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Whether you are a leader of a large team, a corporate conglomerate, a volunteer organization or just a humble team of one or two people, there is a need to consistently focus on your own leadership development, as well as those leaders that might one day fill your spot. Studies, in fact, show that the culture of an organization is largely dependent upon the leader at the top. Now, that having been said, let’s look at a key facet of leadership development.
I have always said there is a difference between managers and leaders and still believe that to be true. Managers track numbers, absentee days, quotas and so forth. Leaders focus on people. Leaders respond reasonably to even unreasonable situations whereas managers might not. But one thing we haven’t talked about in leadership is that Leaders train others how to be better and do better, managers seem to spend more time telling others what to do.
Are you telling or training? One way to keep this concept in the forefront of your mind is to consider this: From a business standpoint, telling people WHAT to do is helpful in the short term, teaching them HOW to do something is profitable in the long term. Even in your personal leadership, if you can develop the ability to teach others how to do what you are asking them to accomplish or perform, then you will also be addressing far more personality preferences, skill sets, and individual needs. A leader focuses on those needs of the people they have the privilege of leading. Is today the day that you will work on teaching versus telling? Are you managing most of the time or working toward leadership? In fact, share with me your story in 50 words or less and we’ll post it on our blog. Contagious Leaders teach and train others and if you send us your story, you may find that you even teach other leaders how to impact their own development.
