A Leader's Highest Calling

A little over a month ago in this newsletter, I invited the first fifty people who registered to a live virtual coaching session. Our session is tomorrow and I’m truly looking forward to it. I was pleased to see the enormous response to the event. Over 1000 people registered, so unfortunately, we can’t connect with everyone this time.

Live virtual coaching is one of the many ways I serve my corporate and non-profit clients and I wanted to share this experience with my LinkedIn audience. In preparation for tomorrow’s session, I asked registrants to tell me what they find most challenging and what provides them with the most satisfaction in their professional lives. A common theme emerged. Most people felt they didn’t have adequate time to focus on the most important things. And most people derived greatest satisfaction from equipping and empowering others to achieve more.

Recently one of my coaching clients made a confession. “I’ve always known that as a leader I should help develop others. Frankly, I thought about that as a sacrifice and mostly focused on developing myself. What I’ve learned is that as I empowered and developed others, I got better.”

Another recent client put it this way: â€œI would spend all day, every day, feeling pressured to do everything I needed to get done. I wanted to help my team, but too many other people and problems required my attention. I just didn’t have any time left to help others get better. I was stressed, but I felt important. I finally tried what you coach: I had a tough problem that I couldn’t sort out so I asked my team for help. Their response was amazing. They gave me great ideas. They were pleased to be asked. And I got a better answer than I would have on my own. Now, whenever possible, I ask them first. We are all stronger and better for it.”

When people hear me say the purpose of leadership is to solve problems and change the order of things for the better, they usually nod their heads in agreement. When I say the highest calling of a leader is to unlock potential in others, I see doubt on their faces. Sure, it sounds good, but most people think unlocking potential in others is something you do when everything else is finished. It’s a nice side-benefit, something we fit in whenever we can, but it isn’t the core of the job.

Actually it is. Leaders frequently assume that the problems that land on their desk, the issues they are asked to resolve, the decisions they must make, impact only them and are theirs alone to handle. But every one of those problems, issues and decisions, a?ect many, many other people. Every one of those problems and issues has reverberated throughout the organization for quite awhile. That is why they have landed on the leader’s desk. All those other people who have experienced the need for a resolution or a decision have an insight that can help a leader make a better choice. People closest to the problem - people impacted by a problem - always understand the problem.

To unlock others’ potential, a leader first must understand that others’ have insight and experience that will benefit the leader. Second, for all of us, the best way to challenge ourselves, to grow, to learn and to get stronger and better is to engage in problem-solving. People’s potential isn’t unlocked by sitting in a training class - although some classes are valuable. People don’t get stronger when the boss protects them from tough choices. People’s potential is unlocked when they are working on something that matters, something that impacts them in a real way, and finding ways to make that situation better. If a leader wants to be e?ective, they use every resource possible - starting with the people around them. If a leader wants to solve problems and change the order of things for the better, they unlock potential in others by engaging them in the process of problem-solving and change.