In this post I want to talk about a leadership quote that carries special significance for me. The quote is from Warren G. Bennis, who is a distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California. His quote comes from the January 2004 Harvard Business Review and an article that he authored, titled The Seven Ages of the Leader. The quote is “a challenge for leaders in their ascendancy is to nurture those people whose stars may shine as brightly as or even brighter than the leaders’ own.” Further in this article he says, “… in many ways, this is the real test of character for a leader.”
For me, this has wrung true my entire career. Although I have held leadership roles most of my professional career, I consider myself a dedicated overachiever whose toolbox is less full than those of some whom I have had the pleasure of leading. I’m not glitzy or boisterous or even very vocal, but I have other qualities that have enabled me to lead and in my opinion lead well. One of those qualities is mentoring others to be all that they can be.
This is something that I believe in very strongly. I put a lot of time and energy into mentoring, and I have had the tremendous pleasure of watching people grow as a result of those efforts. There is nothing grander in one’s professional career than to know that you have helped to grow someone to another level. That is truly supreme.
However, knowing that you are starting with someone who already eclipses you in some ways and then investing in them to become even better can put one into a measure of jeopardy. What if that person reaches the point wherein they truly should surpass the teacher? Might an elected leadership or boss be tempted to make a leadership change?
The answer is “yes.” I can say this definitively because I once experienced precisely such a situation. But that is not what this posting is about … this is about a commitment to nourishing others, which I feel is an absolutely essential quality of a leader.
Through growing the abilities of others a leader grows the knowledge/experience base from which creative ideas are percolated and best decisions made. And in the process a mentoring philosophy can evolve within the workplace and perhaps even flourish, potentially permeating an entire staff and impacting still others. And when this becomes the expected norm, everyone benefits. And there is no better way to grow staff morale and to improve staff retention than to have it clearly understood that there will be an ongoing investment in growing staff to the next level.
Regardless of the potential negative consequences to the teacher, a true leader will never tarnish the star of another … those energies will instead go into adding new luster to those stars. Creating new leaders who possess the finest qualities of leadership represents one of the purest and richest components of leadership.
Author Cross-references:
Warren G. Bennis: Also see post 1/14/09, 5/1/09, 8/17/09, 11/11/09, 12/5/09, 2/18/10, 2/24/10
Key Word Cross-references:
Character/Integrity: Also see posts 2/3/09, 3/16/09, 5/1/09, 6/5/09, 8/17/09, 11/1/09, 12/5/09
Mentoring/Nurturing/Developing: Also see posts 12/8/08, 12/12/08, 1/13/09, 2/28/09, 6/5/09, 7/7/09, 9/9/09, 9/15/09, 10/26/09, 12/5/09, 1/6/10, 3/29/10
Workplace Environment: Also see posts 12/12/08, 1/28/09, 2/19/09, 7/7/09, 8/3/09, 9/9/09, 1/6/10, 4/19/10
Tags: Leadership
on Leadership ... by Steven Davis, CAE 
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