Management’s imperative is to cultivate its human resources. —Zig Ziglar, Top Performance
Photo credit: U.S. Department of Education, Creative Commons
Leaders are defined by the leaders they develop. If they cannot or choose not to develop others, chances are good they will not be leaders for long.
Personal humility establishes a healthy foundation in a leader’s outlook. Leaders also need to develop the right qualities in ourselves and others.
C. William Pollard, chairman of the board at ServiceMaster, relates how he and his team finally grasped this principle:
Several years ago the ServiceMaster board of directors had a two-day session with Peter Drucker. The purpose of our time was to review how we could be more effective in our planning and governance. Peter started off the seminar with one of his famous questions: “What is your business?” The responses were varied and included the identification of markets we serve, such as our health care, education, and residential; and the services we deliver, such as food service, housekeeping, and maid service.
After about five minutes of listening to the responses regarding our markets and services, Peter told our board something that I have never been able to tell them. He said, “You are all wrong. Your business is simply the training and development of people. You package it all different ways to meet the needs and demands of the customer, but your basic business is people training and motivation. You are delivering services. You can’t deliver services without people. You can’t deliver quality service to the customer without motivated and trained people.”
Development requires a humble attitude and a long-term commitment to growth and improvement. Benjamin Franklin once said, “You can’t expect an empty bag to stand up straight.” Neither can leaders expect people to grow, achieve goals, and improve the organization without investing the time necessary to develop them into top performers and men and women of character.
Growth must first take place in leaders’ lives. There are some attitudes and habits close to home that must be cleaned up. Some strenuous self-examination is always a good first step.
After we let go of a few personal “planks” and seek to understand the reality of the environment where we lead, we will then be ready to powerfully develop others.