In more than thirty years of leadership, I [John C. Maxwell] have learned that those closest to the leader will determine the success level of that leader. A negative reading of this statement is also true: Those closest to the leader will determine the level of failure for that leader. The positive or negative outcome in my leadership depends upon my ability to develop those closest to me.
Stop for a moment and think of the five or six people closest to you in your organization. Are you developing them? Do you have a game plan for them? Are they growing? Have they been able to lift your load?
In their first training session, I give new leaders this principle: As a potential leader, you are either an asset or a liability to the organization. I illustrate this truth by saying, “When there’s a problem, a ‘fire’ in the organization, you as a leader are often the first to arrive at the scene. You have in your hands two buckets. One contains water and the other contains gasoline. The ‘spark’ before you will either become a greater problem because you pour the gasoline on it, or it will be extinguished because you use the bucket of water.”
The question a leader needs to ask is, “Am I training them to use the gasoline or the water?”
[taken from Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others to Reach Their Full Potential (1995) by John C. Maxwell. Published by Thomas Nelson]
Have you trained the people closest to you in your organization
to be water carriers?
THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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