I remember my General Manager saying to me over 11 years ago something so profound that it has become a driving force in my leadership journey ever since. I had just been promoted into a Sales Leadership role and being new to leadership, I was excited and determined to make a great impression and make my mark. He said “Darren, understand that the development & growth of your team will be limited by you”. At the time I didn’t quite understand this concept because I believed that each of my sales executives were responsible for their own growth and their own development – and this is true, they are responsible. However, as a Leader, it was my responsibility to create the environment and culture of success that would enable them to grow and develop. And I learned that in order for my team to grow and develop, it meant that I needed to be disciplined and committed to growing.
As John Maxwell says in his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, the Law of the Lid applies all of the time. If you place a ceiling or lid on your development as a leader, your people will be limited also by that lid. So I decided to commit to continuous and never ending development so that I could become the best leader I could for my people, and therefore help them develop & grow.
Here are some of the areas I chose to focus on :
• I became (& continue to be) a voracious reader and researcher on leadership and what separates the good leaders from the great leaders. I recognised that I did not have all the answers, and nor did I need to as a leader, however, through researching and tapping into the minds of great leaders, I was able to pass that knowledge and wisdom onto my team.
• I became less judgemental and more curious about my people and human behaviour, specifically around how people chose to run certain strategies to achieve results and understand whether those results were what they were looking for. I then understood that in order to achieve a different result, they would have to run a different strategy – this was an invaluable lesson which allowed me to pass the learnings on to my team.
• I recognised that in order to create a culture of success, I needed to learn to delegate more and trust my team more. As such, I delegated responsibility and allowed others to step up and play a bigger role. In this process, I understood that it was my responsibility to start developing other leaders.
• I understood that I had to become more open and less focussed on me. It was a challenge moving from an individual sales role where I was in control of my own destiny, to a leaders role where I was responsible for a team. Through this process though, I recognised the importance of becoming more vulnerable as a leader and demonstrating a higher level of authenticity, rather than pretending to be bullet proof and ‘having all the answers’. I also had to build a higher level of self belief in the leadership role, and through that, build a higher level of belief in my team. I achieved this through focussing all of my attention on how to better serve my team.
• I recognised that I had to be more collaborative and tap into the collective intelligence and experience of the team. Instead of running at 100km an hour in one direction hoping that people would be following, I had to encourage and inspire the team, ask for their input and ideas, and ensure that we were all heading in the same direction, even if that meant travelling at a slower pace. Through collaborating, the team would all be on the same page, and our results started to become more predictable and consistent.
• I recognised that it was up to me to set the example, because the team were watching me like a hawk, listening to everything I said, but more importantly, listening for everything that I didn’t say. Likewise with my actions, they would watch intently what I did, but more specifically, what I didn’t do. So it became critical that I was very clear on what I stood for as a leader, what I valued as a leader, and then became incredibly consistent on how I demonstrated those values on a day to day basis. I knew that my teams development and growth was dependant on my growth and development.
I will be forever grateful to my General Manager for sharing that leadership wisdom with me over 11 years ago. Whilst the leadership journey has been a challenging, and sometimes, extremely difficult one, it has been a journey well worth experiencing. I have come to understand that one of the biggest obligations of a leader is to continue to grow and develop, so that we can provide an environment that encourages our people to develop. And knowing that our teams growth and development will be limited my us, this is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. I trust that this article has added some value to you as you continue on your leadership journey.
To your continued leadership success.
Darren
If we haven’t already connected via LinkedIn, please send me an invitation to connect. I would love to connect.
I would also welcome the opportunity to have a conversation with you. I currently have 2 slots available over the next week for a 30 minute 1:1 strategy call. If you are experiencing a current challenge around your leadership, I would love to help. Send me an email at darren@darrenmitchell.com.au and we’ll set up a time to chat. No obligation, and no cost. I look forward to connecting with you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post – I greatly appreciate it, and welcome comments and feedback. Please feel free to comment below, to follow me on LinkedIn, or to connect via Twitter or Facebook.
Darren is a Sales Leadership and Sales Performance Coach, Facilitator & Speaker. He is an experienced and committed coach with a background of sales leadership success in large organisations. He applies a genuine focus to coaching and developing high performing sales leaders who are looking to unleash the potential of themselves and their teams.
