Leadership Assessment #3 – Growth & Development

Guest post by: Robert Whipple
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Do Not Mix Empowerment and Morale - By Robert Whipple

Growth & Development

Good leaders focus on the growth and development of people. If you want to test the caliber of a leader, just measure how much energy she spends on developing people. The concept is that there is vast reservoir of talent in all people that is ripe for development.

I estimate that most organizations typically get around 20% of the available energy and talent of their workforce. My estimate may be a bit off, but not too far. Think of this. It would mean that we can triple the productivity of the workforce and still have people working at roughly 60% of their capacity. Wow, what a great way to improve output and lower costs. Of course you cannot get 100% of the energy of all people all of the time. That would require so much adrenalin it would kill everyone. But we really don't need the 100%. I contend there is so much pent up potential in most organizations the upside is seemingly infinite.

What holds us back? Well, it is a lot of factors I am describing in this series. One of the key ones is whether people have been given the skills to do their best work. Good leaders know this and put a lot of emphasis in the development of people.

You can contrast this with poor leaders who do not seek to do much development. They may be afraid that if they develop outstanding raw talent they will surpass the leader and leave him in the dust. They may be too ignorant to realize that 1 hour in a good training program brings more than 3 incremental hours of productivity to the organization. It may be that the organization is in such a state of panic, there is simply no time to develop people for the future. This myopic viewpoint is similar to the orchestra playing their final tunes on the Titanic.

Another aspect of development is the degree to which the leader seeks to grow as an individual. Does she have discussion groups around some loeadership books? Is she enrolled in several professional organizations? Does she spend timegoing toat least one professional conference per year? Does she listen to recorded programs while driving? Does she have an active reading list? All of these are signs of a person who is really interested in growing as a leader. When you see these signs, you know the person understands the value of continuous learning. If they are absent, even if for good and valid reasons, it shows a lack of interest in development, which is a sign of a weak leader.

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Do Not Mix Empowerment and Morale - By Robert Whipple

About the Author: Robert Whipple

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Robert Whipple is CEO of Leadergrow Incorporated, an organization dedicated to development of leaders. He has spoken on leadership topics and the development of trust in numerous venues across the country. He is author of three leadership books: The Trust Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals, Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online, and Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind. His ability to communicate pragmatic approaches to building Trust in an entertaining and motivational format has won him top ranking wherever he speaks. Audiences relate to his material enthusiastically because it is simple, yet profound. His work has earned him the popular title of The TRUST Ambassador. Mr. Whipple has been published in several Leadership and Training journals including Leadership Excellence Magazine and T+D Training + Development Journal. He is a frequent contributor to The Rochester Business Journal. He has been named one of the top 50 thought leaders on the topic of leadership development by Leadership Excellence Magazine and one of the top 100 Thought Leaders on Trustworthy Business Practices by Trust Across America. Mr. Whipple has a BSME, MSChE, MBA and is a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP). Contact at www.leadergrow.com or 585-392-7763
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Leadership Assessment #3 – Growth & Development

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