Does your organizational environment continually produce new leaders?
Is your leadership bench strong?
If not, what needs to change within your organizational culture?
I feel privileged to have “grown up” in a good leadership culture within my organization. It is a non-profit, so we live or die on the strength of our leaders. I think our founder understood that from the very beginning. Good leaders attract good leaders. And inherently, vision and mission helps to retain good leadership, if leaders at every level of the organization are allowed to contribute and lead in meaningful ways.
As I have reflected back on the opportunities I have been given to grow as a leader, here are three principles that stand out about growing and maintaining a leadership pipeline:
1. Recruit good leadership potential. Notice I did not say recruit proven leaders. You may need to do that for some high level established positions. But in an everyday sense, are you looking for leadership potential? They are the people around you that give expression to possibility. They are capable of developing into a better leader. They show initiative. They demonstrate responsibility. They relate well to others. They are forward thinkers. Do you keep an ongoing list of those who fit this criteria?
2. Give them real opportunity to lead early. Once you have spotted some potential, give them a shot. Give them something meaningful to sink their teeth into. Let them lead something of worth. Define their authority. Provide them with proper accountability. Give them real resources for them to steward. And if necessary, let them fail. But there is no better mentor than leadership itself.
3. As leaders get older, broaden their experience to build learning through informal networks of relationships. One of the bigger problems I see in established organizations is the stewardship of older leaders. All leaders need to have a posture of being lifetime learners. But learning will be enhanced through networked relationships among peers. Encourage cross learning outside the organization. Utilize their expertise of older leaders and allow them to contribute to the development of younger leaders. Provide older leaders with funding and greater choice as to how they will continue to self develop.
What has been your leadership development experience? How are you keeping the pipeline full?
The post The Leadership Pipeline appeared first on Gary Runn.