Because we live in such a now generation, with instant popcorn, microwaves and fast food, we have become impatient and expect everything in our lives to be instant. We expect instant success, instant personal growth and the case of our health we want instant results there too. Leaders are no different, they too want to move fast and see their vision fulfilled as quickly as possible. They believe that if they develop a crystal clear picture of where they want their team or organization to go, they have a strong clear idea how to get it done and they have sufficient drive and passion. It should all just fall into place and happen according to their agenda. As you know things seldom proceed according to our agendas, especially when other people are involved.

The major challenge, which leader’s encounter that retards the delivery of their vision, is that the people in their teams or organization often lag behind them, in terms of understanding, drive, passion and commitment. It is for this reason that there always appears to be an underlying tension between where a leader needs his or her people to be and where they actually are. This tension results in a gap between what the team is actually able to deliver and the expectations of the leader. Even strong leaders with great leadership ability, who have a clear vision, passion and drive to succeed, never seem to close this gap.

Although I have struggled with this concept my entire life as a leader, I now think I have discovered the best way to accelerate the success within any team. The answers that I have come up with are the result of a combination of personal experience and research, which I have conducted into discovering how to accelerate the results, which I could enjoy with my own teams.

The answers I have come up with can be broken down as follows:

•Committing to a lifetime of personal growth and development equips you to grow and will accelerate your personal growth. As you grow personally, where you wake up each day a little better than you were the previous day, you will gradually compound your success and over time you will realize all your dreams. The longer you stay committed to this process, the more you will grow and improve and the greater will be the acceleration of your personal success. The longer you stay committed to this process the more the momentum will gather and the faster your success will arrive. This is a concept I wrote about in one of my previous articles, when I spoke about, people becoming ten year overnight successes.
•As a leader, when you invest resources into consistently growing the individuals within your teams, you will experience gradual and consistent improvement in the results your team or organization is able to enjoy. Based on my experience with what I have observed in my own teams over the years, even though the people in my teams remained committed to their personal growth, I never managed to achieve similar explosive success in my teams, which I have observed in the case of individuals as described above. Yes I have seen gradual and consistent improvements in the results my teams were able to enjoy, but I never experienced that explosive growth, I so often see in individuals, who stay committed to their personal growth. This confused me for a number of years, until I grew as a leader and realized that the way to introduce this same level of explosive growth into teams. Was only possible, if I concentrated resources on growing leaders, within my teams.
•This change of strategy required a major shift to the way I approached leadership. It required me to mature and become really secure as a leader. I was unable to encourage the growth of the leaders within my teams, until I no longer felt threatened by the possibility of being replaced. Soon after I started to focus on growing the leaders in my teams, I began to see the type of explosive growth, I needed and expected within my organization. You can experience the same results in your teams and organization if you commit to do the same.

This change of focus required me to make some major, fundamental shifts to the way I saw myself and my role as a leader. Whilst I was developing my team and helping them to grow I felt needed and got my personal worth from this feeling of being needed and valued. It was only when I felt really secure as a leader that I began to invest into developing other people to effectively “REPLACE” me. This was one of the wisest things I ever did. It helped me to experience explosive growth in my businesses and freed me to follow my passion, which is to travel, teach and research.

As you help leaders grow around you, they extend your reach by assisting you to guide, grow and influence more members of your teams, than would be possible for you to achieve alone. The accelerated growth, which you will observe, comes about due to the synergy, which flows from having a whole lot of leaders, who are, in effect, an extension of your personal reach.

The major reason for this amazing, explosive growth, which comes from developing leaders, is quite simple, when viewed more closely. If you add ten team members to your teams and you invest resources into growing them. You have added the power of ten new hands to your team or organization. If on the other hand you add ten leaders to your organization and you invest resources into growing them, you now have the power of ten leaders multiplied by all the followers and leaders they are able to influence. This investment into the leaders in your teams or organization means you are growing your teams and not just a whole lot of individuals, within your teams.

Unless you commit to develop as many leaders around you as possible, you limit your reach to only the group of people you are able to touch personally. As you grow great leaders, your reach becomes unlimited and the growth within your teams and organization becomes exponential. The more you invest into developing great leaders, the greater the quantity and quality of followers you are able reach and influence. If developing leaders is the most effective way of extending your reach as a leader and the only way to experience explosive growth within your teams or organization. Why do so few people invest resources into this practice?

The first challenge any leader faces when looking for the right people to train as leaders, is the incredible shortage of people with the will to lead. Most people are comfortable being followers and they do not want to stand out and become real leaders. The type of leader I am talking about here is people who are both willing and able to influence other people and rally them to perform at their best. Most people want the increased salary and prestige that goes with filing a leadership position, but they are unwilling to shoulder the responsibility that comes along with the position.

Even after you have found the right people, with the will and ability to lead, you will face the next challenge, which is drawing them into your team or organization and allowing them the room they need to lead and develop. Leaders of the caliber you want in your teams, want excitement and have a deep rooted need to drive the organization on their own. You will need to clearly communicate your vision to these leaders and allow them a fair degree of autonomy to deliver on the vision in their own way. If you truly want to develop leaders within your teams or organization you have to accept that they need space and a level of autonomy, to freely drive things in their teams, the way they feel is best.

The next challenge you may encounter as you grow and develop great leaders within your teams or organization, is the difficulty of keeping them. The only way to keep great leaders in your teams is to always strive to become an even better leader yourself. No one will follow any leader that is weaker than them. You must stay committed and keep growing, always striving to stay ahead of the people, you lead. This commitment to your on-going growth and development will allow you to constantly add value to everyone in your teams. As long as you are able to keep adding value to the leaders in your teams, they will stay with you and help you to accelerate your growth.

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Author's Bio: 

Andrew is an expert and master teacher that speaks and teaches self-leadership, expanded awareness, effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. He guides individuals and business professionals, to identify, prioritise and carry out the right activities, consistently, so that they can maximise their personal effectiveness and deliver their best; on time, every time. All the tools and techniques Andrew teaches; have been tested in the laboratory of his own life and the many successful businesses he has owned and led, over the past 20 years. These strategies have seen Andrew achieve financial independence and reach a point of harmonious balance in all areas of his life. His purpose is to help as many people as possible, achieve similar or better results and to show them how they can realise their full potential, both personal and professionally and to help them live a meaningful life, where they are fulfilled in all areas. http://www.andrewhorton.co.za