I was caught in the trap of my own making.  I watched my company cut leadership training from its training curriculum in the early 2000’s.  As the years went on, I began to bark about this lack of training for leaders.  I believe that an organization that does not develop its next generation of leaders begins to stagnate and eventually staggers.

Then it hit me, complaining is not leading.  I had complained for too long.

I decided that as a leader, it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to develop leaders on my team. I believe that if you are a mid-level leader in a large organization or the top dog in a small organization, the mandate is the same.  Build the Bench!

4 Steps To Building Bench Strength

1.  Develop Their Strengths: 

If someone is a 6 on a scale from 1-10 in a certain area, I can help them develop to be an 8.  People will follow an 8!  But often as a leader I focused on moving a skill from a 3 to a 5 on that same 1-10 scale.  Who will follow someone because they are a 5?  People follow strengths, not mediocrity.

Solution:  Find out each person’s strengths and coach the strengths. There are a lot of good tools available for leaders and those they lead to use to determine those strengths.  The profiling system I use, the ALSLead Profile, is based on the DISC Personality System .  This is a great tool to assess where each person is and their areas of strengths for development.

2.  Marinate Them In What’s Important:

Too often leadership training is a check the box, once a year event that has little impact.  To have lasting impact on an individual and an organization, leaders and aspiring leaders need to be marinated in what is important.

What is important?  If my team or company claims a Vision, a Mission Statement or a set of Values, those are important topics to consistently discuss.

After 20 years in sales and sales leadership, I know there is multiple studies that show customers need to hear a message at least 7 times for them to remember it.  Translate that to communicating Vision, Mission and Values to my team.  If these are discussed once a year at a leadership event…well you do the math…they may never sink in.

Solution:  To grow my bench strength and in turn build the culture and character of my organization, I must consistently talk about and engage in meaningful conversations on these topics.  The discussions must not just be about what our Vision, Mission and Values are, but also about what they look like in practice.  I have some free examples of Values papers for download (here).

3.  Encourage Mistakes:

Everything we learn in life is learned through making mistakes.  But, I hinder learning if I do not allow my people to make mistakes.  If we do not allow our future leaders to make decisions in the positions they are in now, they will not be prepared to make the big decisions when they reach the higher levels.

In organizations where this happens, people are promoted because they follow the directions of their superiors well.  They toe the line and excel in the tight box they are drawn into.

The problems occur when they arrive at a level of leadership where they are now expected to make decisions.  They are making big decisions when they do not have experience making the small ones. That is when organizations stagnate and stagger.

Solution:  As a leader, I must encourage failure.  (Failing Forward-By John Maxwell) Not moral or ethical failure, but failure that encourages learning and growth.  A team of people empowered to fail, is a team of people who will innovate and achieve beyond my expectations.

4.  Expect Them to Grow:

One of the definitions of stagnation is lack of growth.  To develop the bench in my organization, I must expect my people to continue to grow.  Not only must I expect it, I should model it myself and provide them with the resources and opportunity to grow as well.

Becoming a leader is a never-ending process of growth that I discussed in an earlier post.  As a growing leader myself, I should have a library of materials that I can recommend to my aspiring leaders.  Plus, I should create opportunities for them to take the lead without assigning it.

Solution:  Read what leaders you admire read.  I provide some book ideas on my resources page that I will update monthly.   Read a chapter a week with your team and set aside time for discussion.

Use magazine articles related to leadership and ask for team members to lead discussions on those articles.  I also provide magazine ideas on my resources page as well.

Finally, I suggest that after the first few meetings with your team, let the team run the sessions without you present.  The leader is no longer necessary.  Rotate facilitators and leave it up to them to run the discussions.

When I did this in the past, their ownership of their growth and the growth of their peers jumped.  At the same time, true leaders emerged from the pack.

 The Bottom Line:

An organization consistently going to outside sources to hire leaders has a dearth of leaders on it’s bench.  It is in danger of stagnation and eventual staggering.

The time to start developing the bench is now and the process must never stop.  Leaders at all levels make for a winning team.

In the short term, I knew as a sales leader if I developed a team of good sales people, sales would add up.  But, if I developed a team of good leaders, sales would multiply!

In the long term, by taking responsibility and developing leaders at my level, I was insuring the continued growth of each of those individuals and the larger organization.

 Question:

What is your best leadership development tip?  What did a leader do for you that helped you grow as a leader?