The question is often asked, “How am I doing as a leader?” The answer is how the people you lead are doing. But good or bad, leaders always impact their people.
“The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.” -Max Depree
Revealing questions to ask about followers:
Question #1: Are the people following?
All leaders have two common characteristics: first, they are going somewhere; second, they are able to persuade other people to go with them. In a very practical sense, the second characteristic is what separates the real leaders from the pretenders.
Clarence Francis, who led the General Foods corporation in the 1930s and ‘40s, asserted, “You can buy a man’s time; you can buy his physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm…you can not buy loyalty… you can not buy the devotion of hearts, minds or souls. You must earn these.” As a leader, you should never expect the loyalty of others before you have built a relationship and earned trust.
Question #2: Are the people changing?
President Harry S. Truman commented, “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Good leaders inspire their followers to have confidence in them. But great leaders inspire their followers to have confidence in themselves.
My role as a head coach was to do three things: One, bring people who are committed to being the very best; two, eliminate people who not committed to begin the very best; and three, the most important of my responsibilities, create an atmosphere where they could achieve their goals and the goals we set for our team. I wanted to put them in the right environment and delegate the responsibility so they could be the best they could be.
Question #3: Are the people growing?
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of a leader.” (Dale Galloway)
The responsibility of developing people falls on the leader. And that means more than just helping people to acquire job skills. The best leaders help people with more than their jobs; they help them with their lives. They help them to become better people, not just better workers. They enlarge them. And that has great power because growing people create growing organizations.
Walter Bruckart, former vice president of Circuit City, remarked that the top five factors of excellence in an organization are people, people, people, people, and people.
As a leader, my success in developing others will depend upon the following:
My high valuation of people—this is an attitude issue.
My high commitment to people—this is a time issue.
My high integrity with people—this is a character issue.
My high standard for people—this is a goal-setting issue.
My high influence over people—this is a leadership issue.
Question #4: Are the people succeeding?
Basketball coach Pat Riley, who has led two different teams to NBA championships, comments, “I think the ways a leader can measure whether or not he or she is doing a good job is (1) through wins or losses, (2) through the bottom line, (3) through the subjective and objective visual analysis of how individuals are improving and growing. If individuals are getting better results, I think the whole product is improving.”
Leaders may impress others when they succeed, but they impact others when their followers succeed.
Peter Drucker observes, “Leadership is the lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a man’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.”
To see how a leader is doing, look at the people.
