be successful and mentally jot down several characteristics that might contribute to their success.
Now picture someone that you know in your whom you consider not to be as successful as they could be. Mentally jot down several characteristics that describe that person, that which may contribute to their apparent lack of success.
Review those lists and identify those characteristics that you wouldn’t necessarily find in a job description. Studies show that up to 25% of our decisions to hire and promote individuals are based on non-organizational or non-ministry characteristics. One’s professional appearance and speaking skills could fall in this category. Often, we come to the table with bias regarding peripheral qualities without delving into the substance of an individual, including the unique skills that he/she brings to the organization. We must be sure that our decisions are not based on our own stereotypes or biases, but on definite skills and related requirements. In short, consider how valuable these peripheral qualities are to you in relation to other more important skills, knowledge base, and high-priority characteristics.
Our job as leaders is to look for ways to help lift those who are moderately successful to become very successful, to teach and train those who are low-performing to become higher-performing, to motivate those who excel to continue excelling. Your intentional observation, guiding words of experience, helpful correction, and belief in each person make a lasting impact in those team members. Your team is as strong as your investment in them. Great leaders are not necessarily the ones with credentials, but the ones with sincere concern for the individual development of themselves and in others.
Expressing concern as a leader can be quite simple:
· Invest in the potential of every team member through conversation and attention.
· Become acquainted with team members’ diverse interests and skills; highlight them privately and publicly when appropriate.
· Develop programs/services to appeal to and sustain a diverse organization.
What are some things that you are doing as a leader to help others become more successful?