Developing Others as Leaders

Respond with 150-200 words each

Joshua posted

During the Leader2Leader interview in this course, I had the pleasure of sitting with Tim Perkins, the executive pastor at the church I attend in Columbus, Indiana. This interview was one of the most informative sessions since I began at Indiana Wesleyan. The most important aspect I gleaned from Pastor Tim was not to get caught up in the glory of success made on my leadership journey. He touched on things accomplished in his life and spoke of how it is easy to say, “I did this,” and take that glory away from God. Tim stressed the importance of doing everything for the glory of God (New International Version, 2002/2018, 1 Corinthians 10:23-33) and how leaders need to give God credit for all accomplishments. The second important aspect of this interview was the concept of “the last 10 percent” (Crucial Dimensions, 2017, para. 1). Before this meeting, I had never heard of this process. Pastor Tim described it as a time when employees know it is something serious that needs to be discussed since most individuals leave out the “last 10 percent” of conversations we should be having. Upon reading the feedback, Professor Johns commented on this practice and how it was used in an organization of previous employment. They took it even further with “the last two percent.” She stated, “The last 2 percent went even deeper to a place of reflection and considered authenticity and responsibility. It was transformative for me as a leader as many times, it got to the heart of an issue and helped bring resolution.” These topics have been a new interest of mine and something I am still looking into and learning about. 

“Leaders create and inspire new leaders by instilling faith in their leadership abilities and helping them develop and hone leadership skills they don’t know they possess” (Maxwell, 1995, p. 11). Over the past six weeks, I have filled in gaps in my leadership plan with information learned within this course. The first important insight gained is that despite the military’s obsession with excessive and remedial “training” for everything, I have discovered that development is vastly different and needed. The second insight gained from this course was the necessity for leadership succession if the organization intends to survive. The military has some lower levels of continuity, but a genuine need for leadership succession should be implemented. This process would clear up many systemic issues within the current administration and help maintain a smooth transition when leaders retire or switch units. With this newly learned information, I will implement a better development program for followers and not rely on the traditional and generic “training” programs for on-the-job in-processing. Consistently looking for someone to replace me will be the second practice I start immediately.

 Developing others is an essential and necessary task for all leaders. Also, developing others is the only way to help sustain growth and

less

interruption in the organization when you leave the company. Maxwell (1995) describes how development is challenging but attainable with hard work and determination (pp. 107—108). As a leader, it is my responsibility to help others grow and become better individuals at work, home, and in other areas of life. This concept is required for organizational health, and Paul the Apostle even told us, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing,” calling Christians to practice this concept as well (NIV, 2002/2018, 1 Thessalonians 5:11).

References

Crucial Dimensions. (2017, April 5). The last 10 percent: How thorough feedback changes lives​. Crucial Dimensions. https://crucialdimensions.com.au/last-10-percent-feedback/

Maxwell, J. C. (1995). Developing the leaders around you: How to help others reach their full potential. Thomas Nelson.

The Maxwell Leadership Bible, New International Version. (2018). Thomas Nelson.

less

Larry posted

Throughout the last few weeks, I begin to reflect and study how leaders are important for the overall success of humanity. That is part of the reason why the USA is the best country because of our leadership practices. We had leaders who have brought up other leaders, For example, President Biden was the Vice President when Barack Obama was president. He was able to learn first hand while working with him. With that knowledge, I realized that leaders teach before we even open our mouths. Our followers watch our every move to make sure that we are practicing what we preach. We as leaders have to be cautious of that because we do not want to come off as a hypocrit because we step outside of what is the company norm because we are in a leadership role. I think this is the first step of gaining trust from your constituents, is constantly operating with integrity and honor. We have to realize that being a leader of vessals is a blessing from God that we were chosen by him through a vessal to be called up to lead. There is a saying that goes, ” heavy is the head that wears the crown!” As leaders we have heavy burdens all the time, but the heaviest of them all is to choose, train and teach other how to lead, while maintianing and improving your leadership skills. This is like the eco-system, one part cannot work without the other. People have to want to lead and be developed! So be it leaders must want to lead and develop people. It has to be done with care and validity so that when the knowledge is passed on the company can continue to prosper and grow. 

In conclusion, leadership is complex and development of leaders is more complex because you have to protect the person you are leading with all the human factors prevalent in the development. Factors such as emotions, willingness to learn and be coach and more importantly attitude. We as leaders must remain focused, with one goal in mind, that being the success of the company.