The primary priority in significant leadership is always to replace oneself.
Leaders are never born. They are always built by situation, opportunity, or wise counsel. Significant leaders are constantly looking for the spark of potential in everyone they lead and everyone they encounter, mentoring leadership qualities in others and recognizing who is rising to the top like cream. Knowing when someone is ready for more leadership responsibility and offering that in metered doses helps to build confidence in emerging leaders and empowers them to take on an even more substantial role in the future.
By the same token, seeing when someone is not quite ready for more responsibility is equally important. Being handed leadership responsibility too soon can undermine someone’s confidence and prevent them from believing in themselves when the time is right. In such a situation, significant leaders know to take the opportunity to spend more time and keep a stronger metaphorical hand on the pupil until they are better prepared.
Guiding and building new significant leaders is the single most important duty of a leader. Number nine, in The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership, perhaps the most important one is work for your replacement.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
