If the people around you are not getting better then you need to evaluate if you are truly doing what leaders should be doing.

It is a leader’s Duty to help other people reach their potential.  The people on my team and in my family are my responsibility.  If they are not growing, the first person I need to examine is one looking at me in the mirror.

There are a lot of resources on how to coach and how to manage for performance etc.  Good coaches in both the business world and the sports world have given us plenty of resources.  Heck – I teach classes on coaching as well!

Two of the top factors determining an employee’s level of engagement is their interaction with their direct supervisor and the opportunities to learn and grow.

Both of those factors can be evaluated by asking myself a simple  question:

Am I actively engaged in helping them reach their potential?

As I stated, the lack of engagement and growth has little to do with the lack of resources available to today’s leaders.  Yet many of the people who show up to work each day are not growing.

Big Assumption

Let’s assume everyone on your team wants to grow and get better.

There will always be people at who are not interested in their own growth.  While that is sad, it is also a reality.  However, it is still your Duty to do everything in your power to help them grow and get better.

If they do not want to put in the effort to grow, then they will watch others get the raises, the promotions, and survive the mergers and acquisitions many companies face.

If their lack of motivation to get better starts to damage the team, it is your Duty as a leader to find a new person to fill their seat.

Why Aren’t They Growing?

If they want to grow yet they are not growing, then the leader is the likely reason they are not reaching their potential.

Ouch!  Where are my priorities? I have people on my team who want to get better, but I am doing nothing to help them?  If that’s the case I am not doing my Duty as their leader.

Other Things Get in the Way

I know.  I know.  I have been there.  I hear it from leaders in every industry.  So many things get in the way of doing the coaching we should be doing:

  • Meetings
  • Reports
  • Email
  • Conference Calls
  • Putting out fires
  • Other Administrative tasks

What’s interesting about this list is every leader has the same list!  No matter the industry or what company, there will always be these things getting in the way of growing others.

Ironically, you can see that within the same industry and even the same company, among leaders who have similar roles, some leaders are developing people and some aren’t.

It must not be the industry.  It must not be the company.  Therefore it must be the priorities of the individual leader.

People Are A Priority

A Leader of Character understands that his/her Duty is to grow the people around them.  Some leaders make people development a priority and some don’t.  It is their choice and that choice is a reflection on the character of that leader.

The Bottom Line:

Are the people I lead better because of my leadership or not?  If they want to grow and get better, have they?  If not, I need to evaluate my choices.

Some choices you can make will go a long way towards you developing the Habit of Character called Duty.  Specifically, when we look at growing others, here are some choice we can all make:

  • Choose to block out time for daily conversations with team members.
  • Choose a walk around the office/plant instead of another 30 minutes answering emails.
  • Choose to ask others. “What is the number 1 thing I can do for you that will help you reach your goals this week/month/year?”
  • Choose to give consistent and direct feedback to the people you lead.
  • Choose to place coaching others ahead of your own needs and desires.

The choices we make become our habits.  If we begin to choose the growth of others over other tasks or our own desires, we begin to build the crucial Habits of Character like Selflessness and Duty.

Each time I make a choice, it makes it easier to make that same choice again.  Pretty soon those choices become habits, and we are helping the people around us grow and achieve their potential.

That way when we ask ourselves why someone is not growing, it is based on their choices and not the choices of their leader – us.

Question:

What are some easy ways leaders can prioritize growing others?