***This article is inspired by chapter 4 of John C. Maxwell’s book
“Developing the Leaders Around You” – “The Leader’s Crucial Task: Nurturing Potential Leaders” ***
In our hard-driving world, nurturing followers may seem “soft” or a waste of time for many leaders. However, if you want to be a leader who is able to draw the most out of your potential leaders so your team and organization can experience the highest levels of success, you can’t overlook this crucial task.
If you’re like me, you may better understand nurturing in the context of raising children or even plants and animals. It’s often easier to embrace this task when thinking about people or things that need extra attention. We can easily overlook that our followers need continual care and attention as well. Being a nurturing leader isn’t for the weak. Rather, it takes great courage to go against the grain to intentionally take care of those under your leadership.
In order to do this, consider John Maxwell’s four significant ways to nurture potential leaders:
1 – Believe in them
Everyone needs others to believe in them at some point in life. Many times we don’t believe in ourselves and we have to borrow belief from others to courageously move forward in our lives. Potential leaders rarely have a track record of success to fuel their own beliefs. They need their leaders to show that they believe they can be successful until their self-belief catches up.
2 – Encourage them.
Everyone needs encouragement regardless of age, experience, or situation. No sane person has ever told someone to stop encouraging them. We love to hear encouraging words! Potential leaders need you to catch them doing things well and encouraging them to do more of it. They also need you to encourage them when they fail. Encouragement is like oxygen to the soul of potential leaders as they strive to develop and achieve success.
3 – Share with them.
In the busyness of daily activities, it’s easy to neglect sharing with others why you do what you do and how you have become successful. Many times, leaders are operating intuitively and overlook the steps they took to accomplish the goals and objectives that potential leaders need to learn. Be intentional to share your insights and keys to success with them.
4 – Trust them.
While trust takes time to build, your followers need to believe that you trust them to get the job done. If you hired them to do a job or task, then trust them to do it until they prove you wrong. Don’t micromanage them, which may be your way of making sure things are done right, but it conveys a message of mistrust. Do the work of explaining clearly what needs to be accomplished, equip them to be successful, provide the necessary resources, and then trust them to do the task. This is how you empower potential leaders to achieve success.
Nurturing potential leaders requires thoughtful, intentional behavior. As stated in the beginning, it is easy to overlook this key role of a leader because it appears “soft” or even to be a waste of time. However, when you take the time to do this for your followers, the payoff can be great. You’ll feel good as a leader and your organization will win long-term.
Until next time…make today GREAT!
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