Part 8 (2/2)

4. People Development Is the Greatest

Fulfillment for a Leader

Few things in life are better than seeing people reach their potential. One of the keys to developing leaders-at any level-is seeing people not as they are or as others see them but as they could be. Seeing what could be-and helping to make it a reality-takes vision, imagination, skill, and commitment. If you help people become bigger and better on the inside, eventually they will become greater on the outside. People are like trees: give them what they need to grow on a continual basis for long enough and they will grow from the inside out. And they will bear fruit. If you invest in people, they will never be the same again. And neither will you. It is impossible to help others without helping yourself.

Level 4

PEOPLE.

DEVELOPMENT.

Helping Individual Leaders Grow Extends

Your Influence and Impact

Successful leaders understand that if they want to improve, they have to be willing to keep growing and changing. Each move up the 5 Levels of Leaders.h.i.+p requires a paradigm s.h.i.+ft and a change in the way a person leads. To reach the upper levels of leaders.h.i.+p, which create elite organizations, leaders must transition from producers to developers because people are any organization's most appreciable a.s.set.

Good leaders on Level 4 invest their time, energy, money, and thinking into growing others as leaders. They look at every person and try to gauge his or her potential to grow and lead-regardless of the individual's t.i.tle, position, age, or experience. Every person is a potential candidate for development. This practice of identifying and developing people compounds the positives of their organization, because bringing out the best in a person is often a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team. Developing one person for leaders.h.i.+p and success lays the foundation for developing others for success.

A leader on the People Development level puts only 20 percent of his or her focus on personal productivity while putting 80 percent of it on developing and leading others. This can be a difficult s.h.i.+ft for highly productive people who are used to getting their hands dirty, but it's a change that can revolutionize an organization and give it a much brighter future.

The Upside of People

Development

The Potential of the Organization

Just Got Greater

When you become capable of leading people on Level 4, the upside of leaders.h.i.+p becomes even stronger and the potential of the organization increases dramatically. Here are the primary positive benefits of leading on the People Development level: 1. People Development Sets You Apart

from Most Leaders

Most leaders are looking for ways to grow their organizations. Where do they usually focus their attention? On Level 3. They work to increase production. That's the wrong focus. How do you grow a company? By growing the people in it. And if you really want to expand the organization and its potential, focus on growing the leaders.

In a compet.i.tive business world, the ability to develop people is often the difference maker between two organizations competing to succeed using similar resources. Former secretary of labor Robert Reich pointed out, ”If employers fail to upgrade their workers, then they're trying to be compet.i.tive only with their capital. Anybody can replicate physical capital. But the one resource n.o.body can replicate is the dedication, the teamwork, the skills of a company's employees.” Develop them, and you become a one-in-a-thousand leader.

2. People Development a.s.sures That Growth

Can Be Sustained

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