Leadership Principle #5: The Most Important Part of Your Legacy – People

What would you think if I told you there was one key to creating your legacy, yet it’s one thing CEOs rarely do well?  This all-important task is critical to your company’s growth and the defining factor of how you will be remembered as a leader.  This key – your responsibility as a CEO -- is to develop your people.  It sounds simple, yet so few leaders actually understand the importance of this task, and even fewer do it well.  I can teach you how to do this, but more importantly, why you should do this.

I share with my clients a few things I’ve learned about developing executive teams:

Growing your business depends on how you grow your people.  This is necessity - not a luxury - if you want to scale and grow your organization.  If you can focus and guide talented people, there is no limit to what they can accomplish, which will far exceed anything you are able to achieve as one person.  Think of this as the multiplier on your investment…good people, motivated by good leader will provide a huge return on your time and effort.

This next part is unpopular, but the fact is not everyone will make it for the whole ride.  Some may not have what it takes, and others will need to go a different direction.  That’s ok and that’s not a failure…it’s simply part of the leadership journey. 

Yes, it’s true – you are training people to take over your own job.  This fact scares many leaders, which is one reason why so few do this piece of the job well.  But if you succeed – and I can teach you how -- you will discover the immeasurable rewards of seeing those you’ve mentored advance, achieve and flourish. 

So ask yourself how much of a priority do you currently place on developing your people?  And most importantly, do you care?  Developing your people is one of the most crucial things you will do as CEO -- your legacy – and the growth of your company is at stake.

Contact me to learn more about effectively developing your people.