A Leader Who Develops

Posted July 11th, 2007

Two questions arise when one thinks about being a leader who develops. Does this mean that the leader who develops works on self-development? Or does it mean that’s a leader who develops others? In my experience, a leader who does well at developing team members devotes much time to developing the self.

Some leaders are subject matter experts on the technical aspects of their industry. They are excellent in developing new people in those aspects. However, that neglects a number of important, critical factors that require development.

People today need development in the soft skills. A pipeline operator friend was selected as lead operator. He tells me his evaluations always indicate he needs to work on the soft skills. That’s true for most of us. Many of us got our education in the school of hard knocks, and that knocked the soft skills out of us. Sometimes I wonder if a man can ever master them.

My suggestion about being a leader has two parts. The first is to identify three areas for your own development and commit to three specific actions to improve in those areas. The second is to ask your team members to do the same.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Leadership.