For many, springtime is a time of becoming reinvigorated. Trees are blooming, flowers are blossoming, and the dormant, brown yards are greening up almost overnight. There is something about the reemergence of life after the dead of winter. New growth is incredibly inspiring.
Leaders, much of your role is about growth, ensuring that people around you have the opportunity to bloom, blossom, and expand their capabilities. It is impossible for anyone to reach any kind of extraordinary or peak performance without continuing to grow. Therefore, it is an obligation for you as a leader to ensure that people around you grow.
So, in spite of all of your own projects to complete, reports to get finished, and so forth, how much of a priority is the actual growth of others to you?
Most likely you do care about it, but do you have anything that resembles an agenda for growth with each person? (Do you have one for yourself?) Because of the typically pressing business demands, you may find that most of your time and effort is focused on handling the daily work challenges, with a dash of hope that people are somehow growing a little along the way.
So, ponder this. In what ways have you intentionally helped people around you grow in the past few months? What have you purposely done to help them increase their talents and capabilities? Perhaps you have provided them with first-time opportunities or new challenges. But truthfully, to what extent were these deliberately offered to spur growth, vs. simply trying to manage the ever-increasing amounts of work. Think about it.
Leaders don’t leave growth to hope, they make it purposeful – for themselves and for others. And the good news… as you work at helping others continue to bloom and blossom, you will be growing as a leader in your own right.