- If we increase the leadership capacity of our people, we can make them better performers.
- If we offer them leadership training, they will do a better job.
- If we make leadership a priority, our people can become better self-directed.
- If we bring in leadership experts, we can grow our talent better.
In order to find your performance average, you take all of the numbers (best and worst) into account. There is a reason that poor performers perform poorly and it has nothing to do with their leadership capacity. Training poor performers to be leaders doesn't improve their performance - in fact, it may inhibit it. When you tell a poor performer that he is being offered leadership training, what message does that send? Keep on performing poorly?
Not everyone is meant to lead and not everyone is meant to enroll in leadership development. Without followers, there are no leaders. Some are just meant to follow. Those who don't display excellence in their efforts should NOT be considered for leadership training. BIG mistake.
Strive for excellence first. Find those who naturally offer excellence in their work, their relationships and their quality of life. Then, offer those people the chance to be come better leaders.
Stop thinking leadership is just another course like Time Management that can solve the problems of your organization. It can't. Trying to turn an average worker-bee into a leader is a waste of organizational resources and a threat to the average worker who is probably happy with just being an average worker.
First, make your organization excellent. Then start looking for the natural leaders who helped you get there. Train only those people.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com
Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™
Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
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1 comment:
"Not everyone is meant to lead" & "Without followers, there are no leaders" - Bull's eye! In trying to make 'leaders' out of everyone and their son-in-law, enterprises may be falling prey to the Peter principle ('every person in an organisation eventually rises to his level of incompetence...').
But also, there is a pejorative sense which is conveyed through the term "average" while referring to a "worker who is probably happy with just being an average worker". Instead, that can be a personal choice as well. Not every star salesman may WANT to become a Sales Director. There should still be space in organisations to nurture domain specialists who want to carry on with their specialised work (with continual improvement, of course) and who don't want to be burdened with the additional load of a so called 'leadership' role.
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