Who built your leadership capacity?

​Colleagues,
 
The chances are good that several remarkable individuals helped you to develop your leadership skills. Pause and take a moment to think about them and be grateful.
 
And now it is your turn. Who are you developing?
 
It’s easy to talk about building someone’s leadership capacity, but how do you actually do it? 
 
Here are three strategies that work together to help develop leadership:

1. Intentionally provide leadership opportunities. Think about the person’s current capacity and give them a responsibility that is at or slightly above what they are capable of.
2. Provide structure and supports that enable them to fulfill the responsibility. The more challenging the responsibility, the more support the person will need. Here are three simple forms of support:
   1. Provide a timeline and written criteria for success.
   2. Conduct scheduled check-ins to monitor progress.
   3. Provide detailed checklists or standard operating procedures to help guide them.
3. Engage in reflective coaching throughout the process. Yes, you can fall back on the three questions from 5-minute coaching:
   1. What’s going well?
   2. What has surprised you?
   3. What would you do differently?

 
The hardest thing about growing leaders is being intentional about it, but that’s also what is so cool! You can grow others’ leadership; you just need to be thoughtful and prioritize it.
 
Before you get on with your busy day, how about taking a minute to reach out and thank that person who was intentional about helping you grow? If that person is no longer with us, then think about the part of them that lives on in you and be grateful.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick