To me, the critical quality of being a leader is the ability to develop others into leaders. More than a skill or task – it is an absolute responsibility. It may be useful and even necessary to take charge and rally others to accomplish something that matters in the moment. Still, your value as a leader is always about how effectively you get others to perform in the long run. Unless you create leaders from the people around you, you will be severely limited in your ability to have real influence.
At its essence, being a leader means having a deliberate, positive influence on how others perform and contribute. Everything else about leadership is a function of accomplishing this.
It is impossible to make others into leaders. What you can, and must do, is make it necessary and possible for them to make themselves into leaders. The problem is leadership cannot effectively be taught. Leadership is learned in a profoundly personal, experiential way. In part, it is because it is how others choose to perceive and respond to you that determines whether you are a leader or not. Merely declaring yourself a leader does not make it so, any more than asserting that lead is gold and expecting its value to increase.
The good news is that some people can transform themselves from being of common value to being extraordinarily valuable. A good leader helps perform this alchemy by first being a compelling exemplar of such value by accomplishing significant and meaningful things. You make the transformation both necessary and possible by doing what leaders ought to do: you shine a light on the purpose that will guide others to feel that need within themselves.
When people become inspired to transform themselves, they tap into powerful resources that energize their conscientiousness and galvanize the grit needed to do the hard work of leadership.
The first step is simply helping others understand what leadership is.
While you demonstrate what a good leader is, you must also make the meaning of leadership tangible and pragmatic. People must see that it is not some magical power or the result of one’s station in life. They must understand that it is how they choose to perform and what they are willing to prepare themselves to be. That is why it helps to simplify the meaning of leadership.
In my experience, anyone who might be a leader can readily understand what it means to have a deliberate and positive influence on how others perform and contribute. Doing so is, unfortunately, in clear contrast with how many people go through life.
It is easy to recognize dysfunction and see where people are incompetent. There is clear evidence of the contributions we make in results that most often speak for themselves. And we all feel the weight of carrying people who do not contribute, feeling the awful strain of carrying forward those who can but simply won’t.
It is also easy to figure out those who seek positions of leadership for the wrong reasons. Those who envision leadership as a means of gaining power and prestige, who are motivated by their own gain, might be ambitions and determined but lack the empathy, curiosity, and conscientiousness needed to serve others as their leader.
Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. That is how it should be.
The dynamic of leadership requires people who are willing and capable followers. It is the performance of these followers that determine the success of the leader. Without competent followers, you cannot be a competent leader.
Once a person establishes for herself that leadership is the necessary path to serving their noble cause in life, it is possible to share with them the knowledge, develop the skills, enhance the talents and nurture the experience that will transform her into an exceptional leader.
Your task is to first make yourself into someone capable of accomplishing this. If your destiny is to be an exceptional leader yourself, you will do whatever it takes to ensure that others who might also be leaders find a way to take that journey.
As leaders, our job is to elevate the potential of the people we serve. It may be the most important of your many tasks.
There is nothing more rewarding than a legacy of developing the leaders who can eventually replace you and serve your role even better than you had. That is the most meaningful and significant source of MoJo, the moments of overwhelming joy that punctuate the accomplishments of genuinely exceptional leaders.
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