Developing more leaders is the leader’s job – it is the leader’s duty.
It took me almost two years to get a face-to-face with Jim. He was the president of an innovative, multi-million dollar telecommunications firm in my city. When I sat down with him, I discovered he felt a real need for something to change in his company.
Jim’s firm had a high turnover rate among their developers. Talent consistently left the building to seek bigger companies in bigger cities. He felt like he had hired a solid core of leaders, yet many of them created personnel issues which should have been avoided.
Jim decided to attend our Express Leadership University program. It was a big commitment for a busy man. Six different 4-hour sessions occurred every two weeks. But, through our discussions, he realized developing more leaders was the leader’s job. He realized this piece was his moral obligation - his Duty.
When Jim completed the course, he sent his Vice Presidents to attend the next class. Next, he sent his department heads. After them, his developers started our program. Over time, close to 80% of the company attended 24 hours of training which dove into the principles in Becoming a Leader of Character, Communicating with Character and Building Teams of Character.
Was this course of action worth it? Years later, the results are clear. Developing more leaders, changed the entire company. Turnover is down and efficiency is up. To top it off, the company is now one of the community leaders in philanthropic pursuits. Employees volunteer their weekends to be together and make a positive impact on our city.
Why has this happened? It is because Jim committed to building leaders everywhere within his company. He saw it as his Duty to add value to each member of his team. He believed if he could build Leaders of Character at work, those people would take this mindset home. He saw the ripple effect. He wanted each member of his team to become not only better leaders at work, but also better parents and spouses who knew how to be there in their workplace, homes, children’s schools and communities. A leader who is focused on developing other leaders changes lives.
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Dig Deep Questions:
What efforts do you make to develop leaders who you manage?
What is preventing you from doing more to develop them?
What would happen if you had more people on your team who behaved like Leaders of Character?
Making a shift towards taking responsibility and living with Duty is a lifelong journey. We want to partner with you as you practice the habit of Duty daily, which is why we have created our Habits of Character Action Guides.
The Duty Action Guide offers you a month of daily, interactive training complete with a daily reading, dig deep questions, weekly processing guides and instructions on how to use the guide both individually and with your team. The Duty Action Guide is now available here.
We are behind you, championing for you, your teams and your organizations as you become the leader you wish you had. We want to come alongside you as you grow to confidently answer “yes” to the question, “Would you follow you?”
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