I consistently hear leaders, or perhaps I should say people in leadership positions, say that they cannot afford the time required to mentor, coach and develop their people. They are too “busy” doing other things.
These types of leaders frequently say that their people are their organization’s greatest asset. Watch them for a week however and you would see almost no evidence to backup that statement.
Leaders who believe they cannot afford the time to develop their people miss the fact that the primary responsibility of leadership is building people.
Leaders don’t lead companies, they lead the people who make up the company. Leaders don’t lead budgets, they lead the people who manage the budget. Leaders don’t lead plans, they lead the people who follow the plans.
Everything in an organization or business is managed except for the people. The people within an organization or business are responsible for every bit of that organization’s success. Those people need leadership.
Authentic leaders understand that they manage things and lead people. They know that the difference between leadership and management is far more than semantics. They realize that people who feel managed will be significantly less engaged. The morale of people who feel managed will be lower then the morale of people who are led. The growth of people who are led is much greater than that of people who feel managed. In fact, people who are managed have virtually no real growth opportunities.
If you’re in a leadership position and you are not investing a significant portion of your time to coach, mentor and develop the people you lead then you are missing the boat on leadership.
Developing your people is not a question of having the time. It is a question of priorities. If you’ve been telling yourself that you don’t have the time to lead then perhaps your priorities are a bit off.
Make developing your people the priority it needs to be and your leadership will have no end. Fail to develop your people and your leadership will have no beginning.
The choice is yours to make. Will you choose to Lead Today?
Whenever someone says they don’t have time, I remind them that they have used their time to make other choices. Everyone has the same amount of time. How we choose to use it depends on priorities, values, beliefs and practices.
Absolutely true, life is about choices and how we use our time is one of the most important choices we make. I’ve found that most people who don’t have time” have no idea where their time went. That’s a direct result of either not having priorities or having the wrong priorities.