I think the best leaders expand their influence and leadership potential by continuing to learn and grow in experience. It takes an intentional effort to improve as a leader. You can read books, follow blogs and Tweets, attend conferences, and hang out with other leaders. These are all good practices to improve as a leader.
In my experience, however, my leadership influence grows the fastest when it grows through the people I’m supposed to be leading. Let me explain.
Here are five ways I expand my leadership potential:
1. Invest in other people. It’s amazing, but when I invest in others, they invest in me. I have had several mentoring groups or relationships—where I am supposed to be the mentor, but I feel I learned as much as they did.
2. Allow someone you lead to lead. When I get out of the way of my team, amazing things happen. Now first, I surround myself with people smarter than me about their area of expertise, but they make my leadership better. I may even get credit for the overall success of the team—but I’m quick to admit I couldn’t have done it without them.
3. Promote someone else’s agenda. I’ve learned people have better ideas than me. A lot better ideas. Actually, I’m an idea guy. I have lots of them. But if the team is bigger than one—there’s always one more idea to consider. I’m a better leader—with more potential—when I open the idea generation task to more people than me.
4. Celebrate a team member’s success. When I hog the stage—or the recognition—I limit other people’s willingness to contribute to the success of our team. When I share the lime-light, I expand my own capacity as a leader—and everyone wins.
5. Invite other people’s opinions. One of the most dangerous things I’ve seen a leader do is build an atmosphere of elitism, where no one else is welcome at the table of decision-making. When a leader values a range of thoughts and opinions, it makes people feel valued and expands the leadership base of the senior leader and the entire team.
The best leaders I know understand that when the people they lead are growing in their leadership, it spills over into their personal leadership potential.
As a team improves, so improves the leader.
When others who are following a leader grow in their leadership capacity and influence, the senior leader’s capacity and influence increases. It truly is one of the win/win scenarios of leadership.
Invest in others and watch your leadership potential expand.
