Many tomes have been written on the topic of leadership and I certainly do not claim to understand everything, but as I read (and re-read) how one of the most successful business leaders in the world, Jack Welch describes the best way to measure leadership- ‘success of a good leader can be measured by the number of leaders he or she creates and not by how many people he leads’- I believe that very often, we end up ignoring this critical aspect of nurturing and grooming our potential successors.
It might sound counter intuitive but effective delegation is key to good leadership. Smart leaders understand very well that they cannot do everything themselves. This also means that some people will make mistakes and stumble for some time and leaders need to let that happen in a somewhat controlled manner. Let us remember that a child rarely walks without falling a few times. So it’s imperative that we encourage our people to take decisions and not fear making a few mistakes.
This also means that we need to learn to let go. Many times, managers get used to having their teams come to them for everything and if they stop, its interpreted as ‘reduced respect’.
The reality might be that the child has learnt to walk and we now need to get him prepared to cycle!
By Bhupender Singh, CEO at Teleperformance in India