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Cultivating leaders
Written by: Renée LeMoine
Photo by: Vojtìch Vlk
"Next year's corporate goals
include doubling our sales. Currently, we are revamping our offer,
measuring success resulting from previous advertising campaigns,
and building up our team.
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International consulting firms have understood for years that
applying the "up or out" formula for developing competent
and loyal partners is a sure road to success. An employee must
continually improve his technical skills, expand his professional
experiences, and show ability to competently meet everyday challenges
in order to move up the career ladder. Only the very best candidates
from each years' new hires get to stay, while the rest are pushed
out.
A formula of this nature builds "stakeholders" who have
a vested interest to assure the company achieves its goals and
objectives. Once a solid foundation is in place, it is a suitable
model for rapid expansion because leaders can develop leaders rapidly,
as opposed to the more typical formula of leaders building followers
one at a time. John Maxwell, a leadership authority, outlined in
his discussions about leading explosive growth that it is critical
to "shift from follower's math to leader's math," in
order to realize growth plans.
According to Maxwell's research, leaders who develop leaders requires
a different mentality than those who develop followers. Compare
and contrast the two styles.
- Leaders who develop followers: a) need to be needed, b) focus
on weaknesses, c) develop the bottom 20%, d) hoard power, and
e) grow by addition.
- Leaders who develop leaders: a) want to be successful, b)
focus on strengths, c) develop the top 20%, d) give power away,
and e) grow by multiplication.
Although highly effective, utilizing this formula takes time and
the results are not immediately evident. Top executives will agree
that developing leaders can be a daunting task because talent is
hard to find, attract, and keep. Apt leaders are often independent
and have an entrepreneurial spirit. That leaves few other choices,
but to find ingenious ways to make them vested stakeholders.
Ref: John Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, 1998
Article prepared by Renée LeMoine, Executive
Director, LeMoine & Associates
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