This is part two of a two-part series exploring what it means to develop leaders throughout your entire organization. See part one here.
You’ve begun to produce a leadership legacy when your leaders are producing other leaders. If you’ve guided your leaders on your own team well, they will do this independently of you – if they still need your help guiding their team, your work isn’t done yet.
When you start to see that third-generation leader rise, you know you’re almost there. You’ve created a leader equal to or better than yourself who has created a leader who is in turn equal to or better than they are. This allows everyone to rise as the company wins.
Strong Leadership Everywhere
It also means everyone must become more comfortable surrounding themselves with strong people who challenge ideas at every level. You’ll experience your leadership legacy most dramatically in your company’s culture – it’s visceral. Your team will have each other’s backs, and they'll become a trusting, healthy team.
This isn’t just a feel-good concept: strong leadership, coupled with strong management that produces accountability, is the net gain. You’ve built trust, you'll encounter more healthy conflict, you'll have increased commitment, and you'll experience dynamic peer accountability. That accountability becomes your greatest catalyst for team health and everyone’s collective success.
Once You’ve Let Go, Then What?
As difficult as it can be to let go when developing your direct report as a leader, it can be even more challenging once your new leader has successfully developed their own direct reports. You no longer become necessary – teams are in place to take the business further than you've imagined.
It becomes imperative at this point not to become the seagull manager who swoops in and meddles in the day-to-day operations or makes end runs around the other leaders who are successfully functioning without your direct help. Although not being necessary can feel like a loss in perceived value or a blow to your ego, it actually creates freedom and space for exponential growth and innovation. You are now free to create bigger opportunities for the business to grow into – and this makes you and the entire company better.
Creating a legacy of leadership in your business offers more meaning to your employees and more impact for your clients. Embracing this methodology of intentional leadership produces a culture that flows with people doing the right thing, with discipline and accountability throughout the business. What started as an “I” becomes a “we.”
While most CEOs start a business for the opportunity and freedom it affords, at a deeper more fundamental level it’s about the impact we’re making in our world. Letting go of being the driver of everything lets your team collaboratively grow the business (and themselves) into the greatest possibility. As a leader who’s committed to producing a leader who can produce a leader, your legacy awaits.
Next Steps
- Use the EOS® People Analyzer™ tool to determine if someone Gets it, Wants it, and has the Capacity to be a leader in your business
- Share your company Core Values often and encourage new leadership to do so as well
- Take a deep dive with your leaders – read How to Be a Great Boss to create a fully engaged team and get the most from all your employees.
