ALONG THEIR JOURNEYS, LEADERS DEVELOP FUTURE LEADERS

If we keep our eyes and ears open, we often come across reminders that strengthen our beliefs in different aspects of leadership.

For about the past six years, I have been fortunate to do a presentation at many conferences across the country titled “The Essence of Leadership.” During this presentation, I strive to summarize the most significant leadership lessons I’ve learned during the past four decades.

One of the slides I use during this presentation is a picture of the yellow brick road from the movie “The Wizard of Oz.”

I use that slide to make a specific point: the great majority of that movie is about the journey Dorothy, Toto, the cowardly lion, the tin man and the scarecrow have as they progress down that road, not what transpires after they reach their destination – Oz.

Leadership is very similar. True leadership is not about these destinations:
-the corner office,
-the big title,
-the higher salary, -the big number of direct reports
-the accolades received

True leadership is about our journey from the start of our leadership career until its subsequent stages when we evolve from takers to givers and we intentionally focus on developing the skills and aptitude of our team members.

I was reminded of the significance of the yellow brick road and the leadership journey when I read an article this week by Johanna Hines.

The article was cited in the daily newsletter, “Smart Brief on Leadership” with the title. “Why You Should Help Employees Build Their Yellow Brick Road.”

Writing for Human Resources Director – America, she said that “managers who make time to develop their direct reports are the single strongest predictor of both retention and engagement, based on research published last month by Wiley Workplace Intelligence.” They are the research division of Wiley, a global learning and development company.

That study collected data from approximately 1500 people and found that 84% of employees whose manager always has time to develop them say they are very likely to stay with their organization. That number drops by more than 50% to 41% when managers do not make that time.

As Hines notes, these findings make it clear that the value of developing managers who support employee growth and engagement is critical.

The research recommends that managers interested in developing their teammates focus on skills development and training. Two-thirds of respondents named those two leadership attributes. Mentorship followed at 54%, with greater visibility around advancement cited by 46% and more frequent checks with managers by 44%.

The question is how can HR leaders and organizational leaders focus on developing career paths for their team members.

Wiley Workplace Intelligence presents four specific recommendations for consideration:

-Protect manager time for development deliberately

-Allow data to set leadership and development priorities rather than intuition

-Track manager availability as a retention metric

-Complement skills investment with more frequent manager conversations

Leadership is a privilege. Leadership is a pleasure. Leadership is a responsibility.

As you traverse your own unique leadership path, please remember to cultivate and mentor all the people along the way who you are responsible for managing, leading, developing and assisting.

If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!

-Larry