The Ultimate Guide to Developing Leaders

1. Developing Leaders is the Key to Organizational Growth

If you grow a leader, you can grow the organization.

Direct Correlation. The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders. Weak leaders equal weak organizations, and strong leaders equal strong organizations. Leadership development is not merely an HR initiative but a core strategy for achieving organizational goals.

Beyond Surface-Level Fixes. Organizations often waste resources on marketing, reorganization, or cost-cutting without addressing the root cause: leadership. These efforts are futile without competent leadership to guide and sustain them. Developing leaders provides a foundation for long-term, sustainable growth.

Multiplying Effect. Developing leaders has a multiplying effect. Each new leader not only contributes directly to the organization but also has the potential to develop other leaders, creating a self-sustaining cycle of growth and improvement. This approach ensures that the organization is constantly evolving and adapting to new challenges.

2. Commitment to People Development is Essential

You must develop the person before you begin developing the leader.

Holistic Approach. Developing people means adding value to them in any way possible, including giving time, attention, advice, and encouragement. It's about making an investment in their personal and professional growth without expecting anything specific in return.

Coaching vs. Mentoring. Coaching is skill-centered, formal, and short-term, while mentoring is life-centered, informal, and long-term. Both are valuable, but the goal is always to help individuals reach their full potential, both personally and professionally.

Gratitude and Legacy. The author emphasizes the importance of being developed by others and becoming a developer of people. It's about paying it forward and creating a legacy of leadership. The most fulfilling aspect of leadership is developing other leaders, as it has the biggest impact on personal investment and organizational success.

3. Listening and Understanding Team Members is Paramount

Effective listening requires more than hearing the words transmitted. It demands that you find meaning and understanding in what is being said.

Listening as a Foundation. Listening is one of the most important skills a leader can possess, yet most leaders prioritize talking. Effective listening leads to understanding, which fosters better collaboration and trust.

Asking Questions. Asking questions is a powerful tool for understanding people and their perspectives. It creates space for open conversation, values others' opinions, and invites participation. Questions should be used as bookends for every meeting, with front-end questions setting the agenda and back-end questions maximizing the learning.

Perspective Thinking. Good leadership requires a perspective shift from "it's all about me" to "it's all about others." This involves learning to see the world from others' points of view, practicing perspective-seeking, and engaging in perspective coordinating.

4. Equipping Team Members for Excellence Drives Success

If team members who possess ability and desire fail, you may be at fault because you neglected to train them properly.

Addressing Failure. People fail in jobs due to lack of ability, desire, or proper training. Equipping addresses the training gap, ensuring that team members with the right aptitude and motivation have the skills they need to succeed.

Equipping Model. The author outlines a five-step equipping model:

• I do it.
• I do it and you are with me.
• You do it and I am with you.
• You do it.
• You do it and someone else is with you.

Equipping Essentials. Essential practices for equipping include being an example others want to follow, spending time with team members, setting equipping goals, encouraging learning by doing, and removing barriers to growth.

5. Identifying Potential Leaders Requires Keen Observation

You go in looking for the gold.

Starting from Within. Instead of recruiting leaders from outside, focus on identifying potential leaders within your organization. They are a known quantity, already fit the culture, and have established influence.

Assessing Potential. Look for five key characteristics:

• Willingness (positive attitude)
• Solid Character
• High Ability
• Proven Track Record
• Improvement Mindset

The 5 Levels of Leadership. Use the 5 Levels of Leadership (Position, Permission, Production, People Development, Pinnacle) to measure their influence.

6. Inviting Potential Leaders to the Table Fosters Growth

Nothing is more attractive to a potential leader than to be asked to sit at the leadership table.

Creating a Leadership Table. A leadership table is a place where potential leaders can learn, practice leadership, and receive opportunities to shine. It's an open invitation to opportunity, not an exclusive invitation to an elite group.

What Happens at the Table. At the leadership table, potential leaders are exposed to a leadership environment, encouraged to participate in the dynamics of the table, and allowed to benefit from the power of proximity.

