How to Take Everyone With You On Your Leadership Ride
As a leader, are you learning, growing, trying new things and stepping up in your role?
Are your team members being given the opportunity to do the same?
In leadership, you have a dual responsibility for your own self-development and the development of the people who you lead.
Great leaders are lifelong learners. They want to continually expand their role. They look for new opportunities and are always moving forward.
Now this is perfect and exactly what you should be doing in your leadership role BUT you need to be aware of a potential problem. If you’re moving onwards and upwards but you’re not taking your team with you, you’ll end up with a competency GAP.
You’re working up at a certain level and your team is still working one or two levels below you. The result is there’s no one doing the work in between.
So, what do you do?
Well, I see leaders do 1 of 3 things:
They quickly try to backfill the gap with hasty recruitment; saying ‘we don’t have any inhouse talent) or
They throw an existing team member into the space and hope that they somehow rise to the occasion with little or no training or
The leader themselves tries to do this gap work AND their own leadership work and ends up completely burnt out.
All 3 scenarios do not end well.
This is why as a leader; you must focus on your own development and the development of your people simultaneously.
Some tips to do this:
Develop a coaching plan for each team member and make time for regular one on one coaching sessions
Identify everyone’s talents and future goals - what do they bring to the team and what do they want to achieve in their role?
Develop a succession plan – who is your 2IC? Keep them close, let them shadow you
Commit to consistent formal and informal learning and training for your team (even when times are busy)
Keep your team members in FLOW – just enough of a challenge in their role based on their current abilities
When you dream big as a leader and you’re passionate about achieving your goals, it’s vital that you take everyone on the ride with you. Don’t leave any team members behind.
When everyone is growing and learning, everyone wins!
Champagne and Sunshine,
Midja x