Are you developing leaders or followers? I find that many leaders are really good at developing their own leadership, but only a few are developing others into leaders. A great mentor of mine had been telling me for years that in order to get the results I was looking for, I needed to develop people. Now to the old me, this was ambiguous and confusing. I didn’t understand how to “develop” people, though I got the gist, that I needed to learn what this was, and how to do it. I knew we needed people to help us grow, the problem was that I brought anyone on the team who wanted to be on the team, and I didn’t train them, I didn’t develop them. I don’t think I was unique in my ignorance, many businesses, even successful ones, operate with the belief that all you need to do is pay someone well and give them a title and your work is done.
When I made the decision to step up and raise the bar for myself, I began to grow. As I grew, and really dug deep inside myself to identify who I needed to be, the developing began. What clarified it is that you cannot develop others unless you are first developing yourself. You cannot give what you don’t have. Its like a pitcher that needs to be filled until it is overflowing, and the overflow is what you are giving to those you are leading.
The fulfillment comes when you are not only growing yourself by expanding your vision of what you think you can do, but also sharing that new knowledge with those around you. We always operate only to the extent that we believe possible for ourselves. If you begin imagining yourself as a being of infinite potential, you begin to grow.