The Power of Proximity. Leadership is more caught than taught. By spending time with leaders at the table, potential leaders can learn how leaders think, problem-solve, and act.

7. Grounded, Gifted, and Growing: The 3-G Leader

Character is about managing your life well, so you can lead others well.

Core Areas of Development. When developing leaders, focus on three core areas:

• Grounded (possessing core values)
• Gifted (using their strengths)
• Growing (possessing a hunger to learn)

Grounded Leaders. Grounded leaders possess integrity, authenticity, humility, teachability, and maturity. These qualities provide a solid foundation for strong leadership.

Gifted Leaders. Gifted leaders use their strengths to lead well. They have an advantage, seize opportunities, and are humble and responsible.

Growing Leaders. Growing leaders possess a hunger and capacity to keep learning and developing. They think better, bigger, creatively, and about people.

8. Empowerment Requires Secure Leadership

Only secure leaders give power to others.

Secure vs. Insecure Leaders. Secure leaders are willing to give power to others, while insecure leaders want to be the center of everything. To become an empowering leader, you must use the power you have to help your leaders achieve their dreams.

Creating an Empowering Environment. An empowering environment embraces everyone's potential, gives team members freedom, encourages collaboration, promotes accountability, gives leaders ownership, and rewards production.

The 10-80-10 Method. The author outlines a 10-80-10 method for empowering leaders, which involves setting them up for success, releasing them to lead, and then helping them learn from the experience.

9. Harnessing Intrinsic Motivation Fuels Performance

I tap dance to work [every day].

Internal vs. External Motivation. Instead of trying to push or pull people, inspire them and help them harness their own motivations. After they've discovered their own internal motivations, encourage them to fan that spark into a roaring fire.

Seven Motivations of Leaders. The author identifies seven motivations:

• Purpose
• Autonomy
• Relationships
• Progress
• Mastery
• Recognition
• Money

From Motivation to Habit. While motivation is important, it's not sustainable over the long haul. Help your leaders develop positive work habits that will keep them going and improving.

10. Challenge Leaders to Collaborate as a Team

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

The Power of Teamwork. A group of motivated, equipped, and empowered leaders working as a team is more powerful than individual leaders working alone. A good team is greater than the sum of its parts.

Creating a Team of Leaders. To create a team of leaders, make sure your leaders are in alignment with the vision, help them bond and care for one another, ensure that they are growing together, position them to complement and complete one another, and communicate to them how they are making a difference.

The Importance of Alignment. On great teams, players' individual purposes, goals, and values align with those of the organization and the other players. This alignment doesn't happen by accident; it has to be facilitated by the leader of the team.

11. Focus on Developing Your Top 20%

Several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but you don’t go into the mine looking for dirt. You go in looking for the gold.

The Pareto Principle. The Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, states that 20 percent of any group is responsible for 80 percent of its success. Apply this principle to leadership development by focusing your efforts on the top 20 percent of your leaders.

Multiplication by Subtraction. By focusing your energy on the top 20 percent, you can achieve a higher return on your investment. The leaders you choose will not only improve more quickly themselves but also help others become more productive.

The 1 Percent Rule. The 1 Percent Rule states that over time, the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives.

12. Mentoring is a Personal Journey

Mentors do not seek to create a new person; they simply seek to help a person become a better version of himself.

Mentoring vs. Teaching. You can teach the masses, you can coach groups, but you have to mentor individuals one-on-one. Mentoring is about discipling another person, discerning where they are, knowing where they are supposed to go, and giving them what they need for the journey.

Setting Expectations. Set expectations up front for both you and the person you are mentoring. This includes establishing an ROI agreement, making each other better, coming ready, earning your time, improving not just learning, and mentoring other leaders.

Personalizing the Mentoring. Personalize your mentoring to help leaders succeed. Learn about each person's personality type, learning style, love language, strengths, weaknesses, internal motivation, background, personal history, family relationships, aspirations, inspirations, and more.

Last updated: March 11, 2025