Bringing Out Leadership in Others

Cultivate competency

Your people have you as a role model for leadership skills.

So of course, you probably want to model effective leadership for them. Communicate well. Live your integrity. Motivate your people.

But we can also make the choice to train our people to grow their leadership skills.

Coach and mentor. Talk to your people about the how-to process, and why you do it that way. For example, tell your future leaders things like: “In conflict situations, always confirm the facts before taking action. Don’t assume you actually know what’s going on if you’ve only heard one side of the argument.” or “Don’t reward your top performers with more work. Make sure you assign things fairly.”

Empower. Give your people chances to impress you. Delegate tasks as they become ready, and let your people know that they have the authority to make decisions on that task. Grow their problem-solving experience, while still being there to act as a sounding board if they want to make sure they are on the right track.

Check their drafts, then give them a chance to revise. Don’t fix the work they bring you because “it’s just faster.” Give your people feedback so that they know how to revise it and polish it to meet your quality standards. Don’t tell them “This is wrong” or return documents filled with red Xs—walk them through “this is how we get it ready to go out to the client” and show them how to do it at the next level. That’s how you get them to that next level.

(Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash)