“Good leaders are trailblazers, making a path for others to follow. Great leaders, however, inspire their people to reach higher, dream bigger, and achieve greater.” Forbes, April 10, 2014
We see many leaders out there who make things happen, build new products, create new services and start highly successful companies. They make headlines and are most often considered great leaders.
But when measuring great leadership, the best of the best, to me, are the ones who are building great leaders in their path.
These are the leaders who take the time to nurture and coach and build professionals who will be able to take on senior leadership roles in the future.
These are the leaders who really care about the future of the organization well beyond their own departure.
These are the leaders who have no problems seeing really great people step in and do what they did and even do it better than they did.
If you are in a leadership position right now, I challenge you to look around at the people who report to you and ask yourself, what are you doing for their careers? What are you doing to make these future leaders the very best they can be?
- Are you coaching well?
- Are you allowing them to make their own decisions while at the same time providing a safety net?
- Are you providing leadership opportunities that they may not get otherwise?
- Are you helping to connect them to other great people in your organisation and beyond so that they can build their own network?
- Are you providing feedback on a regular basis, not just to the job at hand but to their journey as future leaders?
- Are you showing them the way to future leadership positions and giving them the inspiration that they may need to aspire to greater heights?
Yes, great leaders do inspire their people to reach higher, dream bigger, and achieve greater things.
