Owning their Development

Leaders are always more successful when they help their people to develop (grow) faster.  Now, it is first about picking the right people, and those are the people who take ownership for their own development.

However, the leader has to take ownership for their development too.  Many leaders are always looking for the training courses to send their people on, but that’s not the most powerful development tool they have.  Training is just providing a foundation…the real development comes from the leader delegating work that drives their people to grow (and grow faster).

Most leaders like delegating those outcomes and tasks that they don’t like to do…that’s easy.  The best leaders delegate the outcomes and tasks that they like to do!  As others leaders would do, they don’t hold onto these as that would slow the growth of both their people (and in fact, themselves too!).

You could say that you are not really delegating until you delegate things you like to do, and that is showing real ownership for your people’s development.

Owning the Pace

Leaders focus their people on achievement, but also focus their people on the pace of the achievement as well.   The very best leaders get their people owning both the achievement and the pace too.

Successful leaders know that their people take more ownership on their own thoughts and actions than those given by the leaders.  With that in mind, successful leaders ask their people for the milestones which will drive the pace, versus just giving the milestones to their people.

A question for you…Will your people have more ownership in milestones you give them or milestones that they give you?  That’s right…it’s all about the milestones they give you.

Also, you get another benefit.  By asking your people for their milestones, they reveal whether they know what they are doing.  Why?…Because if they give you milestones that don’t link well to other initiatives in the business, then they are either not well connected within the organisation or they haven’t thought through what they are doing in enough details.

Get your people to own both the Achievement and the Pace.