Home Small Group Leaders Articles for Small Group Leaders 3 Marks of Successful “We” Leaders

3 Marks of Successful “We” Leaders

2. Share the load versus dumping the load.

Some leaders believe the best way to empower new leaders is to give them a greater challenge. This is a good approach…if the emerging leader has the gifts, talents, and savvy to handle it. But if not, it can be a disaster, and you will be shuffling leaders around the organization or shoving them out the door. I have seen many poor leadership calls in the last few years. In each case, the pattern was the same. Give a newer leader a huge challenge, and throw them into the fire with a slap on the back and a “Good luck…Don’t screw up!” This is foolish. It is actually a testimony of the senior person’s lack of leadership versus the inability of the underling to perform under fire.

This method may work on occasion but fails when the new leader is not wired for the new job, has no passion for the nature of the work, and is incapable of sharing leadership responsibilities with others. Lots of people drown with this “throw them in the deep end and see if they can swim” approach to leader development. As a result they have no developmental pattern to follow and have acquired no skill for sharing the overwhelming leadership challenges with anyone. So they roll up their sleeves and give it their best – and fail. Such leaders become gun-shy, wondering if they really were leaders in the first place. And the senior leader blames them instead of himself. The result is a climate of fear, disappointment, and steady turnover.

Developing and mentoring people is hard work. And few top leaders take the time to do it well. Most have a quick “teaching session” with a new leader or direct report and assume that will do the trick. They remain in steadfast control of all things, never moving from “I” to “We” as described in #1 above, making all the important decisions and using people to foster their personal goals.

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