Many managers and business owners don’t realize the importance of developing and training leaders within their companies. This is especially true for small businesses.
Most importantly, I believe that business leaders fear losing their employees if they turn into successful leaders. This is a legitimate fear, but it shouldn’t be the only one.
People don’t realize that the leaders who are below them perform better and make the leaders above them look better. I.e., If the team is strong, the leader will look great. But if the group is weak, the leader will appear inadequate. Every company should develop leaders.
John Wooden is widely considered the most outstanding college coach of all time. His 10 NCAA National Championships at UCLA are unmatched. (bio source: Wikipedia). He spent a lot of time training leaders and gave us these four simple steps:
Recognize them for being who they are
Be confident that they will try their best
Their achievements deserve praise
As their leader, accept your responsibility
Let’s quickly go through each one:
Recognize them for being who they are
Managers often don’t value the uniqueness of each member of their team. This is a mistake. You will get better results if you allow your people to be themselves. However, allowing them to be themselves is not enough. You must also learn to value their uniqueness. This uniqueness can bring unique insights, skills, and mindsets that can be used by management to help them become a strong leader.
Be confident that they will try their best
This may seem obvious, but many leaders don’t believe in their teams. This must change. Everyone makes mistakes, but they all make mistakes. You have to learn from them and show your support. Help them learn from their mistakes so they can do their best next time.
Their achievements deserve praise.
Everyone loves to be praised. It is the worst thing that you can do for your team to stop praising them when they deserve it. Everyone should be commended for every achievement, no matter how small. You can quickly increase productivity by just a second of thought.
As their leader, accept your responsibility
This is something I have spoken about before. Leaders need to take responsibility and not look for blame. It goes beyond that. True leaders are responsible for their team beyond work performance. They also have to act, perform and care about themselves as a leader. To get to know your staff as people, you must go the extra mile.
It is difficult to develop leaders. Many people are only there for the job and don’t have long-term goals. It’s okay; they are needed by every company. They don’t need to be a burden on your company. You only need to spend what they are capable of achieving their highest performance. Instead, look for those who have the most significant potential to lead in your company. As they become strong leaders, invest in them. Then they will be able to train and develop the leaders below them. You will have a deep bench of people to help you bring up more senior leadership positions as your company grows.
It is impossible to go wrong in training your employees to be great leaders. However, failure to do so could be disastrous for your company’s future.
Pole Position Marketing is a Search Engine Marketing Company that Stoney deGeyter manages. He leads an impressive team of marketing professionals led by Stoney. Stoney deGeyter founded PPM in 1998. He sought out the best minds in the industry and nurtured in them a desire to be leaders in their fields. He has built a highly successful website marketing company with this team of professionals. They are committed to personal and professional integrity.
Stoney’s blog posts can be found at the E-Marketing Performance site. You can also find more of his work on a number of well-respected SEO and marketing news sources, including Search Engine Guide or Web Pro News. Stoney is the author of two websites marketing books: EMarketing Performance: Strategies for optimizing and marketing your website online and Keyword Research and Selection. This book covers everything you need to know about organizing keywords into high-performance SEO campaigns.
