This Week’s Focus Point
By Dr. Jason Carthen
The Greatest Point of Growth
Sometimes the greatest point of growth comes when you are in the midst of a storm and experiencing isolation. I offer to you today, that it is in those moments, that you must lead alone until your help comes. I remember speaking to an executive at a Multi-Billion dollar corporation that leads with a servant’s heart and seeks to find the “right” way to do things rather than just doing things right. He was experiencing a lot of uncertainty relative to expectations and productivity requirements with his team. Quite frankly, he was frustrated and felt like they were not getting it.
Maintain Your Own Personal Momentum
The best coaching input I could give him was based upon what I had seen for years based upon his situation “…keep doing what you are doing and maintain ‘your’ own personal momentum.” My input was based upon research that shows that a leader’s ability to maintain their attitude, intentions, and behaviors during both good times and bad times creates the beacon in the darkness for those that are following.
Develop Self-Leadership
Research also suggests that it’s when the leader begins to falter and sway to and fro that followers can lose sight of the overall vision, because uncertainty creeps into their organizational environment. The leader that can summon the self-leadership and discipline that is required to lead while lonely and unfulfilled will create lasting opportunities, if they can just lead until their help comes. Here is a framework from some of my existing research to make sure they can develop others to effectively help them lead when the time is right.
The Four G’s Pathway to Development™
Growth: The Leader that promotes growth in their followers by assessing their abilities on the front side of their development (on boarding process) while giving them clear benchmarks for their improvement is placing a follower on the best path to success or repositioning.
Guidance: The Leader that is able to create developmental opportunities for their followers promotes both internal growth for the follower and opportunities for self-mastery moments that will help their colleagues and the organization.
Grooming: The Leader that takes the time to institute mentoring opportunities (Jr. executive program) will develop someone that can step in when needed and who takes on the leadership style of the existing leadership. The benefit is incalculable when it comes to long-term growth and succession planning.
Grace: None of us have arrived and the leader that doles out grace to their followers will create the greatest opportunity for loyalty and emulation by their followers. If we engaged in more opportunities to provide grace rather than punitive measures, organizations would yield more healthy and productive followers.
Find Yourself Leading Alone
At the end of the day, leadership can be a lonely and thankless endeavor, but in direct contrast, it can be one of the most fulfilling and rich experiences that someone can have. If you are in a position to lead, always be in preparation to develop someone, so that when you may find yourself leading alone, you can be assured your help is just over the horizon….
How can you implement The Four G’s Pathway to Development™ in your existing leadership role?
