It takes a leader to train leaders!

One of the most common challenges faced by businesses  and organisations is to train leaders.

A group of people in a leadership training designed to train leaders

I believe the key to overcoming this challenge is a renewed focus by exisiting leaders on specific leadership development.

Most companies focus on training their people about the processes which are essential for the smooth running of the organisation and the technical expertise necessary to do a particular job. Hence managers and technicians are relatively easy to find. But less often is there a specific leadership development focus.

The fact is, leaders do not just emerge because they get to a certain age, or because they serve for a certain length of time in a technical or managerial role. The best technician does not automatically make the best leader! People who make good managers are not always good leaders! Leaders need to be trained. It takes a leader to train leaders.

When you do find an organisation that keeps producing excellent leaders, you can guarantee one thing – that there is a real leader at the helm – a leader with the desire and ability to empower and release those around them into their potential. It takes a leader to train leaders!

7 essential qualities of a leader who is able to train leaders:

• the relationship skills to connect well and develop trust with people
• the capacity to see potential in people not just their faults and mistakes (the gold not just the dirt around it)
• the heart to care enough to inspire people, to speak into their potential and enable them to rise to be their best
• the courage to appropriately be tough and confront people to deal with limiting beliefs, complacency or laziness
• the patience to train, encourage and correct people as they try and fail on the way to learning new skills
• the security to give opportunity for young leaders to grow and become successful within the organisation.
• the wisdom to be aware of the vital need for the next generation of leaders to emerge

I remember a friend of mine complaining to me about the lack of good people in his organisation. He was convinced that the quality of the people around him was poor. When I visited his organisation a few weeks later and met some of his team I became a little confused. I saw potential leaders everywhere. He had not trained himself to see the gold and had decided to focus on the dirt. He was not an empowering leader and his organisation never grew strong.

Do you wish you had strong emerging leaders in your business? The long term positive answer is far more about you learning to be a leader who can train leaders than about always trying to import someone who is already fully trained and ready to go. (Such people rarely exist and are often a disappointment because they were trained by someone else and will be more difficult for you to train).

How do you rate on the 7 qualities above? Can I suggest you ask someone who knows you well enough to tell you the truth, and have the courage to get some coaching in the areas you need to develop.

For your copy of a free CD, ‘5 Essential Steps Guaranteed to Grow Your Influence’ please click on the following link: http://summitleadershipsolutions.com.au/