How leaders raise other leaders

Every leadership position comes with both core and non-core responsibilities. Knowing the difference and understanding how to handle the two is critical to leadership success. A leader’s core responsibilities are the tasks that he has to handle himself, those tasks that cannot, and must not, be delegated. The non-core tasks are those which could be delegated to others. However, a leader’s success is hinged on how well both the core and non-core tasks are discharged. A leader who concentrates on his core tasks to the neglect of the non-core ones can only hope to record mediocre performance. So, getting the right people to handle his non-core responsibilities has a great impact on a leader’s overall result. However, by getting the right personnel to execute his non-core responsibilities, not only is a leader setting himself up for success, he is also raising other leaders because a leader’s non-core responsibility is someone else’s core responsibility. Therefore, the leader’s ability to identify who among his team members is best suited for a task is critical not just to his success but also in determining whether he produces followers or raise leaders.

Leaders raise leaders

American political activist, Ralph Nader, opines that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. This seems to be at variance with the submission of leadership expert, John Maxwell, that “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” But in reality there is no contradiction between the two positions. While Maxwell’s view is the starting point of leadership, Nader’s position is the end product of leadership. A great leader starts with followers but end up with leaders. A leader who fails to transform his followers to leaders is a mediocre. The process of converting followers into leaders involves the following.

Align tasks with skills, interests and passion

As noted earlier, a leader’s non-core responsibility is somebody else’s core responsibility. But it is not everyone on a leader’s team that can discharge the leader’s non-core responsibility. The onus is on the leader to know his team members well enough to be able to assign appropriate tasks to them. By knowing them beyond the surface, being familiar with their skills, interests and passion, he will be able to assign to them tasks that are in consonance with their ability and personality, thus preparing the ground for them to gain confidence, increase competence, record success and eventually become leaders in their own right. The more successful they become at discharging the task, the better leaders they become because part of a leader’s function is the mobilization of resources to get desired result. The more results they get, the more influential they become; after all, leadership is directly proportional to influence.

Failure is imminent when there is a mismatch between skills and tasks. So, leaders must be painstaking enough to know their people beyond the official level. Leaders should understand not just the skill sets of their people but also their passion and disposition. This knowledge is critical to moulding followers into leaders.

Equip them for the task

No one can perform beyond his level of knowledge. So, to raise leaders and not just followers, who will be perpetually dependent on the leader, requires exposing followers to training programmes that will increase their capacity and enhance their skills. Nobody can do new things until they have learnt new things. With new knowledge comes increased competence. With competence comes confidence, a critical leadership ingredient.

So, every leader must deliberately create opportunities for others to improve themselves. A leader who does not look out for opportunities for self improvement for his team members is going to multiply followers, not leaders. Leaders are sometimes reluctant to create opportunities for their followers to get better because of the fear that they may lose their relevance if the followers become more knowledgeable. Leaders who nurse such fears are at best mediocre because it is mediocrity that feels threatened by excellence. Excellence feels encouraged, not challenged, by excellence. So, leaders who, for the fear of losing their positions to their followers, fail to give them opportunity to grow suffer from what Northcote Parkinson calls injelititis, a situation in which an incompetent head ensures that those who are under him are less competent than he is so that he can retain his position. Not only will such act impact negatively on the followers, it will also limit the success his department or organization can record.

Have their back

The ladder of success is often slippery, those who trip but do not have anyone to help them up land on their back and become casualties. But those who skid and fall into the hands of supportive leaders bounce back and become champions. Leaders have the responsibility to support their followers on the journey to the top.

A leader shows the way. Part of showing the way is giving followers the leader’s non-core responsibility. But even after showing them the way, the probability of getting lost in the labyrinth that leads to the top is high. When this happens, the leader must be on hand to help them retrace their steps back to the way. That is being a guide. A leader is always a guide.

A leader must learn to overlook followers’ mistakes when those mistakes are not based on ethical issues. Instead of nailing them to the cross when they falter, a leader should provide a shoulder on which they can lean to spring back. That is being a friend. A leader is always a friend.

Encourage them when they feel down and unwilling to continue. Rather than letting them focus on what has gone bad or what is lost, redirect their focus to the original vision. Encourage them to go on and not surrender to the present difficulty. That is being a brother. A leader is always a brother.

At one point or another, every great leader had enjoyed the support of other leaders in this respect. So, it is only normal to do same to others. Every great leader is a guide (teacher), friend and brother.

Don’t micromanage

Confidence and competence are earned in the place of practice. Do not be afraid of them messing things up to the extent of interfering in the discharge of their duties. Doing so kills initiative and robs them of their confidence. Be a mother eagle that forces her chicks to learn flying by taking them up to the mountain and letting go of them so that they can develop the use of their wings. If you do not allow your subordinates to learn the rope, make their mistakes and gain experience from the same, they will never become leaders. They will always disturb you with simple issues. So, do not run their show for them. Don’t smother them with care. Let them grow their competence and confidence by trying things out on their own. That is how leaders are made.

Leaders open doors for others

Leaders are a bridge between where followers are and where they ought to be. Great leaders allow others the use of their platforms to leap into greatness. Isaac Newton, acknowledging the role of leaders in his life, said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” The great scientist became who he became because he was fortunate enough to have great people who were willing to bend their back for him to climb on to achieve his aim.

A young lawyer went to an old and respected lawyer asking him to be his mentor. Ever willing to help, the senior lawyer took his younger colleague through some sessions on the ingredients of success in law practice. At the end of the sessions, he asked the young lawyer to go on a stroll with him. Together they walked the length and breadth of the street with the old lawyer holding the hand of his mentee and chatting with him. At the end of the walk they returned to the old lawyer’s office. After a moment of expecting his senior to say something without anything coming from him, the young lawyer said, “I enjoyed the walk and the talk.”

“So did I,” replied the mentor.”

Another lapse into silence. Then the young lawyer said, “Am I missing something?”

“I think so,” replied the senior.

“Oh, what is that?”

“You did not ask why we took that walk.”

“Oh, I thought it was just for you to exercise your legs.”

“If it were so, I wouldn’t have asked you to join me.”

“I am sorry about that. So, why did we take the walk?”

“It was to show everyone that I approve of you. By walking with you and holding your hand, everybody who saw us together will know that I have confidence in you and in your ability. They will know that I have endorsed you. With that those who trust me will trust you, my friends will become your friends and those who have confidence in my ability will be willing to give you a try.”

And that was the way it played out. Since he had the walk with that senior lawyer, the young lawyer never lacked patronage.

Great leaders are not afraid to open doors of opportunities for others.

Last line

Leadership is a task to replicate leaders, not to accumulate followers.