How Are You Leading Your People?

When it comes to leadership, I believe that developing people is one of a leader’s most important responsibilities. After all, leaders need people to share in the vision and to keep organizations moving forward. It is not enough to lead people to achieve the company’s bottom line, but leading them in ways that promote professional growth is equally important. Are you leading your people in a way that promotes their growth?

Leading and developing people involves sharing vision, clearly communicating goals and expectations, and providing learning opportunities; it also involves selecting the right people and building the best teams possible at the outset.

The vision, goals, objectives, mission, and core values of your organization need to be shared in ways that are understandable and clear. This can be done through a variety of methods – staff meetings, emails, clearly written job descriptions, and company publications.

Constantly communicating with staff to ensure that they understand what the expectations are for their performance is another crucial aspect in developing them. It is not enough to give people a laundry list of expectations. People need to know the specific behaviors required to meet/exceed the expectations as well as the metrics used to assess their performance. You should also stress how crucial their roles are to advancing the organization’s mission.

To cultivate knowledgeable professionals, leaders should provide relevant learning opportunities for their people. In-house training, professional conferences, workshops, online classes, and retreats are just a few of the learning options leaders can utilize to grow and develop people. When my staff take part in learning activities, I require them to share what they learn with the rest of the team during staff meetings.

Lastly, leaders should model behaviors that reflect the company’s values and mission. Leading by example is an effective way to build people’s trust and confidence in your ability to lead them. People also become more engaged when they see leaders “practicing what they preach.”