Leadership - A discussion of traits, characteristics, and current news of leaders.

As a leader going into the battle of business, you will only go as far as your team. No matter your intelligence, your dedication, tenacity and expertise, without a supporting team, you will not succeed. And without leaders in that supporting team, you will fail.

One of the most important daily tasks of a leader is to develop leaders. Leader development for many is a challenge. It requires you to trust others. It requires you to allow others to perhaps fail in order to learn. Can you accept that? Are you willing to accept a small failure to develop a future leader? Can you get out of the way and perhaps watch a subordinate exceed your expectations? Are you willing to lift others to your level or are you trying to distance yourself from subordinates to distinguish yourself?

A good friend of mine was a founder and CEO of a top call center. He succeeded by building leaders at all levels and now writes a blog about call centers and what he has learned.   I recently read a great anecdote on his blog discussing life in a call center. Just a sampling of this call center employee’s thoughts paints a vivid picture of a disconnect between employee and the leadership that should exist at the company.

“No reviews, no warnings, no goals, no leadership….they didn't have the guts to lay it out, I had to ask for real criticism.”

I don’t know the entire story but it feels like an employee desperate to do the job he was hired for – and perhaps even more, if he could find a leader in his organization to provide him feedback, direction and focus.

To empower others, you have to trust and be willing to take a risk. You have to want to get to know your employees and find what makes them tick. In my experience as a CEO, I spent a considerable amount of time finding opportunities to help those around me succeed and to help them catch a glimpse of their potential. A leader will do this. As your employees understand that you know them they will feel your trust, then they will come to experience the growth that accompanies that trust and you will find you have developed your most loyal employees.