I am supremely fortunate that my work allows me to develop Emerging Leaders for fast-growth companies all over the United States. As I talk with CEOs and their C-Suite teams, they often ask me what they should focus on in addition to running their business. I often surprise them by telling them that if they play their cards right, they can see their team in terms of its potential and invest in the people around them, so that those people provide the leadership that leads to the business pretty well running itself. If that interests you, you can find a few important first steps outlined in the next few paragraphs.

Identify & Attract Leaders To Your Team 

As a leader, you need to develop your ability to see people in terms of what they can become, not just what they were last week, or what they are today. As you evaluate your team ask yourself how you got your opportunity to become a leader. Did someone see YOUR potential and decide to invest in you? Of course, they did! In my case, I had the help of at least a dozen or more people over my career who noticed something in me, and then took me under their wing, and showed me the way to become an accomplished leader. Make it clear to everyone in your organization that you develop leaders from within, as often as you can. Make it clear that you’re saving a seat at the leadership roundtable for anyone who makes up their mind to earn that seat. Then invest in helping them earn the seat.

Build Trust & Light A Fire 

You need to connect with your people before you can invest in them. Give your Emerging Leaders every sign that you are a person that they can trust, by conducting yourself in congruence with the first principles of the organization. Once they begin to see the common ground between you and open up to your ideas, experiences, and insights, you are underway. The moment they begin asking you for your advice, you know they trust you, and that they’re open to the investment of your leadership insight. As you invest in them, be sure to understand their motivations. Give them ample reasons to become excited about your vision for who they can become, and understand their why. Why do they want to become a leader? Why are you investing in them so that they can become that great leader? Don’t leave any of that to chance. Inspire their fire.

Set Them Up For Predictable Success 

Show them how you’re going to invest in them and help them to understand the path that will lead to them becoming a leader of consequence. You need to equip your Emerging Leaders with the correct mindset and motivations, and you can then enable them with great self and social awareness so that they can manage their behavior and emotions through turbulent waters if needed. Teach them how to communicate, how to make great decisions, how to motivate those around them, and how to foster collaboration. As they begin to see the successes starting to stack up around them, their confidence and their clarity about where they are headed will certainly increase. With momentum behind them, they will become ever more committed to investing in themselves.

Teach Them Relationship Skills 

Any good Emerging Leader needs to learn to build great long-term relationships. Don’t leave it to chance. Show your Emerging Leaders how to cultivate a great relationship with their Leader, their peers, their direct reports, their prospects, customers, and alliance partners. When we proactively begin to build relationships with people before we need their support, we learn that we will have gained their support along the way and it’s available for when we really need it. Teach your team to go first, to build value for everyone around them at all times, and to always conduct themselves in ways that bring honor and help the team to victory.

Rinse & Repeat 

As you begin to see strong, consistent results with one or two Emerging Leaders, begin identifying and attracting the next two or three to your leadership development program and repeat the steps that have worked over and over again. As you invest more in developing more leadership around you, your organization will become stronger and more proactive. Problems that used to occur get prevented before they happen or they get resolved nearly immediately after they happen. The organization becomes more proactive along with your well-trained proactive Emerging Leaders. The return on your energy and your investment will compound and your competitive strength against your competitors will grow and lengthen the advantage you have over them. As you get focused on developing more effective leaders, you will become very accomplished in your development abilities and your lead over your competitors will flourish as long as you continue to keep identifying and developing more leaders to fuel your growth.

Helping Others Helps You

By building a leadership culture in your organization, you will ensure that your organization always has an advantage. Your efforts to invest in and to develop strong leadership ability in the leaders of tomorrow will ensure that your organization will maximize the potential of your human capital. Thus, your results will follow accordingly. I never run into companies with a great leadership culture who are lagging behind their industry. It is great leadership that provides a competitive advantage. So, if you are wise and you are paying attention, work on YOUR leadership skills and then begin working endlessly to systematically develop leaders who will help your organization to seize the next hundred or thousand opportunities.

 Talk To An Experienced Coach

Michael Beach is an executive development and leadership coach who works with fast-growth companies all over the United States. Michael has founded a Coaching & Consulting firm with multiple outstanding coaches located in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, who are all keenly focused on helping those companies to develop excellence in their top leadership and their emerging leaders. If you’re not seizing all of the opportunities in your market at the moment, you may want to reach out to Michael for a free, no-cost, no-obligation consultation. The Michael Beach Coaching & Consulting team of coaches is growing and currently has multiple openings to accept more C-Suite Executives and Emerging Leaders into their leadership development programs. If you’re interested in talking with Michael or one of his experienced coaches about your situation and your vision for the future of your business, reach out to Michael at 651-335-4505, 520-732-2266, or send an email to info@michaelbeachcoach.com. We hope you enjoyed this article! Let us know below.