Developing the Leaders Around You

Are You Developing Future Leaders?

You occupy an important leadership position in your company. You work hard to do an outstanding managerial job. You focus your thoughts and actions – indeed, the majority of your waking hours – on your organization’s long-term health and future prospects. However, being an effective leader requires one more element: finding, mentoring and promoting future leaders for your firm. This is your most important long-range task. Your company cannot thrive and grow if it does not replenish itself continuously. Therefore, it must routinely develop new leaders who will help chart and pave its future path.

On a personal level, your individual success as a leader is ultimately determined not only by your executive talents and capabilities, but by the quality of the people around you and those you leave in your stead. Indeed, your triumph – or failure – as a senior executive rests in the hands of the people closest to you at work. These individuals provide a crucial sounding board for your plans and actions, and help share your leadership load. Always surround yourself with the most capable people you can find. Then work hard with them so they...