Deliberate Development

Everyone know that guys or girl; they are the one who everyone looks to for guidance; they are reassuring, trusted, confident and display a sense of power over their surroundings. In short: people want to be like them. In a business setting these behaviors instill pride in the followers driving development of enduring leadership qualities. In this entry I will examine Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation, as well as ways you can use them in your work center to develop leaders.

In my eyes, Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation feed into one another, and there is a lot of cross over of traits from one side to another.  Idealized Influence and Inspirational Motivation are the building blocks of your leadership toolbox; a solid foundation that builds lasting competencies for your followers.  One these attributes is charisma. I think a lot of people can identify with this trait, as they are familiar with it from books and movies, whether it be in Operation Red Wings, Bengazi, Takur Ghar, or even on Wall Street, people know what charisma is, and they respond to it.   Charisma drives Idealized Influence/Inspirational Motivation, but you don’t have to be the person described in the introduction to benefit from Idealized Influence/Inspirational Motivation.

For example, lets say you have two leaders. Leader One on the surface is lights out: finishes first in every run, can bench press a car, seems like a great leader, has a Phd AND his troops win awards, and he and his flight are great at what they do, but he doesn’t actively develop his people—he just shows up and benefits from what was already there. Outwardly this person seems like a star.

Then there is Leader Two: this person pushes themselves each day, goes back for their airmen on runs, benches a smaller car, give direct guidance/benchmarks/goals to their Airmen on what they need to do to win awards/excel in their given profession. In short Leader Two drives the development of their Airmen—shows them a vision; plants a seed, provides motivation.

Who has a bigger impact? Who is ready for more responsibility? When comparing these two leaders I think that Leader One will not win the long game, because he/she will get to a point where he/she needs to develop people and he will not have laid a foundation for continued progression (i.e. did not use Idealized Influence/Inspirational Motivation), where as Leader Two did lay the groundwork for the future of his flight/squadron. Leader Two motivated his people for the better, he developed a vision and plan on how to accomplish it, and this benefited the group. That’s what leaders do. You are in a position of authority because you have proven that you put the rest of the guys/girls well-being in front of yours. You eat last; first in line for a bad deal, last in line for a good deal. In my opinion, that’s why Leader Two will win the long game.

The following is how I work leadership development into my day, and I think this method can be adapted to any situation; in any industry:

Every morning I ask myself how can I help the people assigned to me? How can I make them better at their given tasks, how can I harness their innate gifts to increase our lethality? In other words how can I deliberately develop my people? After all, this is my task. Some days this means I work on a skill I need to develop, so I can pass it on, and some days this means that I have “Sgt time” for hands on remedial training so I can solidify my team’s understanding/application of a subject. Either way, my team is getting stronger and heading in the right direction.

I hope you have found value in this entry, and more importantly it has made you think of ways you can develop your followers.